African Americans

• From 1865-1877 is the period known as the Reconstruction which is the time when the infrastructure of the South was reassembled after the Civil War. During this period the Northern states tried to impose its’ wishes in regards to progressing the position of African Americans, which was greatly resented by the white south. By 1877 the South had largely gained back their control.
• • In 1865 the situation looked positive for AA. 
  • However, after the assassination of A. Lincoln this would change.
  • By 1865 the 13th Amendment had been passed however, this didn’t protect AA.
• • Congress felt it was important to continue expand the enfranchisement for AA. This led to the passing of the 14th Amendment in 1868 (gave citizenship and equal protection under the law). Then the 15th Amendment in 1870 (prohibited denial to vote). 
  • They continued to pass ‘ordinary’ laws – 1866 Civil Rights Act (excluded NA) – this supported the 14th A. 
• • Congress went further than just protection politically but also passed the Military Reconstruction Act which divided the South into military districts. These new districts had to set up new state governments this hoped to allow a fresh start and to prevent previous prejudice. 
• • Many of these policies were led by the ‘Radical Republicans’. Namely Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner. They felt it was important that continuing progress should be led by the North without disruption from the South. 
• • President Johnson was not aligned with these radicals, he wanted to re-admit the Southern states and wanted to return to the previous status quo. 
  • Johnson did many things to undermine the progress AA were making. He issued thousands of pardons to influential Southerners (many plantation owners), although he did insist that Southern states had to ratify the 13th A but did not insist on imposing further civil rights laws.
• • Johnson’s lack of insistence that South States follow through with other civil right laws led to Southern states immediately implementing the Black Codes, these significantly limited enfranchisement to AA. 
• • The continued issues between Johnson’s sympathies towards Southern beliefs and Radical Congress led to him veto’ing the laws passed by them. However, Congress was able to prevent this each time as they had 2.3 majority in favour. Johnson’s continuing actions led to Congress trying to impeach him in 1868, this failed by only 1 vote. However, it showed the power of Congress and Johnson only served 1 more year. 
• • By 1868 700,000 AA (men) were enrolled to vote. They now had major power in electing members to conventions (meetings where candidates were picked for presidency). AA were now in a position of possessing real political power (specifically in the North). They had gained a lot from the motives of the Radical Republicans. 
  • However, there was limitations to this as they were not elected in proportions to their numbers.
• • Some AA had their lives transformed after 1865. By 1870s 22 AA were elected to Congress, 22 to House of Representative, 2 (from Mississippi) to the Senate. 
  • Hiram Revels (minister) sat for 1 year.
  • Blanche K. Bruce sat for full six years (1875-81), he had a clear and significant role in politics however he lacked support from others and was unable to help increase civil rights for AA. 
  • Frederick Douglass held several political positions (before 1865) he lacked impact after, especially as he refused to run the Freedman’s Bureau  due to this disagreements with Johnson’s policies.
• • Many AA were free but were homeless and unemployed. 
  • Freedman’s Bureau was initially set up in 1865 to help AA in their new freedom. 
  • Hoped to support them short-term and set up long-term security. 
  • Included: finding homes, employment and medical care. Schools were sets up and new hospitals were built.
  • Supported black self-help groups (provided education for AA children and adults). 
• • Freedman's Bureau set up Colleges for AA education including: Fisk Uni in Nashville and Howard Uni in Washington. 
  • Curriculum went beyond basics and looked at: law, science and teaching. Inadvertently would help train future civil rights leaders. 
• • Education advances were limited: 1890 – 65% of AA children were still unable to write compared with 15% of white children. 
• • From 1870 the Radical Republicans lost influence and as a result in 1872 Congress did not renew its’ mandate and the Freedman’s Bureau closed (shows a wider lack of interest from the North towards continuing progress for AA).
• • Most AA became wage-earning labourers in share-cropping. Share-cropping was when landowners divided up their plantations into small tenancies.
  • Freedman could rent their own farms by giving half of their crop to the landowners as rent. This worked particularly well at first, for former slaves, who, reunited with their families could work the land together as a family unit.
  • However, in the long run this then led to conditions that were similar to servitude and as Southern economy recovered continued economic exploitation and lack of economic mobility for AA. 
• Shop-keepers and masters were all white. This meant that relations between white and black did not change as AA felt cheated in these arrangements. A vast majority of AA remained at the bottom of the economic pile. However, many whites were determined to keep it this way.
• • Even when challenged by Fed. Courts the removal/limitations of AAs rights continued and even then some Fed. Court judgements undermined AAs rights. E.g. Slaughterhouse Case – fed. Court ruled that the 14th amendment protected the person’s individual rights but not his or hers state rights.   
• • Most AAs were prevented from voting. This was done in a number of ways: poll tax (had to pay to register to vote, Grandfather Clause (stated that you could only register to vote if your grandfather had been able to before 1865 – which therefore excluded all AAs as slaves were not able to vote) and literacy tests (as most AAs were illiterate this prevented them from doing so). 
