Unit 39.1 - Civil rights and race relations in the USA, 1850-2009
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Civil rights revision notes
Reconstruction
How did lives improve?
Politically
- 15th amendment 1870= greater political equality by enfranchising all black Americans
700,000 enfranchised AAs outnumbered the 600,000 whites
o Also facilitated the rise to political positions of responsibility
600 AAs served in state legislatures
- Military reconstruction act 1867- forced Southern states to co-operated with these amendments
- 14th amendment 1868, embodying the 1866 CRA, gave equal citizenship to blacks, increasing
civil/legal equality and making these political changes more permenant
Economically
- during reconstruction: newfound economic self-determination and rise in standard of living
- Special Order 15 Jan 1865 – 40,000 AAs settle on forfeited land
- by 1920, 20% of AAs owned land
o this epitomised the newfound ability for AAs to improve economically
- Sharecropping – 80% of cotton farmed in this way – much better than under slavery -
Freedman’s Bureau – est. 1865, helped AAs negotiate labour contracts, whilst Freedman’s Bank
helped manage funds, enabling successes
- Standard of living had risen for most by 1877
o this suggests the change from unpaid labour to land ownership allowed many to succeed
economically and see real improvements in their daily lives due to prosperity
Socially
13TH A. 1865 provided AAs with physical mobility needed to find families, as 80% of freedmen did
– many move to cities to get away from memories of slavery on plantation and find a better life, with
10 largest Southern cities seeing black populations double during Reconstruction – AAs can now
begin to assert themselves
o = a direct improvement for them socially as their quality of life dramatically improved with
hope – 13th A. makes possible the development of AA society
- Churches flourish, blacks can marry legally and use own names – increased respect from
themselves and whites
- Educational opportunities improve – e.g. Fisk University est. 1866, Freedman’s Bureau spent $17m
to build 4000 schools and 100 hospitals – 600,000 AAs enrolled in elementary school by 1877 –
very important for AAs gaining increased self-esteem, pride and ability to improve their lives
themselves
o Longevity to educational improvements
- Union league
HOWEVER- LIMITATIONS:
Politically
SUPREME COURT: Gains of 14th and 15th A.s begin to be watered down – 1873 Slaughterhouse
decision, 1875 US v Reece, 1876 US v Cruikshank – therefore the gains credited to the 13th A. are
insignificant, reducing the extent to which emancipation produced real improvements
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT: Alongside these SC decisions, the federal government began to lose
interest in helping AAs politically – 1872 Amnesty Act re-enfranchised 150,000 whites, 13,000
presidential pardons issued to leading ex-Confeds. by Johnson, so all but 3 Southern states
redeemed by 1876
, SOUTHERN WHITES: prevented black political participation - intimidation by groups such as
KKK used to exclude many AA voters, and violence - Charles Caldwell, AA who served as
Mississippi state senator, killed by white supremacists in 1875
still hugely underrepresented in all levels of office – high illiteracy, lack of political experience and
Republican use of white candidates to gain some of white vote as black vote already secure limits
success – not one black Governor
Furthermore, impact of AAs in politics limited, especially in South, as economic turmoil caused by
Civil War and 1873 crisis + corruption = lack of funding for initiatives to help AAs
Impeachment of SC’s Governor Holden in 1870 as he tried to suppress KKK shows political power
remains with white supremacists and that AAs will still face systematic repression
Economic- improvements only for a few
In reality, especially in terms of landowning, it was the few who prospered – fundamental
redistribution of land that radicals called for never took place – those granted land by SO15 were
evicted from August the same year they acquired it e.g. at Edisto Island as plantation owners
pardoned and return
Sharecropping kept 80% of AAs in state of perpetual debt peonage– couldn’t actually have economic
independence and debt meant they couldn’t leave, so freedom of movement also restricted – potentially
worse for lots than slavery, as now not even always guaranteed a home and subsistence – during
Reconstruction, a bar of soap would cost 5% of a monthly wage – economic struggle worsened after
1873 financial crisis – price of cotton plummeted, and so for most AAs, who were still farmers,
wages fell to 40% of average Northern wage and Freedman’s Bank closed in 1874
illiteracy rates for AAs were still at 80% by 1877
Thus, AAs confined to a new form of slavery, economic dependence - suggests there was little
improvement
Socially- improvements undermined by violenece
AAs still confined to menial work and sharecropping kept them in state of social immobility, so
they remained second-class citizens
Black Codes – introduced 1865-6 separated freedmen, lay the foundations for de facto segregation that
never really went away during or after Reconstruction, suggesting Jim Crow didn’t change much in
reality, just in law
No real impact of 1875 CRA as principle of US v Cruikshank, 1876, can later be used in 1883
Cases to nullify 1875 CRA – abolition therefore has not led to real social improvements as gains of
increased integration being undermined and the role of AAs in society steadily moves towards its
background after the success of 67-74
Educational improvements limited – AA illiteracy does not fall, but stays at 80% by 1877
(continuity)
Violence and fear – AAs often attacked for leaving plantations and/or becoming politically active -
KKK and other groups flourish – KKK gets 0.5m members by 1870 – terror used to keep AAs in
social inferiority suggests the 13th A. alone could not elevate their social status in relative terms to
whites, suggesting no real improvement
E.g. Memphis, 1866, & Colfax, 1873, massacres & Texas acquits all 500 whites indicted for
murder 1865-6
Violence –lynching were used to keep AAs in a state of social subservience by maintaining white
supremacy e.g Colfax 1873 therefore, Jim Crow, whilst maybe bringing about a new way of
maintaining Southern race control, did not bring a change in the social/racial hierarchy in the South
,Why did reconstruction fail?
