Education, Jim Crow, and entertainment

EDUCATION, JIM CROW, AND ENTERTAINMENT

In 1870, only 2% of all 17 year olds graduated from high school

By 1900 – 32 states had laws that required children between the ages of 8 and 14 to attend school

By 1910, 60% of American children attended school with more than a million students in high school

In an effort to limit child labor, parents pushed for local governments to provide funding for schools

Literacy – the ability to read and write Goal of immigrants Schools worked to assimilate immigrants

into daily life Assimilation – process by which people of

one culture become part of another culture

Segregation (separation) of the races meant different educational experiences

African Americans, Mexicans, and Native Americans

Only a small percentage of Native Americans were receiving formal schooling in 1900

COLLEGES 1880-1900 – 250 new colleges and

universities opened Wealthy people supported them 1885 – Leland Stanford – Stanford

University John D. Rockefeller gave a total of $40

million to the University of Chicago

WOMEN AND COLLEGE Philanthropists – gave money to establish

women’s colleges For example, Vassar College in New York in

1865 However, some schools would not allow men

and women together Women’s schools were opened along side the

men’s schools Brown College (Pembroke), Harvard (Radcliffe)

Some schools did allow men and women to study together Oberlin Knox Antioch Cornell Boston University

Most scholarships went to men

Fear that college would make women unmanageable and unmarriageable

AFRICAN AMERICANS AND COLLEGE IN THE 1800S

1890 – only 160 African Americans were attending white colleges

All African American colleges 1856 – Wilberforce University in Ohio –

nation’s oldest private African American School

Booker T. Washington

• Founded the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama•Taught students to focus on vocational skills•Said whites would accept once blacks succeeded economically•1901 Up From Slavery•1901 – invited to the White House by Theodore Roosevelt

W.E.B. Dubois

• Graduated from Fisk University in Nashville and went on to become the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard• Niagara Movement – called

for full civil liberties, an end to racial discrimination, and recognition of human brotherhood• Disagreed with Booker T.

Washington• Eventually worked for the

NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)

Booker T. WashingtonVocational

W.E.B. DuboisAdvanced liberal arts education

POPULAR AMUSEMENTS IN THE LATE 1800S

Saloons – most popular Dance halls Cabarets – musical shows Trolley parks – amusement parks built

at the end of trolley lines Moving pictures – 1903 – The Great

Train Robbery by 1908 – 8,000 nickelodeons - 5 cents

VAUDEVILLE Inexpensive variety show that first

appeared in the 1870s Comedy, dance, ventriloquists,

jugglers, trapeze artists

SPORTS Boxing Horse Racing Baseball – most popular 1869 – first professional team –

Cincinnati Red Stockings Football – adapted from European

game Basketball – invented by Dr. Naismith to

keep athletes fit during the winter months

SPORTS CONTINUED… Ice skating Bicycling

Women began wearing shirtwaists (ready-made blouses that tucked into shorter or split skirts

Dress code made women’s sports difficult

NEWSPAPERS Comics, sports sections, Sunday

editions, women’s pages, etc.

Yellow Journalism – sensational news, sometimes invented facts

Joseph Pulitzer William Randolph Hearst

MAGAZINES McClure’s, Cosmopolitan Mark Twain The Gilded Age, The

Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

AFRICAN AMERICAN INFLUENCES Negro Spirituals Minstrel Shows – white actors

performed in “black face” Ragtime and Jazz – Scott Joplin – St.

Louis

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE SOUTH Voting restrictions

By 1890s, had to own property and pay a fee to vote (poll tax)

Literacy tests Grandfather clauses – passage of a piece of

legislation that exempts a group of people from obeying a law provided they met certain conditions before that law was passed (people could vote if their ancestors had voted – allowed poor whites to vote)

SEGREGATION Jim Crow Laws – named after a minstrel

song and dance routine Began to appear a few years after the end

of Reconstruction Dominated every aspect of daily life

Separation of blacks and white in schools, parks, public buildings, hospitals, transportation systems, water fountains, public toilets

Different sections at theaters

PLESSY VS. FERGUSON 1896 Separate, but Equal ruling Homer Plessy felt his rights were

violated when he was not able to ride on train in Louisiana with whites

The Supreme Court ruled that segregation can exist, but facilities must be equal

LYNCHING Illegal seizure and execution of a

person, usually by hanging 1882-1892 – 1,200 black people were

lynched

GO TO www.withoutsanctuary.com and see the postcards of lynchings.

NORTHERN DISCRIMINATION Segregation existed in the north Competition for jobs led to problems 1900 – race riot in New York City 1908 – race riot in Springfield, Illinois

NAACP National Association for the

Advancement of Colored People 1910 By 1914 – 6,000 members 1914 – Supreme Court ruled

grandfather clauses unconstitutional

Department stores – wide variety of goods in larger quantities (for example, Macy’s 1858)

Farm families wanted access too RFD – Rural Free Delivery from the Post

Office (started in 1896) Mail order catalogs (Montgomery Ward,

Sears and Roebuck

WOMEN After the Civil War – took part in

voluntary roles Women’s clubs Dating started to occur outside the

home “New women” Pushed for more information about

birth control Margaret Sanger – New York Nurse who

supported birth control