Segregation and The New South

US History

How were the civil and political rights of certain groups in America undermined during the years after Reconstruction?

In the course of the Gilded Age, the equal rights extended to African Americans during Reconstruction were narrowed. This move away from equality for all had a lasting impact on society in the United States.

What happened in 1876?

Federal troops were removed from the South.

Ways in which black suffrage was restricted in the South

Poll taxes, literacy tests, grandfather clauses, violence

Jim Crow Laws

Laws that caused segregation to become the norm and many black people to lose their voting rights.

Were the many strategies used to keep black voters away from the polls effective?

Yes

Did the African American population also face widespread segregation in the North?

Yes, there was segregation in the South and the North.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

The constitutionality of Jim Crow Laws was upheld by this Supreme Court case.

Did African Americans refused to accept their status as second-class citizens?

Yes, several important leaders emerged and called for equality.

Booker T. Washington

A significant leader in the black community in the late 19th century. He believed that black citizens should accommodate themselves to segregation and build up their own economic resources through hard work.

W.E.B. Du Bois

Argued that black people should demand full and equal rights immediately. He felt the burden of achieving equality should not rest on the shoulders of African Americans alone.

Ida B. Wells

Another black leader who devoted her life to the crusade against lynching.