Reconstruction of black & urban areas final

Meghan Curran

Dianna Milano

Collean Toupin

Reconstruction of Black & Urban Areas

Reconstruction Period of US can be classified in two different ways: Reconstruction of the United States as a whole Reconstruction of the South

Took place btw the years 1863-1887 Depending upon the state, reconstruction began/ended at different times. All federal policies were abandoned entirely in 1887 Consisted of politicians attempting to reunite the North & South Government was faced with deciding how the southern states should be

punished for leaving the union.

Background of Reconstruction

http://proliberty.com/observer/20051220.htm

President Lincoln started to reconstruct the North & South.

President Andrew Johnson took over after Lincoln’s assassination in 1865

Acts laid out the process for readmitting southern states into the Union.

14th Amendment (1868) provided former slaves with national citizenship

15th Amendment (1870) granted black men the right to vote

2 new amendments created huge controversy in the South, created turmoil for African Americans

Rejected the land distribution proposal known as “40 acres and a mule”

The Reconstruction Acts of 1867

http://www.cartoonstock.com/vintage/directory/d/draft_riots.asp

Took a century of civil rights movements, protests & marches to defeat racial slurs, targeting and profiling they endured & to move up the social ladder

Southern states created the “Black Codes” which kept the African American population under the authority of the whites.

Black codes permitted the arrest of unemployed African Americans, but also made it difficult to find work.

Required African Americans obtain a license for skilled work & work a certain amount of hours in order to be considered employed

Basically left the African Americans still slaves because of the sharecropping system

Only major southern cities saw large improvements in African American equality

African American’s New Found “Freedom”

http://www.lib.niu.edu/1996/iht329602.html

African Americans were beat and killed for protesting & for no reason at all

When African Americans tried to settle in the northern European and white neighborhoods, they were often driven out. People would burn their homes, destroy their property

Had to face the stereotypes which added to the discrimination

Scientific experiments were conducted to prove physical differences between African Americans & whites Cranial capacities of skulls

measured, whites found to have a larger capacity, therefore white people were smarter

Discrimination

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/may18.html

Many southern states passed Jim Crow LawsThe laws left the African Americans

uneducated & made it more difficult for them to find jobs

Jim Crow Laws segregated African Americans from whites in:Social settingsDrinking fountainsSchoolsPublic transportation

Jim Crow Laws & Segregation

http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/1-segregated/white-only-1.html

Supreme Court Case in 1896Over the constitutionality of SegregationPlessy was 7/8 white, with white skin & sat in all

white section of the railroad carWas arrested for refusing to sit in the African

American section of the railroad car & violating Louisiana’s Segregation laws

Lost caseSupreme court ruled it is constitutional as long as

the laws followed the motto “separate but equal”Ruling further enforced the mistreatment of

African Americans

Plessy Vs. Ferguson

http://vivian-folkenflik.org/core-course-winter%2011.htm

15th Amendment Found ways around the 15th amendment

North Carolina (1835); former slaves banned from voting

Steep Taxes Literacy tests Voter qualification laws Louisiana Grandfather Clause: Men allowed

to vote if their fathers/grandfathers had been eligible to vote as of January 1, 1867. No African Americans qualified

Loopholes existed in the restrictions that made otherwise ineligible whites eligible to vote

African American man held a seat in congress in 1877

African Americans serving in several state legislatures by 1900

Late 1890’s = Racial tensions increased because government feared poor whites and African Americans would form and potentially threaten the power structure

Voting

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAvoting65.htm

Great Migration of African Americans moving from the south to the north, starting in 1890s

The generation of young African Americans who were born after the Civil War saw slavery as “childhood tales” & had a new motivation to move north, earn money & make something of themselves

Small migration back to AfricaEstablish all-black towns in Tennessee, Kansas and

the Oklahoma TerritoryOrganized civil rights organizations such as the

Citizens Equal Rights Association (CERA, 1887) and the Afro-Amerian League (1890)

The African American Response

Influential figure in the African American community from around 1895 until his death in 1915

Formerly a slave of Virginia, moved to West Virginia to work

Completed high school & started to teach

Wanted his students to study “actual things” like industrial training (modern technical school)

