RECONSTRUCTION

RECONSTRUCTION Tragedy and Triumph Three Key Amendments - 13th Amendment, 1865 - 14th Amendment, 1868 - 15th Amendment, 1870 The Broader Context - Industry triumphs over agriculture o North o South - Political chaos The Goals of Reconstruction - Constitutionally rebuild the nation - Rebuild the southern economy - What rights for African Americans? - Keep “fire eaters” out of power - Retribution vs. reconciliation 1 Three Plans for Reconstruction - Lincoln’s Plan o Executive control o 10% loyalty oath o Benefits for some African Americans - Johnson’s Plan o Similar to Lincoln Plan o Repudiated Confederate war debts o Nullified ordinances of secession o Rich southerners disqualified o New state governments o Black political participation? - The Congressional Plan o Radical Republicans o Wade-Davis Bill, July, 1864 o Civil Rights Act of 1866 o Tenure of Office Act, 1867 o Reconstruction Act of 1867  All except Tennessee  Military districts and martial law  Black and white participation at state conventions  Forced to accept 14th Amendment Temporary Political Gains - Military Reconstruction Act of 1867/State Conventions - 15th Amend., 1870/male suffrage - Local politics o Union League - State Government - National Government/Congress o Hiram K. Revels o Blanche K. Burke Religious Transformation 2 Limited Economic Gains - Freedman’s Bureau, March, 1865 o Food o Medical care o Labor Contracts o Courts o Education* o Land Reform - Southern Homestead Act of 1866 - Agricultural revival benefits white planters - Difficult to industrialize o Business failures o Lack of experience o Lack of access to capital - Situation little better in the North The End of Reconstruction - 1876 presidential election - Rutherford B. Hayes, Rep. - Samuel Tilden, Dem. - 1877 3 REESTABLISHING THE OLD ORDER - Overt physical violence o Goals of white supremacy:  Absolute control  Captive labor force  Destroy the Republican Party  Prevent economic self-sufficiency  Prevent access to education o Organized Groups:  Knights of the White Camelia  The Ku Klux Klan o Anti-Klan and Force Acts, 1870-1871 - The Black Codes  Control the African-American population  Guarantee a captive labor force - Economic control o Sharecropping o Crop lien o Debt peonage - Disenfranchisement o Phase 1: force African Americans to vote Democratic o Phase 2: prevent African Americans from voting at all  Populism  The Southern Alliance  The Colored Farmers’ National Alliance and Cooperative Union  Poll taxes  Literacy tests  Property qualifications  The Grandfather Clause—January 1, 1867 - Legal Segregation o The impact of Populism o Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896  “Separate but equal”  “In the nature of things” o The burdens of segregation  Financial  Psychological 4 THE WAY WEST - The Early Years o York o Pierre, George, and Stephen Bonga o James Beckwourth - Cowboys o Bill Pickett - Seminole Negro Indian Scouts - The “Buffalo Soldiers” - Early Settlements o Escaped slaves o Cherokee Removal o Ex-soldiers o Civilians fleeing the South - Oklahoma o 1889 land rush o Edwin P. McCabe - Kansas o Tennessee/Kentucky migration—Nicodemus o Henry Adams o Benjamin “Pap” Singleton o Triggering the Exodus  Publicity  Reports from Kansas  The end of Reconstruction  Rumors  Sen. William Windom resolution, Jan., 1879 o The aftermath 5 BOOKER T. WASHINGTON AND SELF-RELIANCE - Education o Churches, American Missionary Association o Philanthropy  Motives  Peabody Fund  John D. Rockefeller  Julius Rosenwald o Results - Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) o Early life  Hampton Institute  Samuel Chapman Armstrong o At Tuskegee, 1881  Diffuse white hostility  Create a school o Educational philosophy  Vocational education  “Indispensable” African Americans  No challenge to the established order  “Atlanta Compromise”, 1895  Up From Slavery, 1901  Reactions o Pros and cons  Cons  Industrialization renders the artisan obsolete  Mechanized farming  Rural vs. urban  Economic success linked to everything else  Pros  Support from northern industrialists  Substantial economic benefits for some  Best solution available 6 NEW DIRECTIONS: W.E.B. DuBOIS (1868-1963) - Early Career o Harvard Ph.D. o The Philadelphia Negro, 1898 - New philosophy o American Negro Academy, 1897 o Atlanta University, Conference on Negro Problems o Souls of Black Folk, 1903 o Niagara Movement, 1905 o National Association for the Advancement of Colored People  The Crisis  Legal strategies - Later career o Harlem Renaissance o United Nations o Ghana - Pros and cons o Pros  Justifiable position  Recognized the interconnections  Pushing the envelope o Cons  Alienated many whites, even in the North  Worried many African Americans, esp. in the South  Intellectual elitism  Both were partly out of touch 