When: approximately from the end of Reconstruction (1877) until the mid- 1950s What: an era in American history when segregation laws, rules, and.

When: approximately from the end of Reconstruction (1877) until the mid-1950s

What: an era in American history when segregation laws, rules, and customs made African Americans second-class citizens

Where: primarily, but not exclusively, in southern states.

Not just a series of laws, but a way of life

What were the origins of the Jim Crow era in the United States?

Reconstruction: A Summary (Re-) Creating White Supremacy (1865-

1890)◦ Economic◦ Political and Social

Congressional Reconstruction (1866-1877) Reconstruction Collapses:

◦ The Compromise of 1877◦ Supreme Court◦ Voting Restrictions◦ Violence

Reconstruction (1865-1877): the period after the Civil War during which the federal government attempted to integrate freed slaves into the social and economic life of Southern states

Federal laws and constitutional amendments aimed at reducing racial discrimination and increasing political power of blacks and Republicans in the South

Republican party leaders supported; most white southerners opposed Radical Republicans wanted to punish the former

Confederate states Moderate Republicans wanted to return the South to the

Union as quickly as possible

Three immediate questions after the Civil War:◦ Economic: How should former slaves earn a

living in the South?◦ Political: What kinds of rights and powers

should blacks have?◦ Social: How should blacks and whites relate to

each other?

Most freedmen lacked land, money, or education

Sharecropping (1870s-1950s): a system in which poor farmers (white and black) worked a plot of land for white landholders in return for a share of the crop

Black Codes (1865-1867): laws passed by Southern states after the Civil War that severely limited civil rights for blacks◦ NOT Jim Crow laws!◦ Restricted freedmen’s political rights – voting,

jury service, testifying against whites◦Vagrancy laws allowed police to arrest

unemployed blacks and hire them out to white landowners

Ultimate Goal: Control African-Americans and ensure that they do not claim social equality

◦Radical Republicans

◦Civil Rights Act (1866): Federal government guarantees that all persons born in US are citizens and have the same civil rights.

Thirteenth Amendment (1865): abolishes slavery

Fourteenth Amendment (1868): guarantees citizenship to all persons born in the U.S. and prohibits states from passing laws to take away a citizen’s rights

Fifteenth Amendment (1870): no citizen can be denied the right to vote because of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

Enforcement Acts (1870-1871): enforce these amendments using Northern troops in each Southern state

African Americans held local, state, and federal offices

Public schools and universities established for African Americans

Voting and political participation

Rutherford Hayes (Compromise of 1877)

Federal government abandons attempt to enforce 14th and 15th Amendments

Federal troops withdrawn from Southern states; Democrats regained control

Civil Rights Cases (1883): Supreme Court reviewed 5 complaints

Held that Congress had no power to stop private individuals and businesses from racial discrimination

Chief Justice Joseph Bradley: it was time for blacks to assume “the ranks of a mere citizen” and stop being the “special favorite of the laws.”

Fifteenth Amendment: qualification for voting◦ Poll tax◦ Literacy tests◦ Grandfather clauses

Result: # registered to vote fell from 130,000 in 1894 to 1,300 in 1904. In 1940, only 3% of all African Americans in the South could vote

White Southerners formed terrorist groups to resist Reconstruction by force

Ku Klux Klan (formed 1866): secret organization whose members used violence against black and white citizens to enforce racial inequality

On a sheet of scrap paper (I will collect), write your name, section number, and the following:1.2 ways government contributed to constructing Jim Crow South2.1 way average Americans contributed to constructing Jim Crow South3.1 way you knew what was important in lecture

1. What were the 3 major goals of Reconstruction?

2. How did the Black Codes legally disenfranchise African Americans?

3. What are the similarities between Jim Crow laws and Black Codes? What are the differences?

4. What is the difference between a Jim Crow law and Jim Crow etiquette? Is one “stricter” than the other?

5. What are 3 examples of Jim Crow laws? What are 3 examples of Jim Crow etiquette?

6. When the Supreme Court overturned the Civil Rights Act of 1875, how did that affect the rights of African Americans?

What does “separate but equal” is constitutional mean? (ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson)