Enough is Enough

1) General Amnesty Act of 1872

2) Grant’s Presidency

3) Panic of 1873

4) Recall of troops in 1877

*South claims US isn’t a democracy because they cannot elect some Democrats - Valid Point

*Congress allows former CSA officials to hold public office

*Southern Democrats take hold of state positions

*President Grant’s (a Republican) cabinet is corrupt and scandals break out

*People move away from Republican party as a result

*Grant thought of as one of worst Presidents

*US economy goes into a severe recession (2 million unemployed of 36 million)

*People increasingly choose Democrats to try to fix the problems

*Laissez-faire capitalism

*Social Darwinism

*Scientific Racism

*Less compassion for classes and races that did not rise to the top.

*Army that Congress sent to South to supervise Reconstruction were called back in 1877 by President Rutherford B. Hayes

*Effectively ends supervision in the South

*Southern Democrats (segregationists) are now in control

*Republicans become more interested in promoting industrial development.

*The South begins to produce more than just cotton.

*Radical Republicans lose popularity.

*Many Americans do not want to spend federal money to help African-Americans (the minority)

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*Poll Tax - a fee to vote (stops poor from voting)

*Literacy Tests - Had to read a paragraph to vote (Blacks given harder passages)

*Grandfather Clause - You could avoid a poll tax or literacy test if your grandfather voted prior to 1867.

*Blacks were poor, uneducated, and had no grandfathers who voted.

*These laws stopped Blacks (Republicans) from voting, allowing Democrats to gain control

*Jim Crow laws - Laws that forced separation of whites and Blacks

*Separating the races is called segregation

*Examples of Jim Crow laws*Separate areas in theaters, restaurants, and

railcars

*Different schools for whites and Blacks

*Several cases went to Supreme Court saying that segregation and Jim Crow laws were in violation of the 14th Amendment

*Court rules the 14th Amendment only pertains to government actions, so private people and businesses can segregate

*Supreme Court hears case of Homer Plessy being arrested for refusing to leave a “whites only” railcar

*Decision - Arrest is upheld. Furthermore, the Court states that segregation is legal as long as there are “Separate but Equal” facilities

*“Equal” means that both Blacks and whites have access to the object (example - black water fountain is rusty emitter of dirty water, white fountain is great = legal - they both have a water fountain

*Southern economy rebuilt and more diverse (not just cotton anymore)

*Education in place for both whites and blacks

*Black colleges and universities created

*Blacks received temporary rights in government and society

*Blacks lose rights at the end of the Reconstruction Era*Sharecropping is the main job of blacks in the South (not much better than slavery)*Governments in the South run by racist leaders and supported by courts*Jim Crow South established - no future for blacks