AP-AAS Unit 3

Reconstruction 1865-1877

A period of the expansion of rights for African Americans following the Civil War in the United States when the southern states were reorganized and reintegrated into the Union.

Black Codes/Jim Crow Laws

Laws denying most legal rights to newly freed slaves; passed by southern states following the Civil War. Black codes arose as a response of resistance to Reconstruction. Jim Crow is specific to the South, but Black Codes were enacted in Northern states as well.

13th Amendment (1865)

ended enslavement except as punishment for a crime

14th Amendment (1868)

citizenship, due process, equal protection. Basis for most civil rights legislation and supreme court rulings

15th Amendment (1870)

Prohibited voting restrictions based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude (enslavement)

Freedman's Bureau, 1865

Set up to help freedmen and white refugees after Civil War. Provided food, clothing, medical care, and education. First to establish schools for blacks to learn to read as thousands of teachers from the north came south to help. Lasted from 1865-72. Attacked by KKK and other southerners as "carpetbaggers" Encouraged former plantation owners to rebuild their plantations, urged freed Blacks to gain employment, kept an eye on contracts between labor and management, etc

40 acres and a mule

1865 as Sherman moved through the south he issues a grant of 40 acres of farmable land and a mule to freed slaves in an attempt to solve the problems of refugees

Sharecropping

system in which landowners leased a few acres of land to farmworkers in return for a portion of their crops. Predatory and often resulted in pseudo enslavement

Tenant Farming

system of farming in which a person rents land to farm from a planter

Convict Leasing System

a system whereby private businesses paid the state a fixed annual fee for control of inmates to use them for forced labor. One way in which some planters found cheap labor costs after enslavement. Could be seen as enslaved prison labor.

Special Field Order 15 (1865)

Union general William T. Sherman issued Field Order No. 15 in January 1865, calling for the redistribution of confiscated Southern land to freedmen in forty-acre plots. The order was rescinded later that same year, and much of the land was returned to the original white owners.

de jure segregation

Racial segregation that occurs because of laws or administrative decisions by public agencies. Seen most often in the South with Jim Crow Black Codes but also in place in the north via racial covenants, etc.

de facto segregation

segregation by unwritten custom or tradition. Racial segregation that occurs in schools, not as a result of the law, but as a result of patterns of residential settlement. Often referred to as "silent segregation" and was the most common forms of discrimination seen in the North and West.

Disenfranchisement

the removal of the rights of citizenship through economic, political, or legal means. Taking away a person right or ability to vote

poll taxes

required citizens of a state to pay a special tax in order to vote

grandfather clauses

Law that excused a voter from literacy test if his grandfather had been eligible to vote on Jan. 1 1867

literacy tests

Method used to deny African-Americans the vote in the South that tested a person's ability to read and write - they were done very unfairly so even though most African-Americans could read and write by the 1950's they still failed.

Compromise of 1877

Deal that settled the 1876 presidential election contest between Rutherford Hayes (Rep) & Samuel Tilden (Dem.); Hayes was awarded presidency in exchange for the permanent removal of fed. troops from the South--> ended Reconstruction

Lynching

mob execution of a person without due process of law. Between 1865-1945, EJI has established over 4400 racial terror lynchings occured in the United States. Most in the South, but not exclusively.

seperate but equal

the judicial precedent established by in the Plessy v Ferguson decision that enabled states to interpret the equal protection provision of the fourteenth amendment as a means of establishing segregation

Plessy vs. Ferguson

(1896) The Court ruled that segregation was not discriminatory (did not violate black civil rights under the Fourteenth Amendemnt) provide that blacks received accommodations equal to those of whites.

Ku Klux Klan

A secret society created by white southerners in 1866 that used terror and violence to keep African Americans from obtaining their civil rights. founded in the 1860s in the south; meant to control newly freed slaves through threats and violence; other targets: Catholics, Jews, immigrants and others thought to be un-American.

