The End of ReconstructionGUIDED READING ACTIVITY

The Rise of Jim Crow Laws and Segregation in the American South

Fill in the BlanksMany people in the North and South were

calling for the withdrawal of federal troops and full amnesty for former Confederates. Starting with Virginia in 1869, opponents of Republicans began to take back the South, state by state.

Since democracy is based in the concept of “majority rule,” hostile and racist Southern governments began to re-emerge. The failure of the South in this period was to respect “minority rights,” a concept which James Madison considered imperative in the Constitution.

“Redeemers” and Restoration governments in the SouthThe political cartoon to the right, by Thomas Nast, illustrates the degree of violence and brutality which characterized the South as Reconstruction came to a close. Most of the violence in the South was directed at freedmen and motivated by racism.

The Election of 1876

Republican :Rutherford B. Hayes

Democrat:Samuel Tilden

The Compromise of 1877

Since neither candidates was able to capture a majority of the electoral college votes, the Presidency was determined by the vote of the House of Representatives. In this case, a special investigative committee was formed to determine who should win the disputed electoral votes in South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana. The committee, composed mostly of Republicans, chose Rutherford B. Hayes, and Democrats in Congress accepted the decision – but with one major concession. Rutherford B. Hayes would have to end federal Reconstruction of the South and remove all of the federal troops occupying the former Confederacy immediately.

Methods used to Undermine the 15th Amendment by Southern States, 1877 – 1960sPoll tax – by forcing voters to pay a personal tax

before they could cast a ballot, many Southern states were able to dramatically reduce the number of African-American (and poor white) voters. Remember, former slaves had never been allowed to earn wages, and rarely had extra money for this purpose.

Literacy Test – Whether or not a person could read had little to do with passing the literacy tests administered in many parts of the South. Often, the tests were specific questions regarding aspects of the state constitutions which could be arbitrarily evaluated by racist judges.

The Literacy Test

Political cartoonist Herb Lock was famous for his wit and his social conscience. He was opposed to the literacy tests being unfairly administered throughout the South, as this political cartoon suggests. This cartoon, though, was not made until 1965, when the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed.

The Grandfather ClauseBecause the grandfathers of slaves had never been allowed the suffrage, some Southern states made rules which stipulated that if one’s grandfather had not been a voter, then they were not eligible to vote. This more or less excluded everyone of African-American heritage in the South. The rule was also used to allow some white voters access to the ballot. Many poor Southerners were unable to pass a literacy test or to pay poll taxes. But if their grandfathers had voted, they were exempted from the rules and allowed to vote. African American voters, like the ones pictured here in South Carolina in 1868, would be turned away from the polls by hook or by crook once Reconstruction ended.

Ku Klux Klan ViolenceThreats and intimidation by groups like the KKK were just as effective at preventing African-Americans from exercising the right to vote. Men would simply stand menacingly at the door of local polling places and take down the names of any African-American brave enough to vote. Then, they would ride by their house, burn crosses, fire shots through window, physically brutalize, and even kill voters and their families.

Segregation

A network of laws which legally enforced the separation of races in public places. Blacks and whites were forbidden to share the same water fountains, the same dinner tables, or the same schools. Blacks and whites were even forbidden to marry.

Jim Crow Laws“Jim Crow” Laws were established in the South to enforce segregation. They were the network of racist, discriminatory, and bigoted laws rules which separated whites and blacks from one another during the one hundred years between the end of the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960. The term “Jim Crow” cam e from an old (and very racist and bigoted) comedy routine in which white comedians wearing black paint of their faces would ridicule or mock African-Americans with song and dance routines.

Plessy V. FergusonThe Plessy V. Ferguson case of 1896 has many similarities to Rosa Parks’ case against the Montgomery Bus Company some sixty years later. Homer Plessy was arrested for sitting in a railroad car which was reserved for whites only.Unfortunately, Plessy’s case did not end with victory, as Rosa Parks’ would in 1956. Plessy’s arrest was upheld, and led to the Supreme Court ruling in Plessy V. Ferguson, which stated that the law could allow for “separate but equal” facilities. Everything from seating on trains to public schools could remain segregated, as long as equal facilities were created for blacks (or Mexican-Americans, Filipino-Americans, Chinese or Japanese-Americans, etc.) Unfortunately, the Court failed to realize the separate, different institutions are by their very nature unequal.

Sharecroppers

SHARECROPPERS WERE LABORERS WHO WORKED THE LAND OF A FARMER (WHO OWNED THE LAND) IN EXCHANGE FOR A SHARE OF THE VALUE OF THE CROPS PRODUCED. GENERALLY, IN THE SOUTH, WHITES OWNED THE LAND, AND AFRICAN-AMERICAN LABORERS WORKED IT, PAYING RENT BY SELLING THE CROPS THEY SOLD, AND MANAGING TO SECURE VERY LITTLE MONEY FOR THEMSELVES. WHITES ALSO WERE HIRED OUT IN THE SHARECROPPING SYSTEM, BUT THEY WERE GENERALLY TREATED SOMEWHAT MORE EQUITABLY BY LAND OWNERS.

African Americans had never accumulated wealth in slavery.They were also denied education, and forced to compete with vicious racists for the same economic resources without the benefit of a just legal system. Many decided to leave the South for points west, or urban centers in the North. The brave souls who remained faced enormous racism and difficulties.

Southern Industries: Cotton, Tobacco, and Textiles

Southern Natural Resources: Iron, Timber, and Oil