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Pre-Civil Rights South. Racial segregation
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1. Context of Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry: Pre-Civil Rights American South English 305
Dr. Roggenkamp
3. Jim Crow images, mid nineteenth century
4. Historical Timeline: Legalizing Segregation 1863—Emancipation Proclamation
Abraham Lincoln, initially opposed: “My paramount object is to save the Union, and not either to save or destroy slavery.”
But convinced of necessity for emancipation by 1863
1865—Civil War ends
Confiscated southern lands sold to northern investors and “carpetbaggers”
Land granted to freed slaves
5. Historical Timeline: Legalizing Segregation 1865-1877—Reconstruction of the South
Set up to assist southern blacks and whites in transition from slave culture to non-slave culture
Introduce system of free labor, oversee 3,000 schools for former slaves, settle race-based disputes, enforce contracts between white landowners and usually black labor forces, and secure justice for former slaves in state courts
Federal government sets conditions whereby southern states can apply for entry back into Union
At least 10% of voting population must take oath of allegiance to Union (lenient!)
Lincoln assassinated, April 1865
6. Historical Timeline: Legalizing Segregation 1865-1877—Reconstruction of the South, continued
Andrew Johnson: favors white supremacy in south, supports political leaders who aided Confederacy
Johnson wants to leave future of African Americans in south in hands of whites
Movement to restore slavery “in substance if not in name”
1865—Ku Klux Klan first organized
Tennessee “social club” organized by 6 vets
Grows quickly—terrorist organization across south
7. Historical Timeline: Legalizing Segregation 1868—14th Amendment to U.S. Constitution: Guarantee citizenship, protect civil liberties
13th Amendment had abolished slavery
1870-1871—Enforcement Acts
Congress passes criminal codes to protect rights to vote, hold office, serve of juries
KKK rises further in response
8. Historical Timeline: Legalizing Segregation 1875—First Civil Rights Act
Sought to guarantee freedom of access—“full and equal enjoyment” of public facilities
1877—Reconstruction Ends
Removal of federal troops from south
1883—Civil Rights Act of 1875 declared unconstitutional
Clear way for segregation
9. Historical Timeline: Legalizing Segregation 1880s-1920s—Rising terrorism
Activities of KKK grow annually
Rising lynching rate
Wiping out civil rights of African Americans
10. Historical Timeline: Legalizing Segregation 1896—Supreme Court ruling on Plessy v. Ferguson
1892 Homer Plessy jailed for sitting in “white” railroad car in LA
Supreme Court upholds constitutionality of law
Sets precedent of “separate but “equal”
A fiction: rarely equal, always separate
11. Historical Timeline: Legalizing Segregation 1931—Scottsboro Case
Nine black youths falsely charged with raping two white women in Alabama
No evidence, but all-white jury convicts all nine
All but youngest (age 12) sentenced to death
Last pardon not granted until 1976
“This case, more than any other event in the South during the 1930s, revealed the barbarous treatment of blacks” by whites.
12. Resources http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTrials/scottsboro/SB_imag.html