The Nadir

the lowest point in the fortunes of a person or organization. The Nadir refers to the time period of 1877-1920 in which the low point of Jim Crow, racial terror, lynchings, mob violence, economic oppression, etc. meant to put Black people "back in their place" as a rollback on Reconstruction gains.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862-1931)

Born to enslaved parents in Mississippi; this journalist began the anti-lynching campaign and got involved with women's suffrage movement; fought to end segregated schools; co-founded of NAACP; became one of first African Americans to run for public office

Red Summer of 1919

Used to describe the bloody race riots that occurred during the summer and autumn of 1919. Race riots erupted in several cities in both the North and South of the United States. The three with the highest number of fatalities happened in Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Elaine, Arkansas.

1921 Tulsa Massacre

the bombing of Black Wall Street.. A two-day-long white supremacist terrorist massacre that took place between May 31 and June 1, 1921, when mobs of white residents, some of whom had been appointed as deputies and armed by city government officials, attacked black residents and destroyed homes and businesses of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The event is considered one of the worst incidents of racial violence in American history. The attackers burned and destroyed more than 35 square blocks of the neighborhood—at the time one of the wealthiest black communities in the United States, colloquially known as "Black Wall Street".

Black Wall Street

Greenwood, OK: An area in Tulsa of highly successful African American neighborhoods. A false accusation of rape of a white woman led to the sac and burning of 35 blocks in 1921.

white supremacy

the belief that white people are superior to those of all other races, especially the black race, and should therefore dominate society.

Great Migration

Movement of African Americans from the South to the North for jobs. Movement of over 300,000 African American from the rural south into Northern cities between 1914 and 1920, but goes beyond these dates as well.

NAACP (Nation Association for the Advancement of Colored People)

Interracial organization founded in 1909 to abolish segregation and discrimination and to achieve political and civil rights for African Americans.

The Souls of Black Folks

A book of essay's written by W. E. B. DuBois to challenge Booker T. Washington's views on race relations in US. In 1905, Du Bois founded the Niagara Movement as an organized response to Booker T. Washington's policies of accommodation and conciliation. The Niagara Movement aimed to counteract Washington's influence over the black community and in its manifesto declared its intention to "claim for ourselves every single right that belongs to a freeborn American, political, civil and social."

Veil (W.E.B. DuBois)

-- another thing that separates the world; can't get whites to see the humanity of African Americans, almost like a veil is over their eyes

-- This gives African Americans a second vision as they can see the white world and their own as well as the dehumanization that comes along with it

Double Conciousness (DuBois)

the struggle African Americans face to remain true to black culture while at the same time conforming to the dominant white society. Internal conflict

The Color Line

a barrier—created by custom, law, and economic differences—that separated whites from nonwhites. The division of black society and white society into two different and unequal worlds

Racial Uplift

Uplift ideology centered on some of the following themes and views: self help, independent black institutions, education, political participation, positive images of blacks, respectability, etc.

social alienation

a passive form of aggression that includes behaviors such as malicious gossip, spreading negative rumors, and shunning

W.E.B. DuBois

1st black to earn Ph.D. from Harvard, encouraged blacks to resist systems of segregation and discrimination, helped create NAACP in 1910. Wanted social and political integration as well as higher education for 10% of African Americans-what he called a "Talented Tenth". Founder of the Niagara Movement which led to the creation of the NAACP.

Booker T. Washington

Prominent black American, born into slavery, who believed that racism would end once blacks acquired useful labor skills and proved their economic value to society, was head of the Tuskegee Institute in 1881. His book "Up from Slavery." Writer of the Atlanta Compromise speech

Atlanta Compromise Speech

speech made by Booker T. Washington and the International Cotton exposition which called for blacks to become proficient in agriculture, mechanics, and commerce, and for whites to trust blacks and provide opportunities for them to be successful economically. given by BTW to ease whites' fears of integration, assuring them that separate but equal was acceptable.

Tuskegee Institute

a vocational college for African Americans in Alabama, founded by Booker T. Washington

Black Women's Clubs

Black women began creating clubs and organizations. The local groups that began forming in the 1870s and 1880s, such as the Bethel Literary and Historical Association in Washington, DC, were mainly concerned with cultural, religious, and social matters. But many of the mostly middle-class women active in these clubs eventually became less interested in tea and gossip and more involved with community problems.

