AP African American Studies: The Practice of Freedom (1865-1930)

Topic 3.1 The Reconstruction Amendments

Context of the Civil War: The conflict concluded with approximately $620,000$ deaths. Contributions of African Americans during the war were significant, with $180,000$ Black men serving in the U.S. Army and thousands of Black women serving the Union cause as laundry washerwomen or nurses' aides.
Definition of Reconstruction: Lasting from $1865$ to $1877$ , this era focused on rebuilding Southern society by introducing $4,000,000$ newly liberated African Americans into society, attempting to replace a system built entirely on slavery.
Early Reconstruction Efforts: * At Davis Bend, Mississippi, General Grant secured land, divided white-owned property, and granted it to freedmen. These liberated people established a self-governing community, electing their own judges and sheriffs. * In other parts of Mississippi, the Union Army required freedmen to sign labor contracts with former slave owners, transitioning from enslaved labor to wage labor.
The Freedmen's Bureau (March 1865): Congress established this federal agency to provide relief, food, shelter, and education to the $4,000,000$ "refugees" of slavery. An initial provision to divide white-owned plantations for Black families was vetoed by President Andrew Johnson.
The 13th Amendment (1865): Officially abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime.
The 14th Amendment (1868): Defined birthright citizenship and granted equal protection to all people. This amendment explicitly overturned the Supreme Court's decision in Dred Scott v. Sanford ( $1857$ ) and addressed state-level Black codes.
The 15th Amendment (1870): Prohibited the federal and state governments from denying the right to vote "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude," effectively granting voting rights to Black men.
African American Political Participation: * Access to the vote led to heavy participation in Southern politics. Nearly $2,000$ African Americans served in public office, ranging from local levels to the U.S. Senate. * Robert Smalls: A Civil War hero who stole a Confederate ship to liberate $15$ people; he served in Congress. * Hiram Revels: The first Black man to serve in the U.S. Congress and U.S. Senate ( $1870$ ). He was a free-born, educated preacher from North Carolina who took the Mississippi Senate seat formerly held by Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
Community Organizations: * Union Leagues: Originally formed to re-elect Lincoln in $1862$ , these leagues spread through the South to protect Black communities. Dr. Eric Foner notes that by the end of $1867$ , virtually every Black voter was enrolled. * Armed Self-Defense: Armed groups were sometimes necessary to protect voting rights, such as the Community Self-Defense groups in Lincoln County, Georgia.

Topic 3.2 Social Life: Reuniting Black Families

Locating Kin: Following emancipation, African Americans used newspapers, word of mouth, and the Freedmen’s Bureau to find relatives separated by the domestic slave trade.
Barriers to Reunion: Many searches were unsuccessful due to incomplete records, vast distances, and the practice of changing last names when individuals were sold multiple times across state lines.
Fictive Kin: When biological families could not be reunited, individuals formed "fictive kin" networks, creating close, family-like bonds with unrelated people for support.
Institutions of Support: * Legal Marriage: Thousands of couples sought to legally consecrate their unions once marriage became a right. * Churches: Served as community hubs for weddings, baptisms, and reunions, symbolizing autonomy.
Historical Records: Key sources include lost person advertisements, such as those for Clarissa Reed ( $1883$ ) and Elizabeth Brisco ( $1864$ ).

Topic 3.3 Black Codes, Land, and Labor

Land Redistribution: General William T. Sherman's Special Field Orders No. $15$ aimed to redistribute $400,000$ acres of land in South Carolina and Florida to freed families in $40$ -acre segments (the origin of "40 Acres and a Mule").
Post-War Reversal: President Andrew Johnson revoked these orders, returning land to former Confederates or Northern investors, leading to the eviction of Black families.
Black Codes ( $1865$ - $1866$ ): Restrictive state laws designed to mirror slave codes by controlling Black labor and movement. * Vagrancy Laws: People without labor contracts could be fined or imprisoned. * Unpaid Apprenticeships: The state could seize Black children and force them into unpaid labor without parental consent.
Exploitative Labor Systems: * Sharecropping: Landowners provided equipment and land in exchange for a large share of the crop, making economic advancement nearly impossible. * Crop Liens: A credit system where farmers borrowed against future harvests at high interest rates. Low crop prices often left them in a cycle of debt. * Convict Leasing: Southern prisons profited by hiring out incarcerated Black men (often arrested on minor or false charges) to corporations. This system of debt bondage effectively bypassed the 13th Amendment's intent.

Topic 3.4 The Defeat of Reconstruction

Political Shift: As the memory of the war faded, Northern voters shifted focus toward business, replacing Radical Republicans with moderates.
Compromise of $1877$ : Following the contested election of $1876$ , a deal allowed Republican Rutherford B. Hayes to take the presidency if he removed federal troops from the South, ending Reconstruction and leading to widespread Black disenfranchisement.
Jim Crow Suppression Measures: * Poll Taxes: Required payments to vote that sharecroppers could not afford. * Grandfather Clauses: Exempted poor whites from voting restrictions if their grandfathers had voted before the war. * Literacy Tests: Subjective exams administered by biased poll clerks.
Racial Violence: Groups like the Ku Klux Klan used terrorism (assassinations, whippings). In $10$ months of $1868$ , Georgia reported $336$ cases of murder or assault against freedmen.
Plessy v. Ferguson ( $1896$ ): The Supreme Court upheld Louisiana's Separate Car Act, ruling that "separate but equal" facilities were constitutional, legalizing segregation nationwide.