Founded Tuskegee Normal (1881)Believed African Americans should

concentrate on economic self-improvement rather than demanding social equality & civil rights

Philosophy became known as the Atlanta Compromise after a speech in 1895 in Atlanta

Booker T. Washington

http://gardenofpraise.com/ibdbookr.htm

Frederick Douglas was born as a mulatto slaveMulatto: Someone with one Caucasian parent and

one African parentHe experienced a comfortable childhood thoughHe lived on the outskirts of a Maryland plantation

with his grandparentsThe harsh realities of slavery soon found Douglas

thoughHe was whipped, beat and brutally ridiculed by white

workersHe realized that knowledge and education were the

only way that he was going to reach freedom

Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass – Road to Freedom

In 1938, Douglas escaped slavery in Baltimore by train

He dressed as a sailor and carried the papers of a free black man

For the rest of his life, Douglas spoke out against slavery and was a very influential abolitionist

Migrated north by the hundreds of thousands in early 20th century Labor shortage in first world war drew around 40,000 African

Americans to the North over 2 years African Americans chose cheapest method to the north, usually

resulting in large migrations to major cities such as St. Louis Baltimore Philadelphia Pittsburg New York Minneapolis Kansas City Cincinnati Cleveland Indianapolis Detroit Chicago

Migration to the North

http://www.lewishistoricalsociety.com/wiki/tiki-print_article.php?articleId=104

African Americans were able to find jobs, but faced discrimination in the north with the growing African American population

Resented by the European-American working class. Whites would refuse to work alongside/train the African Americans

Worked mainly in the steel, automobile, shipbuilding and meatpacking industries

Working African Americans doubled from 500,000 to 901,000 during 1910-1920

Because of rising populations in major cities, housing shortages occurred

Other ethnic groups resisted against change and discriminated, restricting African Americans to crowded neighborhoods, resulting in ghetto’s

Migration to the North

http://www.alaboola.com/lists/cartoon/index428142.php

As African American’s migrated, they were integrated into society

Divide between the working class and African Americans closed due to close working conditions

African Americans from rural farm workers –> urban industrial workers

Still faced segregation when it came to the whitesAfrican American migrants kept many southern traits,

resulting in a stereotype of African Americans

Integration & Segregation in the North

http://www.episcopalarchives.org/Afro-Anglican_history/exhibit/transitions/segregation_and_integration.php

1955 – 1968Goal was to get rid of racial discrimination against

African AmericansOrganizations formed to help the movement

NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)

SNCC (Student NonViolent Coordinating Committee)CORE (Congress of Racial Equality)SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Congress)

Favored non-violent protestsSit-insBoycottsMarches

The Civil Rights Movement

http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2010/05/04/two-ousted-sclc-officers-convene-a-separate-board-meeting-in-hopes-of-regaining-control/

Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-1956): Bus boycott that resulted after the arrest of Rosa Pars

Little Rock Arkansas (1957) First high school to be desegregated

Greensboro Sit-ins (1960) in North Carolina at several diner counters where African Americans were not allowed to be served

Freedom rides organized by CORE in 1961. African Americans and Whites sat anywhere on the busses and traveled from Washington D.C. to New Orleans

Birmingham Campaigns (1963-1964): Peaceful protests where protestors were treated extremely harsh

March on Washington (August 28, 1963): 200,000 to 300,00 demonstrators in front of Lincoln Memorial. “I have a Dream” Speech

Mississippi Freedom Summer (1964): White college student movement to register African American's to vote

Important Events in the Civil Rights Movement

Civil Rights Act of 1964: banned discrimination based on race, color, religion or national origin

Voting Rights Act of 1965Immigration and Nationality Services Act of

1965Fair Housing Act of 1968

Outcomes of the Civil Rights Movement

https://wikis.nyu.edu/ek6/modernamerica/index.php/Reform/TheCivilRightsMovement

Important Figures in the Civil Rights Movement

Malcom X Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Rosa Parks

http://www.truth-it.net/15th_amendment_to_the_us_constitution.html

http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/washington/bio.html

“A Different Mirror; A History of Multicultural America” by Ronald Takaki

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/civilrightstimeline1.html

Sources