African Americans and Jim Crow. SEGREGATION 1. The action or state of setting someone or something apart from other people or things or being set apart.

African Americans and Jim Crow

SEGREGATION

1. The action or state of setting someone or something apart from other people or things or being set apart.

2. The enforced separation of different racial groups in a country, community, or establishment

EXCLUDE

1. Deny (someone) access to or bar (someone) from a place, group, or privilege.

2. Keep (something) out of a place

Segregation Segregation by custom and

tradition, if not by law Evolved slowly to enforce white control

– Schools, hospitals, cemeteries segregated– Hotels and restaurants discriminated

Segregation-Black reaction

–Black people acquiesced

• Churches and social organizations

• Accepted separate seating in places previously closed

• Segregation better than exclusion

Jim Crow

What is it? What does it mean?

Jim Crow

Minstrel show character

– Thomas “Daddy” Rice, 1830s and 1840s

• performed in black face and ridiculed black people

Segregation of Railroads

The first segregation laws involved passenger trains– Tennessee, 1881– Florida, 1887– Railroads opposed

• Maintaining separate cars was too expensive

Plessy v. Ferguson

– Louisiana required segregated trains, 1891 • Railroads and black people object

– Challenged in court• Homer A. Plessy

– U.S. Supreme Court, • 8-1 decision• Upheld state law--segregation--as constitutional,

1896• Justice John Marshal Harlan• Fourteenth Amendment

– Jim Crow laws become embedded in southern states

Segregation Proliferates

Proliferation– “White” and “colored” signs

• Restrooms, drinking fountains• Separate Bibles for black and white witnesses• Oklahoma required separate phone booths,

1915• School textbooks stored in separate facilities

– “Separate but equal”• Inferior facilities or no facilities

Racial Etiquette Black and white people did not shake hands Black people did not look directly into white peoples’

eyes Black people stared at the ground to address white

people Black men removed their hats; white men did not Black people went to the back door Black men or boys must never look at white women Black women could not try on clothing in white stores White people did not use titles of respect White customers always served first

V. Violence

Rampant political and mob violence

– Texas 1886– The Phoenix Riot, 1898– The Wilmington Riot, NC1898– The New Orleans Riot, 1900

Lynching

(of a mob) Kill (someone), esp. by hanging, for an alleged offense with or without a legal trial

Lynching

3,745 lynchings between 1889 and 1932 – Most in the South– Black men were the usual victims

• Presumed threat posed to white women

– Community participation• Few denunciations from white leaders

Lynching

Women also lynched (less common) Marie Scott Mary Turner (8months pregnant)

Rape Abuse and harassment against black women No statistics

– But considered more common than lynching Black men tried to protect black women

– Refused to let them work as domestics for white men

White men considered black women inferior– Black women were not virtuous– Coleman Blease

Day 2

Migration

Late 19th century African Americans Ninety percent of black Americans lived in the

South, 1910 Emigrants 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s

– Africa– Kansas– Oklahoma– Arkansas

Why migrate?– Southern agricultural disasters, 1910s– Labor shortages during World War I– To escape the most blatant Jim Crow laws– Bleak culture of rural South

Destinations– Most went to Midwest or northeastern

locales• Few went west

The Great Migration

Segregation usually less overt– Embraced Jim Crow

• Southern Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois

– Chicago– Harlem

• “Negro Capital of the World”

Northern Communities

Migration of the Negro, Panel 1, by Jacob Lawrence

Jacob Lawrence (1917–2000) never finished high school and had little formal training as an artist. But he had an abiding interest in the lives and history of African Americans. He painted sixty panels depicting the migration of black people from the South to the North. In Migration of the Negro, Panel 1 (1940–41) he shows black Southerners bound for northern cities.

The Great Migration and the Distribution of the African-American Population in 1920

Migration strained families

Families

The Liberian Exodus

“Liberia Fever”– Liberian Exodus Joint Stock Company

The Exodusters

Western migration – Encouraged by the Homestead Act and railroads– Between 1865-1880

• All black towns in Kansas, Nebraska, Indian territory

Southern migration– Many black people moved to southern villages

• Urban areas offered more economic opportunities

The Buffalo Soldiers

Combat– Black soldiers used to subdue Red people

Civilian hostility to black soldiers

Red Versus Black: The Buffalo Soldiers Army Reorganization Act of 1869

• Western frontier fighting the Plains Indians• Segregated units

– Poor equipment, inferior food, inadequate housing» Less likely to desert or use alcohol» Developed immense pride as professional

soldiers» Plains Indians associated black soldiers with

buffalo

The Black Cowboys

5,000 black cowboys– Rode herds– Cattle drives to Kansas, Nebraska, and

Missouri

Education and Schools

Debate over type of education for African Americans

Academic vs. skill based

Education and Schools

Booker T. Washington- Hampton Normal and Ag. Inst.