Madam C.J. Walker (Sarah Breedlove)

(1867-1919) was lauded as "the first black woman millionaire in America" for her successful line of hair care products; funded scholarships for women at the Tuskegee Institute and donated large sums to the NAACP, the black YMCA, and dozens of other charities.

Citizens Savings Bank and Trust Company

One of the first black owned and operated banks in the US

AME Church (African Methodist Episcopal)

This was the first national denomination for Blacks led by Richard Allen

HBCU

a college or university that was originally founded to educate students of African-American descent.

Alain Locke

Leader of the "New Negro" movement and editor of The New Negro—an anthology of writings by African Americans, Art could portray all themes

Fisk Jubilee Singers

Singers from Tennessee introduced the spirituals to the northern states and to Europe

Wilberforce University (1856)

The country's oldest, private black university

Fisk University

historically black college started by the Freedmen's Bureau located in Nashville, TN

Divine Nine Organizations

Black Greek Organizations originally founded at HBCUs that have spread to most college campuses that have Greek life

Second Morrill Act of 1890

Established colleges to teach "agriculture and the mechanic arts" to the descendants of the freed slaves.

Langston Hughes

African American poet who described the rich culture of african American life using rhythms influenced by jazz music. He wrote of African American hope and defiance, as well as the culture of Harlem and also had a major impact on the Harlem Renaissance.

New Negro Movement

an effort to promote racial equality by celebrating the cultural contributions of African Americans during the 1920s, part of which was the Harlem Renaissance

Harlem Renaissance (1920s)

a movement of African American artists, intellectuals, and social leaders who lived in Harlem in the 1920s and contributed to the growth of African American music, literature, poetry and art

Black Aesthetic

a distinctive mode of artistic expression and a distinctive standard by which Black art can be identified and judged in terms of its creativity and beauty as well as its social relevance

Blues

style of music evolving from African American spirituals and noted for its melancholy sound

Jazz

a style of music characterized by the use of improvisation by Black people starting in the 1920s

Paris Exhibition of 1900

a world's fair held in Paris, France, from April to November, where W.E.B. Du Bois gave a presentation about the lives of African Americans bringing global attention to second class citizenship

James Van Der Zee

Artist that photographed the Harlem Renaissance; known for his depiction of middle class African American life

Black Harlemites

term used to refer to middle and upper class Black people living in Harlem during the New Negro movement

Marcus Garvey

African American leader durin the 1920s who founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and advocated mass migration of African Americans back to Africa. Was deported to Jamaica in 1927.

Gwendolyn Bennett

Born on July 8, 1902, in Giddings, Texas, she found success as a poet, fiction writer and journalist during the Harlem Renaissance with publications like The Crisis, New Negro and Opportunity. She died in Pennsylvania on May 30, 1981.

Countee Cullen

wrote "Any Human to Another," "Color," and "The Ballad of the Brown Girl;" American Romantic poet; leading African-American poets of his time; associated with generation of poets of the Harlem Renaissance

Carter G. Woodson

This New Negro Activist is known as "the father of Black History."

Negro History Week [1926]

by Carter G. Woodson, precursor to Black History Month, took place on the second week of February

Black Intellectuals

Black activist. W.E. B. Dubois, Alain Locke, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, John Hope Franklin

Arturo Schomburg

Puerto-Rican of African and German descent who researched African-American history in Harlem Renaissance

Zora Neale Hurston

African American writer and folklore scholar who played a key role in the Harlem Renaissance

Claude McKay

A poet who was a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance movement and wrote the poem "If We Must Die" after the Chicago riot of 1919.

Pan-Africanism

the unity of all black Africans, regardless of national boundaries

Pan-African Movement

movement which began in the 1920s that emphasized the unity and strength of Africans and people of African descent around the world

Black Nationalism

a belief in the separate identity and racial unity of the African American community

UNIA

universal negro improvement association; founded by Marcus Garvey to end racism through separation of races