Post Civil War African American Experience

Post Civil War African Post Civil War African American ExperienceAmerican Experience

A Quick SurveyA Quick Survey

Amendment Passed After the Civil War

13th Amendment:

Officially abolished  slavery in the U.S.

Important because started new era in U.S.

history.

The Reconstruction, 1865-1877

- After the Civil War, President Andrew

Johnson pardoned the South.

- Instead, a group of Northern Congressmen,

nicknamed the Radical Republicans, began

the Reconstruction in the South.

- The Congressmen sent federal troops into

the South to transform the South.

14th Amendment:

•Requires states to give all citizens due process of

law, and gives all citizens equal protection.

•Important because states must protect rights of ALL

citizens.

15th Amendment:

•Gives ALL citizens the right to vote.

•Important because Af Am had legal right to vote,

despite Southern restrictions.

The Reconstruction Amendments

Sharecroppers in the South

Sharecroppers in Arkansas

Successes of Reconstruction

- Expanded access to education for AfAms

- Several Af Am Congressmen and state

representatives elected to office

- South had roads/railroads built

The Failure of Reconstruction

- 1877, end of Reconstruction.

- President Hayes pulled troops out and Southern governments established a system of segregation.

- The Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists used terrorist tactics to intimidate Af Ams.

Lynching

Murdering a person without due process of

law; a tactic used to keep whites in power.

STATISTICS:

- 3445 African Americans were lynched since

1882, when records began to be kept.

- Lynching was a public affair, handled by a

mob of people.

Voting in the South

•Af.Ams made up majorities in the South; to

keep power, whites had to restrict their right

to vote

•Ways that governments disenfranchised (took

the vote away) Af.Ams:

- Grandfather Clause

- Poll Tax – economic way to avoid Af.Am.

voting

- Intimidation tactics

- Literacy Tests

Streetcar station, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Definitions:

- Jim Crow :

The systematic practice of discriminating

against and segregating black people in the

South.

- Segregation

To separate, to keep races or ethnic groups

apart.

Important because Af Ams lived under this

system of legal segregation from Reconstruction

up until the 1960s. (90 YEARS)

Restaurant, Lancaster, Ohio

Plessy v. Ferguson

- Homer Plessy sat in the white section of

the railroad car to confront segregation

laws.

- Instead, in Plessy v. Ferguson, the

Supreme Court agreed with segregation’s

rules and said it was legal as long as each

race got equal treatment.

- It took 58 years to overturn this with the

Brown v. Board of Ed. case.

Palmer Hayden, Jeunesse (Youth)

Harlem in the 1920s

As a result of the Great Migration

North by 1.75 million Af Ams in South:

Harlem Renaissance

- A period in the 1920s when Af Am

achievements in art, music and

literature flourished.

- Important b/c redefined image of

Af.Am. in the U.S., and gave black

communities pride in their own abilities.

Archibald Motley, Harlem

DUKE ELLINGTON, musician and composer

ZORA NEALE HURSTON, poet & author

LANGSTON HUGHES, poet

Some changes started to occur in the

1940s:

- 1948, President Truman signed

Executive Order desegregating the US

military.

- The NAACP, the National Association for

the Advancement of the Colored People,

founded in 1909, had legislative successes

combating Plessy, preparing them for the

Brown case.

Tuskegee Airmen, World War II