Graduate- “Pull yourself up by your own

bootstraps” W. E. B. Du Bois

– Niagara Movement– NAACP– Talented Tenth

Washington and Tuskegee

Booker T. Washington Supported industrial training

– Hampton graduate– Born a slave, 1856– Founded Tuskegee Institute, 1881

• Accepted segregation—for now• Stressed learning a skill

– industrial-agricultural would earn respect and acceptance

Washington

Gained white people’s support and money– Power and influence

• In black communities• White businessmen• Trusted his judgment and advice

Critics of Washington

– Trained black people for lives of labor– Education more than acquisition of skills– DuBois

The Tuskegee Machine

Booker T. Washington as a political figure – Connections

• Theodore Roosevelt– Invited Washington to dinner at the White House– Regularly consulted each other on political

appointments

– Behind-the-scenes political activities– Conservative leader

• Did not challenge white supremacy– Accepted equitable voting qualifications– Opposed women’s suffrage

– National Negro Business League

W. E. B. Du Bois

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois• Born and raised in Great Barrington,

Massachusetts– Little overt racism

• Fisk University• Harvard University

– Earned Ph.D. in 1895

• Activist• The Souls of Black Folk• Critical of Washington’s gradualism

Du Bois and The Crisis

The Crisis• NAACP publication

– Denounced white racism– Demanded that black people stand up for civil rights– Did not provoke violence

» Would not tolerate mistreatment

• Propaganda tool– 30,000 subscribers, 1913

The Niagara Movement

Niagara Falls, 1905– Emphatic and continual protest

• Political rights• Equal treatment in public places• Discrimination in military

– Booker T. Washington• Opposed

The NAACP

Founded 1909 No direct link with Niagara Movement Militant organization during the early

years– Dedicated to racial justice– White leaders dominated and financed

• Oswald Garrison Villard

Using the System

Full political and civil rights– Relied on judicial and legislative systems

• Lawsuits and bill

Washington versus the NAACP

Many NAACP leaders despised Washington

Washington– His followers returned the feelings– Worked to subvert the NAACP– Saw Du Bois as a puppet for white people

• Refused to debate him• Manipulated white supremacists

The Urban League

Social welfare organization– Founded in New York, 1910– Black and white progressives

Church and Religion

Baptist was largest denomination– More autonomy

• Less supervision from church hierarchy

Churches– Opportunity free from white interference– Sanctuary for black women

African Americans in the Navy

More unappealing than the army– Black sailors represented ten percent– Integrated ships

• White sailors– Refused to eat, bunk, or take orders from

black men– Black men stoked boilers, cooked, and

served food

The Spanish-American War Political, economic, military expansion

– Latin America and Pacific• Spanish-American War, 1898

– Thousands of black enlistments– First-time black officers led in combat– Most black units not used in combat– San Juan and Kettle Hills

» See VOICES

• After war– Black men worked in hospitals– Built roads and schools – Lack of Jim Crow laws

Black Entrepreneurs

Black businesses– Banks, newspapers, insurance companies,

etc.• Maggie Lena Walker• Madam C. J. Walker

– Business failures• Too dependent on poor, black people• Difficult to obtain financing

African Americans and Labor

Black men worked in factories, mines, and mills– Usually paid less than white men– White men claimed blacks robbed them of

jobs Black women worked for white families

– Cooks, laundresses, and maids

Unions Often excluded black men in late 19th century

– Knights of Labor, 1869• Open to black men and women

– American Federation of Labor, 1886• Barred women and black tradesmen

– United Mine Workers, 1890• Encouraged black coal miners to join

– The Industrial Workers of the World, 1905• Encouraged black coal miners to join

– National Colored Labor Union, 1869

Strikes

Late 19th and early 20th century– Most strikes failed

• Strikebreakers• Government support for management

– Nashville dockyards, 1871– Washer Women’s Association of Atlanta

Black Professionals Strictly segregated

– Medicine• Barred from AMA

– National Medical Association, 1895

– Black nurses• Inappropriate profession for black women

– Considered domestics, not trained professionals

– Law• Permitted to practice in court

– Barred from ABA

Music

Ragtime, jazz, and blues– Obscure roots

Ragtime– Composed for piano

Jazz– Not composed and not confined to piano

Blues– The music of poor, black southerners

Sports Boxing

– No official prohibition• Jack Johnson

Baseball– Both blacks and whites played after the Civil War

• Moses Fleetwood Walker

Basketball– Black children played in organized YMCA games,

1906 College Athletics

– Black students not allowed to participate

XIV. Conclusion

Jim Crow Black military service Black institutions

– Served black communities– Did not abuse, mistreat, or ridicule patrons