African American Status

“The slave went free, stood a

brief moment in the sun;
then moved back again
toward slavery.”

-- W.E.B Du Bois

Three People Dancing Around Sun

Image: © Images.com/CORBIS
Creator Name: Bob Commander
 After the Civil War:
Blacks make political and civil gains…

•13th Amendment - gave 4.3

million slaves their freedom

•14th Amendment - African

Americans given citizenship

•15th Amendment - African

American men given right to vote
2
But…

•Most white Southerners resented

the new rights of African Americans

•White Southerners legally attacked

African Americans rights

3
African Americans Lost Economic
Power

•40 Acres & a Mule -

After slavery, many
African Americans
thought they would get
this, but didn’t

•Sharecropping -
Instead work on land
owned by whites &
share profits from crops

4
African Americans Lost Political
Power

•Poll Tax - had to pay

to vote

•Literacy Test - Had

to read to vote

•Grandfather Clause
- Could get around 1st
2 if your grandfather
could vote

5
 Quickwrite:
Which do you think was a more
significant loss, political or
economic power? Explain.

6
 Jim Crow Laws
What is it?

•Segregation
•began as customs (de
facto), but ended up as
laws (de jure)
•Named after “Jim
Crow” song & dance
7
What parts of society were segregated?

•Schools,
cemeteries, courts,
hospitals, mental
institutions,
orphanages,
prisons, & Bibles
Segregated Drinking Fountains
to swear on in
trials
8
 Plessy vs. Ferguson:

•What? Homer
Plessey tried to sit in
a whites-only train
car

•How did the

Supreme Court
Rule? Segregation
is ok as long as the
facilities are equal
•“Separate But
9 Equal”
 Problem:
Separate But Equal is Never Equal

•Example:
Whites would
never fund
black schools
equally

•Goes against
14th Amendment
10
 Quickwrite:
Do you think the Plessy V.
Ferguson ruling led to an increase
in the amount of Jim Crow laws in
the South? Why? Why not?

11
 Jim Crow Violence:
How else did Southern Whites enforce Jim Crow?

•Ku Klux Klan -

secret terrorist
society that beat,
raped, and
murdered African
Americans

12
How else did Southern Whites enforce Jim Crow?

•Lynching - a mob puts

someone to death without a trial
•Between 1880-1968
nearly 5000 blacks were
lynched

•Why?
•“incorrect behavior”
•economic competition
between blacks and whites
13
 Jim Crow & Segregation:
How did African Americans resist?

•Spoke out against

discrimination
•Organized boycotts
of segregated
facilities
•Tried to improve
segregated facilities
Segregated School
14
When did it end?

•WWII jumpstarted
the Civil Rights
movement in the US

•1954 Brown V.
Board of Education
Man removes segregation declared segregation
sign 1956
in schools illegal
15
 Quickwrite:
Is there ever a time when separate
treatment IS equal treatment? Consider:

2 students enter a school. One is

confined to a wheelchair.

12th graders must pass Algebra in

order to graduate. One student has a
disability in math.

16
 Quickwrite:
Name some situations today where you
believe a certain group of people does
NOT get treated equally. It could be a
certain ethnic group, one of the genders,
an age group, a career area, a religious
affiliation, an interest group, etc… After
you have listed several, state your ideas
on how to make things more equal for
the groups you mentioned.
17