the first new south 1870-1900. redemption by end of 1877 every southern state government had been...
TRANSCRIPT
The First New South
1870-1900
Redemption
• By end of 1877 every Southern state government had been "redeemed." – political power had been restored to white Democrats, known as
the "Redeemers" or the "Bourbons.“• Some were from the plantation elite, others were “new men”
• Redeemers committed to:– "home rule" – social conservatism– economic development.– Lower taxes– reduced spending– diminished state services
Challenges to Bourbon Rule
• By late 1870s, groups were protesting cuts in services and the Bourbon commitment to pay off the prewar and Reconstruction debts in full– In Va. the "Readjusters" emerged, demanding that the state
revise its debt payment procedures so as to make more money available for state services.
• Readjusters won control of the VA legislature in 1879
• In 1880-90s, Populists also challenged Bourbons– Populists grew out of the concerns of small farmers
• sought to unite small farmers, black and white
• But dissident uprising proved only temporary– By 1900, South had developed into a one-party region
The “Lost Cause”
• Redeemers also promoted the “Lost Cause”– acknowledged defeat, but also merits of a greater cause
• CSA memorials in Southern cities• CSA cemeteries• Southern Historical Society• CSA memorial groups
– Sons of Confederate Veterans; United Daughters of the Confederacy
– Lost Cause was a psychological tool to deal with defeat• South lost in a just and noble cause—NOT an immoral cause• creates Southern white unity, across class lines• aids the Democratic Party• a “religious” movement
Lost Cause Imagery
Blacks and the New South
• Blacks and whites had always lived side by side in the South– emancipation and
urbanization created new tensions
• Dealt with through Jim Crow laws
Jim Crow society characterized by:
• Disfranchisement
• Segregation
• Economic subjugation
• Violence
Disfranchisement
• First Stage (1870-1890)– Violence, Intimidation & Fraud
• Physical and economic intimidation
• Rise of KKK and Democratic Rifle Clubs
• Gerrymandering, miscounts, electoral fraud
– Northern Abandonment• End of Reconstruction in 1877
Disfranchisement
• Second Stage (1890s)– Legal Disfranchisement
• Mississippi Constitution of 1890– Poll taxes
– Literacy Test/Understanding Clause
– Grandfather Clause
• Upheld by U.S. Supreme Court in Williams v Mississippi (1898)
– Policies did not violate the 15th Amendment
Segregation
• De jure segregation instituted in 1890s
• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)– Supreme Court held Louisiana’s separate
streetcar law did not violate 14th Amendment• “Separate but Equal” established as law
Violence
Economic Subjugation
• Tenantry– Sharecropping
– Renting
– Debt Peonage
Economic Subjugation
• Tenantry– Sharecropping, Renting & Debt Peonage
Alabama Sharecroppers, 1939
Causes of Jim Crow
• Ambivalence on the part of Northern defenders of black rights
• Economic problems of poor whites• ‘Negrophobia’--anti-black propaganda and fear• ‘Scientific’ justification for segregation• ‘White man’s burden’--imperialism abroad• Northern and Southern white reconciliation• Sanction of Supreme Court—Plessy, Williams• Jim Crow reinforces itself—becomes “normal”
Black Middle Class
• Segregation did allow for the development of a small black middle class– teachers, preachers, doctors, storekeepers,
lawyers• managed to acquire property, establish small
businesses, or enter professions
– Rise of a black middle class also helped give rise to black colleges
• Fisk, Dillard, Xavier, Morehouse, Tuskegee
Booker T. Washington (1856-1915)
• Born a slave in Virginia
• Educated at Hampton U.
• Founder of Tuskegee U.
Tuskegee Institute
Tuskegee, circa 1900
Classes at Tuskegee
Mattress making, early 1900s
Beekeeping
Tuskegee’s Blacksmith shop
Work at Tuskegee
The Atlanta Compromise
• Washington asked to give an address at the the “Negro Pavilion” at the 1895 Cotton States expedition in Atlanta
• Urged both southern blacks and whites to "cast down your bucket where you are.“
• "In all things that are purely social," he said, "we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress."
Washingtonian Accommodation
• Blacks should not blame whites for their situation
• Blacks should start from the bottom, work their way up– Build an economic base through farming and industry
• Accept Jim Crow—work for economic opportunity – Civil/political rights not as important as economic opportunity
• Opposed agitating for black rights – A diversion of energy
– Aroused white hostility
The Tuskegee Machine
• Washington’s accomodationist approach endeared him to influential whites– Money, patronage, jobs
• Up from Slavery (1901)– American tale of hard work
Dined with Roosevelt, 1901