Chapter 19
A Step Backward for
Civil Rights
African Americans and Segregation
• The late 1800s and early 1900s was a period when
prejudice resulted in growing inequality, separateness and
even violence.
• As this change occurred, those who had enjoyed
superiority in southern society based on their race, religion
and gender felt their status threatened.
• This led to laws, practices and violence as white Protestant
men tried to maintain their place.
• African Americans were the major target. By the end of the
period, laws and customs had created a second-class
citizenship.
• A major step towards this lower status was the
establishment of legalized segregation.
The Establishment of Segregation
• One of the most significant
methods to maintain white
supremacy in society was to pass
segregation laws.
• Schools were segregated from the
end of the Civil War, and more
churches were separate.
• Even though discrimination in
public places was illegal the
government couldn’t prevent
owners of private businesses from
deciding who they would serve.
Jim Crow Laws
• The Jim Crow Laws were named for
a black character in minstrel shows.
White performers blackened their
faces and sang and danced in a way
that made fun of African Americans.
• This was the nickname for the new
laws that southern states passed to
create second-class, separate, and
inferior positions for African
Americans.
Plessy vs Ferguson
• Railroad cars were segregated. African Americans
thought it was unconstitutional under the 14th
amendment.
• Homer Plessy who was 1/8th African American and
7/8ths white in heritage, challenged the Louisiana law
after he was removed from a first-class railroad car.
• In the famous 1896 Plessy vs Ferguson decision, the US
Supreme Court ruled that public places could be
separate by race but that they had to be equal.
• This separate but equal doctrine allowed segregation
to continue in the US for decades.
Cumming vs Richmond County Board
of Education
• The 1899 Cumming decision allowed Richmond
County to keep a white high school open while
closing Ware High School for African American
students.
• The court said that Richmond County Board of
Educations’ decision to use the Ware High Money
for black elementary schools instead of the high
school did not establish discrimination and also
acknowledged that not allowing African
Americans in white schools was constitutional.
Preventing Equality
• Public spaces became more and more
separate. Black and whites continued to
interact.
• While black customers could shop in stores
they could not sit at lunch counters in stores.
• Restrooms, water fountains, waiting rooms
and theatres were all segregated.
• This could sometimes incite violence. A form
of extreme violence was lynching.
• Lynching occurs when a mob of people
murder someone.
• Hangings and shootings were the most
common.
African American Responses to
Segregation
• Some moved away.
• Bishop Henry McNeal Turner, one of the
legislators removed from the GA General
Assembly during reconstruction, suggested
they move back to Africa.
• By the early twentieth century, small numbers
began to move to the North. Those numbers
grew after 1915.
Booker T. Washington
• He was a former slave that dreamed of going to
school as the white children did when he was a
child.
• He worked hard in a West Virginia mine after he
was freed and then became a “house boy” for the
mine’s owner.
• The mine owner’s wife taught him to read. He
began attended school at 16.
• He became the head of a new school for African
Americans in Tuskegee, Alabama. He built the
school with his own hands.
• He believed that African Americans must acquire
knowledge and skills that would help them find jobs
and raise their economic status.
W.E.B. DuBois
• He was born free in Massachusetts.
• He earned a bachelors, masters and Ph.D.
• He was among the black leaders who met
at Niagara Falls to discuss ways of
combatting racial discrimination.
• The Niagara Movement joined with white
liberals in 1909 to form the National
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People. (NAACP)
• He didn’t believe in a gradual approach
and wanted to attack racism.
Questions for Your Chapter 19 Graded
Question Sheet
• Write on loose-leaf paper to be
5) The 1899 _________ decision allowed
turned in (see syllabus for due date) Richmond County to keep a white high
1) The late 1800s and early 1900s was school open while closing Ware High
a period when prejudice resulted School for African American students.
in growing inequality, separateness
and even __________.
6) _______ occurs when a mob of
2) A major step towards this lower
people murder someone.
status was the establishment of
legalized ___________.
7) Bishop Henry McNeal Turner, one of
3) The _________were named for a
the legislators removed from the GA
black character in minstrel shows.
General Assembly during
White performers blackened their
reconstruction, suggested they move
faces and sang and danced in a way
back to _____.
that made fun of African Americans.
4) In the famous 1896
Niagara Movement joined with
__________decision, the US Supreme 8) The
white liberals in 1909 to form the
Court ruled that public places could be
separate by race but that they had to be _____________________________.
.
equal.