The New South and Jim Crow

The "New South" (1877-1898)

This section explores the concept of the "New South" and examines the factors that contributed to both continuity and change in the Southern states from 1877 to 1898.

Vision of the New South

• Henry Grady, the editor of The Atlanta Constitution, coined the phrase "New South."
• Grady envisioned a South characterized by:
  • Economic diversity
  • Industrial growth
  • Laissez-faire capitalism
• Grady believed industrial advancement would prevent the South from suffering the same fate as during the Civil War.

Industrial Growth in the South

• Southern cities and industrial centers began to grow.
• Southern states surpassed New England in textile manufacturing.
• Population growth and railroad construction in the South equaled or surpassed other regions.

Reality Check: Limits to the "New South"

• Despite advancements, the "New South" vision was not fully realized:
  • Transformation was limited to a few isolated cities.
  • The South remained primarily agricultural.

The Persistence of Sharecropping

• Sharecropping was a labor system in which individuals who lacked capital worked the land of a plantation owner in exchange for a portion of the harvest.
• In theory, sharecropping could have benefited newly freed black people and poor whites
• In practice, it often led to a new form of slavery due to sharecroppers remaining indebted to landowners.

Racial Segregation and the Jim Crow South

• The Compromise of 1877, which ended Reconstruction, led to the removal of federal troops from the South.
• This removal allowed racial segregation to become the standard social structure.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

• This Supreme Court case stemmed from a Louisiana law mandating separate railcars for black and white passengers.
• Homer Plessy, who was seven-eighths white and one-eighth black, challenged the law by riding in a whites-only car.
• The Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation was constitutional as long as the separate facilities were equal in quality.
• The phrase "separate but equal" emerged from this case.
• This ruling allowed Southerners to bypass the Fourteenth Amendment, which guaranteed equal protection under the law.

Jim Crow Laws

• Plessy v. Ferguson led to the implementation of Jim Crow Laws, which segregated nearly every aspect of society.
• Examples of segregation included:
  • Bathrooms
  • Water fountains
  • Public transportation
• Black people also faced exclusion from juries and public office.

Violence and Disenfranchisement

• Black people were often accused of crimes and denied fair trials.
• Lynch mobs carried out vigilante justice.
• Over 1,000 black people were lynched in the 1890s alone.

Resistance and Reform

• Despite the oppression, significant resistance emerged.

Ida B. Wells

• Editor of a black newspaper who editorialized against lynching and Jim Crow Laws.
• Faced death threats and had her presses destroyed by a mob.

Henry Turner

• Founded the International Migration Society in 1894 to facilitate the migration of black Americans to Liberia.

Booker T. Washington

• Advocated for black people to focus on economic self-sufficiency rather than directly fighting for political equality.