7 RACE AND EMPIRE - Imperialism - American efforts o Hawaii, 1898 o Spanish-American War, 1898  Cuba and the Spanish empire  African-American soldiers  Regular Army  Volunteers  Discrimination  “That splendid little war” o Canal Zone, 1903 o U.S. Virgin Islands, 1917 o The Dominican Republic and Haiti - America’s “Empire of Darker Peoples” o Vast majority were non-white o Guide and “uplift” o Prejudice o Effect on the race issue in the U.S. - The effects of Imperialism o Exchanging one empire for another o No foreign havens o Black soldiers proved their valor o Diverted attention from domestic race problems o Set back the cause of civil rights o Set the stage for World War I 8 WORLD WAR I - Origins and U.S. Involvement - African Americans in the military o Officers and enlisted men o Morale and race relations  Emmett J. Scott  Committee on the Welfare of Negro Troops  Race riots and other incidents o In Europe  Discrimination  On the front lines  European attitudes o Support for and opposition to the war effort  W.E.B. DuBois—“Close Ranks”  Chandler Owen and A. Philip Randolph - The home front o War bonds o Food conservation o War industries: The (First) Great Migration  Poverty and unemployment in the South  Labor shortage in the North  Demographic changes  Places of employment o Racial tensions in the North  Competition for jobs and housing  Difficult transition  Segregation  Exclusion from unions  Race riots and other violence  East St. Louis, 1917  July, 1919: Washington DC and Chicago  Lynching - The wartime experience in context o Demonstrated bravery and patriotism o Saw a society without segregation o Gained self-confidence o Escape the South, and set the pattern for later migrations o Creation of vibrant African-American communities 9 IS AMERICA SAFE FOR DEMOCRACY? - A rising tide of violence o Lynchings o Race riots  Statesboro, Georgia, 1904  Atlanta, 1906  Brownsville, Texas, 1906  Springfield, Ohio, 1908 - Post-WW I racism o Underlying causes  White backlash against black self-confidence  “100% Americanism” and war hysteria  Birth of a Nation, D.W. Griffith, 1915 o The (second) Ku Klux Klan  1915  Widespread hatred  Return America to its “pure” heritage o The “red summer” of 1919  African Americans fight back—war  Chicago, 1919 - African-American protests o Commission on Interracial Cooperation o NAACP  Anti-lynching campaign  Dyer Bill, 1921  Legal actions  Guinn v. United States, 1916  Buchanan v. Warley, 1917  Moore v. Dempsey, 1923  Nixon v. Herndon 10 THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE - Origins - Harlem - Poetry and literature o James Weldon Johnson  Fifty Years and Other Poems o Claude McKay  Harlem Shadows o Langston Hughes - Theatre o Lafayette Players o Lincoln Theatre o Musical reviews - Music o Jazz and the Blues - Art o Henry Ossawa Tanner o Aaron Douglas - Film o Lincoln Motion Picture Company, 1918-1923 - The Harlem Renaissance spreads outward - The end of the Harlem Renaissance 11 AFRICAN-AMERICAN BUSINESS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP - Early efforts - A new entrepreneurial spirit o John Hope, 1898 o National Negro Business League, 1900 - Areas of entrepreneurship - Madam C. J. Walker - Effects of the First Great Migration 12 MARCUS GARVEY AND BLACK NATIONALISM - Early life - United Negro Improvement Association o Jamaica, 1914 o Racial identity o Militant self-help o Separatism o Pan-Africanism o International commerce and industry o Black Nationalism - Criticism from mainstream leaders - Arrival in the U.S., 1916 - The Black Star Line - First UNIA conference, 1919 - Liberian Rehabilitation Project - Other ventures o Universal African Legion o Universal Black Cross Nurses o Universal African Motor Corps o Black Eagle Flying Corps o The Empire of Africa - Garvey’s downfall o Guilty of mail fraud, 1923 o Deported, 1925 - Garvey’s legacy o More radical o First to articulate Black Pride/Black Power/Black Separatism o Alternative to gradualism o Alternative to litigation o Few long-term solutions o Effects of the Great Depression 13 THE GREAT DEPRESSION - Background - Unemployment figures - Initial responses o Private charity o Discrimination - Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal o Personality and leadership style o “Black Cabinet” - New Deal Policies o Relief, Recovery, and Reform o Civil Service employment opportunities o National Recovery Administration o Agricultural Adjustment Administration o Farm Security Administration o National Youth Administration o Civilian Conservation Corps o Works Progress Administration o Social Security - The effects of the New Deal - African-American self-help efforts o Colored Merchants Association o “Jobs for Negroes”—“Don’t buy where you can’t work” - Political realignments o Republican Party  Oscar DePriest  