Post-Reconstruction and Racial Segregation in the South and Southwest

In the words of W.E.B. Du Bois, regarding the period after the Civil War: "the slave went free, stood a brief moment in the sun, and then moved back again and towards slavery."
Post-reconstruction history is often defined by a "tipping" of social and legal systems against the newly freed African American population.
It was widely believed by some in the South that African Americans should not have the right to earn a standard wage. This perspective birthed the "tipping system," where pay was based entirely on service and the customer's satisfaction rather than a guaranteed contract.

Sharecropping is frequently referred to as "slavery by another name."
It functioned as a cyclical trap of poverty for African Americans in the South.
The system followed a specific six-step cycle of debt:
1. The landowner provides the sharecropper with land and seed. In exchange, the sharecropper promises the landowner half of the final crop.
2. The sharecropper buys food and clothing on credit from a store owned by the landowner.
3. The sharecropper plants and harvests the crop.
4. The sharecropper provides the landowner with the crop to sell. The sharecropper is then entitled to half of the earnings, from which the landowner subtracts the cost of the season's purchases and credit.
5. During the "settling up" phase, the landowner typically informs the sharecropper that they owe more money than they actually earned.
6. To pay off the resulting debt, the sharecropper must promise the landowner a greater share of the subsequent year’s crop, reinforcing the cycle.
Sharecroppers were often uneducated and lacked the legal standing or ability to argue with landowners or merchants who cheated them through fraudulent accounting.
Sharecroppers became tied to a single plantation, having no choice but to remain until their debts were settled, which was rarely achievable.
This system heavily dominated Southern economics, with high percentages of the region relaying on this laborer exploitation.

Jim Crow laws were implemented to enforce racial segregation, facilitate racial violence, and ensure political disenfranchisement.
Named after the "Jim Crow" figure, a fixture of minstrel shows touring the South where white performers wore blackface to mimic and mock stereotypical behaviors for comedy.
Evolution of Segregation:
- De facto: Segregation began as custom or tradition.
- De jure: Segregation eventually became codified by law.
The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was founded in 1866 by Nathan Bedford Forrest, a former Confederate Civil War general.

Racial passing (known in the South as "passe blanc") occurred when light-complected African Americans were able to pass as white in the black-and-white racial binary of the South.
In 1896, Homer Plessy challenged the segregation of railroad carts.
Plessy was "one-eighth" black ( $\frac{1}{8}$ ), but under the "one drop rule," he was considered black by law.
Plessy purposefully "outed" himself as black while riding in a white railroad car to test the validity of de facto segregation laws.
The subsequent case reached the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS).
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of "separate but equal" facilities. This attempt to challenge tradition backfired, converting de facto segregation into de jure (legal) segregation across the South.

Segregation impacted all aspects of public life through the 1960s, extending from the South into the Southwest.
Examples of segregation infrastructure:
- Restricted zoning in housing areas.
- Segregated waiting rooms for trains and buses (marked "For Coloreds Only").
- Colored billiard halls and theaters.
- Signs explicitly stating the "right to cater to white trade only."
The Green Book served as an essential travel guide for African Americans. It highlighted "friendly" places (diners, hotels, and services) where they could travel without the threat of being discriminated against, segregated, or refused service.

Several methods were utilized to exclude African Americans from the voting booths:
1. Poll Taxes: Citizens were required to pay a fee to exercise their right to vote.
2. Grandfather Clause: This exempted individuals from certain requirements if their grandfather had been eligible to vote. This effectively exempted whites while excluding African Americans whose grandfathers had been enslaved.
3. Literacy Tests: These were not standardized and were left to the discretion of the registrar.
Many "literacy" questions were impossible riddles designed to ensure the applicant failed. Examples include:
- "How many jelly beans are in this jar?"
- "How many bubbles are in a bar of soap?"
- "How many seeds are in a watermelon?"

The Southwest inherited a deep legacy from the Spanish and Mexican Rancho period (1700s–1840s).
This culture focused on the "Californios" and the "vaqueros" (cowboys) who wrangled and grazed cattle.
When Anglo-Americans migrated West and South, they could not easily pronounce "vaquero," leading to the term "buckaroo."
The modern American cowboy culture is a direct inheritance from this Mexican and Spanish vaquero tradition.

Segregation and violence in the Southwest were not limited to the African American community; they were heavily targeted at Mexican Americans as well.
Signage in California and New Mexico explicitly segregated or refused service to African Americans, Mexicans (labeled as "Spanish"), and even dogs.
Southern California examples of segregation:
- Beaches with signs stating "Colored surf in the rear."
- Segregated theaters and swimming pools that remained into the 1940s, separating Mexicans and blacks from whites.
Vigilante violence and lynchings took place in the Southwest:
- In 1892 (or 1896), Francisco Torres was lynched by a mob in Santa Ana, California.
- He was dragged from a jail and hanged from a telephone pole at the corner of Sycamore and 4th Street.
- A placard was pinned to Torres's chest that read "change of venue," a mocking reference to the legal process he was denied.