From Slavery to Segregation

Slavery - Americas "original sin"
1. Slavery was a fundamental wrong that oppressed black people from the earliest days of americas history. first slaves bought to america in early 17th century. the american revolution created an independant country in which all citizens recieved equal rights, but not blacks - who still had the status of slaves
2. By the 19th century, slavery was abolished in northen states but continued in the south. abraham lincoln declared freedom of all american slaves in his 1862 emancipation proclmation. Following the norths victory in the civil war, slavery was finally abolished in all america
Reconstruction
1. following the civil war attempts were made to make america a fairer society. know as reconstruction. during this period, two constitutional ammendments were passed in an attempt to give african americans the rights they deserved
  1. the fourth ammenmdment 1868. gave rights to all people born in the united states and was an attempt to guarentee the rights of the people who had formerly been slaves
  2. the fifteenth ammendment 1870. gave all citizens voting rights regardless of race
    1. both never fully enforced altough some progress was made
Segregation: Re-imposing white supremacy in the south
1. "Jim Crow Laws"
  1. Between 1890 and 1910 southern states introduced legal segregation. this was achieved by passing local laws which denied black americans access to facilities used by white americans. e.g education, healthcare, transport and public places.
    1. "The segregated heart"
      1. it wasnt just a legal matter, blacks were seen as completely inferior to whites and treated in a completely different way. by the age of 3-4 black and white children already understood that the blacks were inferior. Boyle described this as "the segregated heart
2. Voting Rights
  1. under 15th ammendment, black people had the right to vote. however southern states enforced riduclous laws such as the "grandfather clause" - people could only vote if their grandfather could. other states introduced tests that were completely impossible
3. "the good, old time negro"
  1. Black people were used by whites for domestic help, e.g bringing up children, cooking cleaning etc. "the good old time negro is someone who is black, inferior, has no rights but still happy to serve rights
4. The Ku Klux Klan
  1. A very radical white supremacy group. saw themselves as defenders of traditional white supremacy in the south. they targeted black people who challenged any of their "laws" which were riduculous. so most blacks were vulnerable. in the year of 1900 there were 115 lynchings in total. the Klan became even more powerful when high people such as teachers, judges and other officials joined.
Challenging segreagation in the south
1. Plessy V. Ferguson, 1896
  1. One method of challenging segregation was going to court and show "jim crow" laws violated the american constitution. Homer Plessy claimed sgeregation was unlawful. he claimed that the state of louisiana had acted illegally when they had arrested him for sitting in a white-only are of a train
    1. Plessy took the case to the supreme court, however the judges decided that segregation was acceptable aslong as the facilities were equal. this had a reverse effect and as soon as "seperate but equal" was acceptable, all states in the south enforced segregation
Conditions in the north
1. There was little enforced segregation. the economic boom led to 500,000 blacks migrating north to work in large industrial cities for work.
  1. Pay was better in the north, black workers were better organised in the north. it was easier to vote in the north for blacks
    1. However blacks still faced enormous discrimination and racism and blacks were still paid less than whites

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From Slavery to Segregation

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	Created by Ollie_Jennings almost 11 years ago