Topic 3.5 Disenfranchisement and Jim Crow Laws

Etymology: "Jim Crow" came from a $1830s$ blackface performance by Thomas Dartmouth (T.D.) Rice called "Jump, Jim Crow," which promoted racist caricatures.
The "Nadir": A term coined by historian Rayford W. Logan to describe the period between the end of Reconstruction and WWII as the lowest point in American race relations.
Ida B. Wells: A journalist and activist who exposed lynching as a tool of white supremacy rather than justice. She authored Southern Horrors and The Red Record and famously advocated for Black self-defense with the Winchester rifle.
Early Resistance: Trolley boycotts occurred in New Orleans ( $1900$ ) and Chattanooga ( $1905$ ), though they faced difficulties due to economic dependence on public transit.

Topic 3.6 White Supremacist Violence and the Red Summer

The Red Summer ( $1919$ ): A period of intense racial violence triggered by job competition, a global flu pandemic, and resentment toward Black WWI veterans. Over $30$ urban riots occurred.
Chicago Riot ( $1919$ ): Sparked by the drowning of a Black teenager at a segregated beach; resulted in $13$ days of chaos, $38$ deaths, and $1,000$ homeless families.
Tulsa Race Massacre ( $1921$ ): Triggered by a false assault accusation against a Black teenager. White mobs destroyed the affluent "Black Wall Street" in Greenwood, Oklahoma. In $18$ hours, $300$ people were murdered, and $10,000$ were left homeless.

Topic 3.7 The Color Line and Double Consciousness

Paul Laurence Dunbar: Author of "We Wear the Mask" ( $1896$ ), which describes the psychological mask African Americans wore for survival and as a subtle form of resistance to white scrutiny.
W.E.B. Du Bois: The first Black PhD from Harvard ( $1895$ ). In The Souls of Black Folk ( $1903$ ), he introduced: * The Color Line: The central problem of the 20th century regarding racial division. * Double Consciousness: The internal conflict of seeing oneself through the eyes of a racist society. * The Veil: The barrier preventing full mutual understanding between Black and white Americans.

Topic 3.8 Uplift Ideologies and Black Women's Leadership

Booker T. Washington: Founded Tuskegee Institute ( $1881$ ). His "Atlanta Exposition Address" ( $1895$ ) advocated for vocational education (plumbing, carpentry) and economic self-reliance over immediate political agitation.
The Du Bois Challenge: Argued for a liberal arts education and immediate civil rights. He proposed the "Talented Tenth"—an educated elite—should lead the race.
Organizational Evolution: * Niagara Movement ( $1905$ ): Founded to challenge Washington's accommodationist stance. * NAACP ( $1909$ ): Founded by Du Bois and others to use legal action against injustice. James Weldon Johnson became the first Black executive secretary in $1920$ and co-wrote "Lift Every Voice and Sing."
Black Women's Activism: * Nannie Helen Burroughs: Founded the National Training School for Women and Girls ( $1909$ ) and led the NACW. She favored Black-led organizations over those with heavy white involvement. * Mary Church Terrell: A founding member of the NAACP and NACW who prioritized the specific struggles of Black women.

Topic 3.9 & 3.10 Institutions, HBCUs, and Greek Life

Self-Sufficiency: Black communities created their own businesses, banks (e.g., Citizens Savings Bank of Chicago, $1889$ ), and the Black press to combat exclusion.
Madam C.J. Walker: Became the first female self-made millionaire in the U.S. through her hair care products and philanthropy.
HBCUs: * Wilberforce University ( $1856$ ): The first university fully owned and operated by African Americans (AME Church). * Second Morrill Act ( $1890$ ): Required states to provide separate land-grant institutions for Black students if they excluded them from white universities, leading to $18$ new HBCUs. * Fisk Jubilee Singers: A choir that introduced African American spirituals to global audiences.

Topics 3.11 - 3.15 The Harlem Renaissance and New Negro Movement

The New Negro Movement: Encouraged self-definition and racial pride. Alain Locke (the "Father of the Harlem Renaissance") published The New Negro in $1925$ .
Visual Arts: James Van Der Zee used photography in Harlem to document the Black middle class, capturing dignity and leisure. W.E.B. Du Bois curated $300$ photographs for the $1900$ Paris Exposition.
Poetry: Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and Countee Cullen used African imagery to reclaim cultural significance and identity.
Music: Jazz originated in New Orleans (e.g., King Oliver and Louis Armstrong). It was a fusion of African rhythms and European traditions. Blues utilized call-and-response and Southern vernacular.
Black Intellectual Tradition: * Carter G. Woodson: Known as the "Father of Black History," he founded Negro History Week in $1926$ and wrote The Mis-Education of the Negro ( $1933$ ). * Arturo Schomburg: Collected rare artifacts that became the base for the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. * Zora Neale Hurston: Documented folklore and vernacular in works like Their Eyes Were Watching God ( $1937$ ).

Topic 3.16 - 3.18 Migration and Global Pan-Africanism

World War I: Approximately $400,000$ Black men served, including the "Harlem Hellfighters" (e.g., Henry Johnson). Despite being barred from the victory parade, they returned determined to fight for democracy at home.
The Great Migration: $6,000,000$ African Americans moved North and West between the $1910s$ and $1970s$ due to WWI labor shortages, boll weevil crop destruction, and the terror of lynching.
Afro-Caribbean Migration: $140,000$ immigrants arrived between $1899$ and $1937$ . Figures like Marcus Garvey (Jamaica) influenced the Harlem Renaissance.
Marcus Garvey and the UNIA: Founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association, promoting Pan-Africanism and the "Back-to-Africa" movement via the Black Star Line. He popularized the red, black, and green flag and the phrase "Africa for the Africans."