Increasing dissatisfaction o Democratic Party  Respect for FDR  New Deal political coalition  Impact of New Deal agencies  1936 election o State legislators and judges 14 WORLD WAR II - Origins o Hitler and racism, 1933-1945 o Italian invasion of Ethiopia, 1935 - America becomes involved o Small Army, some African-American troops o Selective Service Act, 1940 - African Americans in the military o Overseas duty o Officers o Tuskegee Airmen o Naval service o Armored service o Integrate units? o Morale - On the home front o The Double V o The Second Great Migration o Racial tensions—Detroit, June 1943 o Employment opportunities  Active in unions  Discrimination o The March on Washington  A. Philip Randolph  The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, 1925  July 1, 1941 o Executive Order 8802  June 25, 1941  Fair Employment Practices Committee - The wartime experience in perspective o Increased confidence o New opportunities o Migration = escape o Faith in the federal government o Labor shortage creates opportunities o Cultural pluralism o Reaction to the Holocaust 15 THE POSTWAR YEARS: PRELUDE TO THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT - The 1950s o Booming economy o Suburbia o The GI Bill o Fears of Communism - Harry Truman—the executive branch o “To Secure These Rights”, 1946 o Desegregating the military, 1948 o The Dixiecrats, 1948 - Legal Activism—the judicial branch o Early victories o Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas  Educational inequality  Early cases—chipping away at segregation  Thurgood Marshall  Earl Warren  May 17, 1954 o Resistance to integration  May 31, 1955—“All deliberate speed”  Southern reactions  Little Rock, 1957 - 1957 Civil Rights Act—the legislative branch o Federal govt. suits involving voting rights o Civil rights division in Dept. of Justice o Commission on Civil Rights o Weak and watered-down bill 16 MARTIN LUTHER KING AND THE MONTGOMERY BUS BOYCOTT - Rosa Parks - E. D. Nixon - Boycott—economic action, Dec. 5, 1955-Dec. 21, 1956 o Unrestricted seating o Courteous Drivers o Black drivers in black neighborhoods - Montgomery Improvement Association - Martin Luther King o Early experiences o Dexter Avenue Baptist Church o Nonviolence, civil disobedience, Christian love - White persecution - Legacy o Federal government to grassroots o Role of the clergy—Southern Christian Leadership Conference o King becomes a national figure o Importance of TV—reaching the northern white middle class o Nonviolence and passive resistance characterize the movement o Reinforced reliance on economic action 17 THE EARLY 1960s - Lunch Counter sit-ins, 1959-1961 o New leaders, new approaches  Youth, esp. college students  Barbara Ann Posey, Oklahoma City o Greensboro, North Carolina  Joseph McNeill  The lunch counter at Woolworth  National news o New wave of sit-ins o Atlanta  Julian Bond  Widespread demands o Legacy of the sit-ins  More than coffee  Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee born  Revitalized the movement - The Freedom Rides o James Farmer and CORE o Boynton v. Virginia, 1960 o Anniston, Alabama o Kennedy forced to act o Legacy  Turned CORE into a powerful organization  Made King act more forcefully  Mass arrests  Separated hard-liners from moderates  Southern whites began to blame “outsiders”  Foreign policy implications - Explosion of violence o James Meredith 18 - King moves to the forefront o Albany, Georgia, 1961-1962 o Birmingham, 1963  “Letter from the Birmingham Jail”  Eugene “Bull” Connor  Legacy:  Begins northern white support for civil rights  Kennedy forced to act  Immediacy replaces gradualism  Uncommitted African Americans drawn in  Divided the southern white community - March on Washington, August, 1963 - Civil Rights Act of 1964  No discrimination in public buildings  No discrimination by employers or unions  No discrimination in state projects with federal aid  Attorney general can initiate school desegregation  Some provisions for voter registration  Title 7 - Voting Rights o Freedom Summer, 1964  Michael Schwerner  James Chaney  Andrew Goodman o Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party o Selma, Alabama o Voting Rights Act of 1965  Banned literacy tests, etc.  Federal voting registrars 19 CIVIL RIGHTS IN THE NORTH - 1965—a watershed year - Problems in the North o De facto segregation o Linked to class issues o Difficult to resolve - Riots, 165-1968—Watts, etc. - Black Power and black separatism o Nation of Islam (Black Muslims) o Stokely Carmichael, SNCC o Malcolm X o King becomes more radical o Black Panthers  Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, 1966 - Fragmentation and evolution o Splits within the movement o Grassroots to government  Bussing  Affirmative action o White backlash o Positive results 20