Jim Crow 1883-1900- following spec

Edexcel a level history 39.1 paper 3

Impact of the Civil Rights Cases 1883 in the Supreme Court: Ruling on the Civil Rights Act 1875

• Five cases asserted the complainants were denied their civil rights which were guaranteed by Civil Rights Act 1875 + 13th and 14th Amendment

• Supreme Court ruled the Civil Rights Act unconstitutional

• claimed 13th Amendment did not give Congress power to make laws on the issue

• 14th outlawed specific actions by state governments only, not individual acts of discrimination

• most of the gains made by blacks during Reconstruction were removed

The spread of Jim Crow Laws: changes to rail travel in Florida 1887, introduction

• Civil Rights cases gave state govs opportunity to introduce legal segregation

• 1887, Florida first to introduce segregated railway carriages

• any black convicted of violating new legal segregation faced a fine of $500

The spread of Jim Crow Laws: changes to rail travel in Florida 1887, what states introduced similar laws after Florida?

Mississippi in 1888, Texas in 1889, Louisiana 1890, Alabama/Kentucky/Arkansas/Georgia in 1891

extension of segregation to other social areas and other states, what are some other areas that were segregated

• street cars, starting in georgia 1891, then louisiana, mississippi, florida

• hospitals, hotels, restaurants, prisons, theatres, cemeteries

• Only white people could use the swimming pool at Raleigh’s Brookside Park

extension of segregation to other social areas and other states, why were these segregation laws introduced?

• claims of scientific proof of inferiority, social Darwinism

• Some Northerners viewed segregation as a compromise to end sectional divisions between the North and South - sacrifice Black civil rights to improve national relations.

• Through the "Atlanta Compromise," Booker T. Washington accepted segregation if it still allowed blacks to acquire education and economic skills to improve living standards

Excluding black voters: discrimination in Mississippi from 1890, what was the one reason the Mississippi state legislature wanted a new constitution (according to local state capital newspaper the Jackson Clarion-Ledger)

to deprive blacks of the right to vote, especially as population was 55% black

Excluding black voters: discrimination in Mississippi from 1890; how did mississippi reduce the black vote?

Poll tax of $2 for voter registration, introduce a literacy test (60% black illiteracy)

Excluding black voters: discrimination in Mississippi from 1890, changes in number of registered voters

• Before 1890, 67% of those of voting age were black

• 1892, was 5.2%, lasting until 1960s

• by 1899, 82% of potential white voting population registered

Excluding black voters: Louisiana’s Grandfather clause 1898, how did Louisiana ensure illiterate/non-property owning white men weren’t disenfranchised?

Introduced the Grandfather Clause - If you were eligible to vote in 1867, you/your son and grandson would not be required to meet the literacy and property owning requirements

Excluding black voters: discrimination in Mississippi from 1890; Louisiana’s Grandfather clause 1898, impact of grandfather clause on voting numbers

In 1896, the estimated number of blacks registered to vote in Louisiana was 130,000; in 1904, around 1,342

Excluding black voters: impact on voter numbers in the south in the 1890s. 

• in Louisiana, the reduction was 90%

• In the 1890s, all Southern states passed constitutional amendments creating voting restrictions that targeted Blacks

• overall impact in south: black voting dropped 65%, white voting 26%

The impact of Plessy v. Ferguson 1896, what did the Supreme Court rule

• segregating facilities was legal, as long as they’re equal

• said state government was powerless to stop individual views on racial discrimination and and inferiority

The impact of Plessy v. Ferguson 1896, what was the impact

• gave Supreme Court support for legal segregation

• state laws establishing separate facilities across the south quickly followed

The importance of Williams v. Mississippi 1898, what did this case deal with

the issue of the changes made to the Mississippi State Constitution in 1890, which disenfranchised large numbers of black voters

Williams v. Mississippi 1898; what was the Supreme Court ruling

upheld the constitutionality of the voting requirements. The ruling provided legal sanction for other Southern states to adopt similar measures. Consolidated white domination of southern state govs.

Cumming v. Board of Education 1899, what did this case allow all states to do?

Set up racially segregated public school education systems

Average lynchings in the 1890s yearly?

187

Lynching of Henry Smith, where and when was it and how many white people gathered to watch?

1893, Texas, 10,000