Racial Issues and Depression Onset

Plessey V. Ferguson

system of segregation

Supreme court ruled that segregation was okay as long as it was “equal”

basically stripped the 14th amendment of meaning (equality under the law regardless of color)

Sharecropping

Renting land from a white landlord to farm

Hindered Black economic advancement

Exodusters

Black americans migrating from the South to the West

Became known for building successful, self-governing communities in the West

Buffalo Soldiers

United States Army regiments composed exclusively of Black American Soldiers

Helped in the Battle of San Juan Hill

Booker T. Washington

Supported trade schools

Atlanta Compromise (Hard work will earn respect from the white people)

Ida B. Wells

Teacher, wrote an editorial against the racism of the Memphis school board, and got fired for it

3 of her friends were lynched because they owned a successful grocery store

Writes pamphlets exposing the lies and hypocrisy in lynching

Congress took no action during her lifetime (Apologizes in 2005 with the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill)

W.E.B. DuBois

First black Harvard graduate

Wrote The Souls of Black Folk (attacks the Atlanta Compromise)

“Accomodationism” was pointless

Establishes the NAACP

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

Pushed for full university education

Advocated for the restoration of ALL civil rights

Led the drive for civil rights

Used lawsuits as a primary tool

Jane Addams and Ida B. Wells were members

Tulsa Race Riot of 1921

Greenwood district was thriving, referred to as “Black Wallstreet”

Destroyed in a 2 day rampage (Started by white supremacists)

KKK

Revival of the KKK (Fueled by Birth of a Nation)

More hateful than ever, targeting Jews, Leftists, and Catholics

Marched on Washington in 1925 and 1926

A. Philip Randolph

Read The Souls of Black Folk, starting advocating

President of the BSCP

Met with Franklin Roosevelt and signed The Fair Employment Act, which prohibited racial discrimination in the war industry

Black Tuesday

Stock Market Crash

Causes:

Lack of Diversification

Banking system too loosely regulated

Proportion of profits going to potentional consumers too small

Dust Bowl

Worst draught in history

Summer temperatures over 100

Decline in rainfall

Herbert Hoover

Epitome of a self-made man

Millionaire by 40

Great depression happens during his term

Raises tariffs at the height of the depression

“Hooverville”

The Bonus Army

In 1924, Congress approved a bonus for all WWI veterns, but they never received it

20,000 Veterans marched on Washington and refused to leave

Hoover sends in the army, 100 injured (1 baby died)