8.3 Segregation and Discrimination. Discrimination in the South Techniques white leaders would use to keep African Americans from voting: – “Literacy”

8.3 Segregation and Discrimination

Discrimination in the South

• Techniques white leaders would use to keep African Americans from voting:– “Literacy” tests that were made harder for black

voters than white ones– Poll taxes; both white and black sharecroppers

were too poor to be able to pay these– Grandfather clause meant white voters who

failed either of the above could still vote.

Discrimination in the South• “Jim Crow” laws meant that states could

legally segregate black from white citizens.• The Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court

decision supported these laws– Segregation was okay as long as everything was

“separate but equal”

Discrimination in the South

• Black men had to take off their hats and move off the sidewalk for white people– White people often called grown black men “boy”

• Attacks, beatings, and lynchings were common

Black Leaders• During Reconstruction (1865-1877),

several black colleges were created– Booker T. Washington pushed for

educating African Americans with job skills at Tuskegee Institute• He believed equality would be gained

through education

– W.E.B. Dubois wanted the “Talented 1/10,” (smartest) black leaders to receive a liberal arts education

Discrimination outside the South

• Northern white workers didn’t want black people to take their jobs– Black workers often earned less money, were fired

more often, and were denied union membership– Occasionally there would be riots against black

workers

Discrimination outside the South• In the West, racial tensions were still there,

but they weren’t as bad– Mexicans helped build the railroads and work

the agricultural fields• A system of debt peonage kept Mexican and black

workers stuck basically in slavery to pay off a debt.

– Chinese Exclusion Act cut off most Chinese immigration after 1886• But those who were already here were severely

abused.