1. Republican party (counter-intuitive, they were pro- African American)
a. Their initial approach= too radical- alienating whites
i. Impeached Johnson on 24th Feb 1868-
ii. Military Reconstruction Acts (March 1867) temporarily disenfranchising 15% of
potential white voters and enfranchised 703,000 ex-slaves= unpop
iii. Aggressive radical stap- divisive and creates hostility
iv. Therefore white voters no longer voted republican
v. Habeaus Corpus Act (1867) – increased the possibility of southern citizens having
their cases heard in federal court rather than state court
vi. March 1868 – Republicans in Congress went further by removing the power of US
Supreme Court cases which arose from application of the Military Reconstruction
Act
vii. Benefitted black americans by protecting them from SC decisions, but alienated the
whites- deemed as being unconstitutional
viii. it undermined the power of the Supreme Court but it also gave the Republicans in
Congress greater authority
ix. considerable violence in 1869-71 post ratification of 15th Amendment eg 1870:
mob of white men attacked a republican party rally- killing 4 and wounding 54
b. leadership later became far less radical= reduction of pressure
i. election of Ulysses S. Grant (a republican) as president in 1868 far less radical
than the radical republicans in Congress. Now: not only resistance from southern
whites, but also inertia within gov
ii. 1869 he refused to provide extra funding for the Freedmen’s Bureau and 1872
Amnesty Act returned voting and office-holding rights to 150,000 ex-Confederates
iii. Both major Radical Republican leaders had died by 1877: Thaddeus Stevens
(from House of Reps) in 1868 and Charles Sumner (from Senate) in 1874
iv. = less momentum
v. Reps also had less power, particularly after the 1874 congressional elections in
which the Democrats made sweeping gains
2. Economic conditions (a counter pg)- made north less sympathetic
i. Economic depression led to federal government being pressured into
normalizing relations with ex-Confederate states in order to stimulate economic
activity
ii. forced to abandon a program of radical reconstruction in order to re-establish close
relations with ex-confederate states
3. Supreme court
1873 Slaughterhouse decision – greatly narrowed the 14th Amdt (by ruling that the 14th
Amdt only protected the rights granted by national citizenship and not the rights received
from state citizenship
1876 US vs. Reese – stated that the 15th Amdt didn’t give everyone the right to vote,
therefore significantly undermining the political power that had been given to black
Americans under this constitutional amendment
Overall: SC demonstrates how a whole branch of the US government was fighting
against the radical republicans within Congress. Whilst one division of the federal
government fought for African Americans equality an other successfully was
returning the South to its antebellum society
4. Role of white violence
the KKK (established in Dec. 1865), the White League and the Red Shirts= white
supremacist organisations created a culture of fear which the Democrats capitalised on,
bringing rad recon to an end
White supremacist violence e.g. Colfax Massacre, 13 April 1873 + 280 black Americans
were killed by members of the White League= undermining radical reconstruction
, o Decreased black political rights as, through violence and intimidation,
whites were able to stop blacks from voting and/or make them vote
democrat
o They removed some rad reps from their posts, eg Emmanuel Fortune from
florida, which created fear among remaining Reps, restricting their desire for
recon
Balance: whilst it was the violence of white supremacists which ensured
Democrat success in elections, it was the lack of radical leadership in the
Republican Party which meant that there wasn’t a desire to enforce and
protect the rights of black Americans from within federal government and
so radical reconstruction lost momentum and was ultimately ended
a. Overall: violence created a ‘deep south’ which was vehemently opposed to reconstruction
Jim Crow
What things acted as a setback for Black American equality?
1. Exclusion from the vote/ lack of political equality (Jim Crow)
Methods such as poll taxes, literacy tests and the instalment of grandfather
clauses effectively disenfranchised black Americans
1. Not only do they disenfranchise blacks, they also increase the inequality as whites
continue to be allowed to vote
2. 1890s= Mississippi Plan, where literacy tests and poll taxes were embedded into
Mississippi's constitution
3. 1890- 67% Aas could vote (in miss) 1892- 5.7% could vote (in miss)
4. Between 1890-1900, 10/11 of confed states passed similar legislation
5. Although there were a minority of cases where there was still some political freedom,
for example in Virginia, this was then supressed by violence (Wilmington race riot
in 1898)
6. Overall, the lack of political representation embedded the jim crow laws in
society and made them considerably harder to oppose
Ensured dominance of white-dominated Democrat party in the south until the 1970s.
In 1880, South Carolina legislature decreased black representation by redrawing
congressional districts. This ensured BAs had no meaningful representation and
Democrats were consistently voted in. this approach was reflected across the south
White primary: white voters chose one of the Democrat candidates to represent the
party, as a result, no black person had the opportunity to choose the prospective candidate
White primaries continued into the 1940s
Between 1896 and 1915 every Southern state adopted state wide ’white’ Democratic
primaries and then excluded Negro voters from them – the only meaningful elections in
a one party system
By 1877, white democrats had political power in every southern state
As a result of the Democrats forming a solid voting bloc in Congress, there was no
federal pressure on the SC or states to enforce the spirit of the 15th amendment
o Overall: left African Americans completely vulnerable to the imposition of a new era of
white supremacist rule.
2. Social segregation (Jim Crow)
a. Florida in 1887: legal segregation in railway carriages
b. 1887-1907 12 states followed suite with similar legislation
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