Notes on The New South and the Problem of Race (copy)

New South

Henry Grady's vision of a South that could reinvent itself through industrialization and diversified agriculture, abandoning slavery and secession.

Lynching

A violent act, often public, used to punish Black individuals and maintain white supremacy, with around 5,000 lynchings recorded in the U.S. between the 1880s and 1950s.

Jim Crow laws

Legal statutes that enforced racial segregation in public and private life in the South.

Lost Cause

A cultural narrative that romanticizes the antebellum South and the Confederacy, often depicting enslaved people as loyal and secession as honorable.

Disenfranchisement

The process of depriving individuals, particularly Black people, from voting rights through laws such as literacy tests and poll taxes.

The Red Shirts

A paramilitary group formed by White Democrats in North Carolina to suppress Black political participation and restore white control.

Ida B. Wells

A Black anti-lynching activist who documented and raised awareness about the violence and myth surrounding lynching.

Anti-miscegenation laws

Legal restrictions against interracial marriage and relationships, part of the Jim Crow system.

Wilmington coup of 1898

A violent insurrection by white Democrats to overthrow a legitimately elected Fusionist government, marking a significant event in racial violence.

Dyer Bill

Proposed legislation that aimed to make counties liable for lynchings, introduced by Representative Leonidas Dyer, but never passed due to opposition.

New South

Henry Grady's vision of a South that could reinvent itself through industrialization and diversified agriculture, abandoning slavery and secession.

Lynching

A violent act, often public, used to punish Black individuals and maintain white supremacy, with around 5,000 lynchings recorded in the U.S. between the 1880s and 1950s.

Jim Crow laws

Legal statutes that enforced racial segregation in public and private life in the South.

Lost Cause

A cultural narrative that romanticizes the antebellum South and the Confederacy, often depicting enslaved people as loyal and secession as honorable.

Disenfranchisement

The process of depriving individuals, particularly Black people, from voting rights through laws such as literacy tests and poll taxes.

The Red Shirts

A paramilitary group formed by White Democrats in North Carolina to suppress Black political participation and restore white control.

Ida B. Wells

A Black anti-lynching activist who documented and raised awareness about the violence and myth surrounding lynching.

Anti-miscegenation laws

Legal restrictions against interracial marriage and relationships, part of the Jim Crow system.

Wilmington coup of 1898

A violent insurrection by white Democrats to overthrow a legitimately elected Fusionist government, marking a significant event in racial violence.

Dyer Bill

Proposed legislation that aimed to make counties liable for lynchings, introduced by Representative Leonidas Dyer, but never passed due to opposition.

Literacy tests

A common method of disenfranchisement requiring prospective voters to read and interpret complex texts, primarily targeting Black citizens.

Poll taxes

Fees required to vote, a method used to disenfranchise poor Black and white voters who could not afford to pay them.

Grandfather clauses

Exemptions from literacy tests and poll taxes for individuals whose ancestors had been eligible to vote before 1866 or 1867, effectively allowing white men to vote while disenfranchising Black men.

Plessy v. Ferguson

The 1896 Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the 'separate but equal' doctrine, legitimizing Jim Crow laws.