• • Formal segregation (legal) would not begin until 1880s however it was still seen in Southern states. Formal segregation was seen in South Carolina and Mississippi from 1865.
  • Firstly seen in education that was begun for AAs after 1865. It was seen that blacks would corrupt white children and that blacks would not benefit from a higher level of education and so were segregated or excluded from main-stream white schools. 
• • The Ku Klux Klan sought to enforce segregation through fear and terror. 
  • First formed in Dec 1865 in Tennessee. (reacting to the ‘threat of black freedom’).
  • Specifically to stop AAs from voting and to guarantee the ‘supremacy of the white race’. 
• • Violent attacks on AAs were unprecedented (in terms of being outside of punishments used during slavery). Mephsis in 1866 there were 3 days of violence after 2 carriages crashed (white and black drivers respectively). 46 people were killed and 5 women raped. In July 1866 AAs were on their way to vote in New Orleans and were attacked 34 were killed and over 100 injured.
  • Violence was not just against AAs but also to anyone who supported them or tried to further their cause. 
• • The first KKK did not last long in terms of activities nor influence but the precedent they set in terms of open violence did.
• • Government did continue to try and protect AAs rights by passing Civil Rights Act in 1875 (tried to prevent formalization of segregation by stating that civil rights had to apply to public spaces such as drinking places, entertainment, houses and public transport – but as we will see this clearly was ignored).
  • This law was later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1883
• • In the 1877 election it was very close between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel Tilden. Some votes were disputed.
  • Hayes’ path to the presidency was smoothed by a ‘compromise’ that agreed that Democrats would accept him (Hayes) as president (even though he had not won the popular vote) PROVIDED he promised to withdraw the remaining troops from the South. 
• • The Hayes Tilden compromise officially ended the Reconstruction as federal government had essentially formally agreed to stay out of state affairs and therefore any federal protection or over sight in terms of the protection of AAs rights was gone. 
• • A/A had 3 million acres at the end of Reconstruction, this increased to 15 million by 1910 but 75% was subject to sharecropping.
• • In 1900 almost 90% of A/A still lived in the south, only 1% less than in 1870.
• • One of the ironies of segregation was that it encouraged the development and extension of self help communities.
  • This went beyond the churches and blacks sometimes formed their own trade unions.
• • A/A enterprises had a guaranteed market and developed parallel businesses-
  • By 1915 there were 30,000 businesses owned by black ppl in the south.
  • A middle class was developing with black ministers, lawyers and other professionals.
  • Black newspaper editors, reporters and readers gave testimony to growing literacy rates.
  • These developments laid foundations for later civil rights activity led by educated leaders with power and respect.
  • BUT Cook states - “they offered no concrete threat to the existing socio-economic order on which white dominance was based”
• • Before WW1 10% A/A left the south.
• • Small groups moved to New York (Harlem) from the 1880s onwards.
  • First black ghetto began to develop.
• • In the north blacks would find there was no legally determined segregation but often experienced discrimination and their range of employment opportunities, quality of housing, low level of education and effective confinement to certain areas meant their quality of life did not improve.
  • Interracial violence remained a prominent feature of their lives.
• • Democratic President Grover Cleveland did not question white supremacy.
• President Theodore Roosevelt showed a passing interest in condition of A/A by discussing matters with black leader Booker T Washington, so did his successor President Taft but this ended with the appointment of Woodrow Wilson (a southerner)
• • When Wilson was in the White House all black advisors in federal government were dismissed and departments of government became segregated.
• • Ida B Wells showed that alleged rape was often not the cause of lynching
  • She called into question the idea of white female innocence.
  • She expanded her views in the T Thomas Fortune’s publication New York Age and spoke to National Association of Coloured Women (founded in 1896)
  • She got sympathy from Progressives but did not get commitment from Congress or President for a federal anti-lynching law as that would interfer with states’ rights.
• • Washington was a teacher and set up his own institution in 1881 in Tuskegee, Alabama.
  • Development of his institute coincided with Jim Crow laws, increasing in lynching and campaigns to stop black men voting.
  • Washington felt that black men should acquire skills first as Reconstruction had caused some problems for inexperienced A/A who had suddenly been given power.
  • Tuskegee emphasis on literacy, numeracy and practical skills rather than theory.
• • In a speech in Atlanta, Georgia in 1895 Washington argued if whites could regard blacks as economic partners rather than opponents then race questions would eventually be diffused.
  • Segregation would be accepted for the time being - the emphasis for black people should be on education and economic opportunity rather than agitating for social equality in general and voting rights in particular. 
• • The speech had an instant impact.
  • Became known as the “Atlanta Compromise” - an attempt by blacks to reach an accomodation with the white dominated south. 
  • 6 months after the death of Frederick Douglas it promoted Booker T Washington into the leadership of the southern black community.
• One of Washington’s greatest triumphs was to gain the interest of President Theodore Roosevelt - he often spoke to him about A/A issues and invited him to the White House.