HIST112 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Jim Crow Laws, Equal Justice Initiative, Reconstruction Era
HIST112 Lecture Notes Wednesday 10th May 2017
Selma
The Reconstruction Era (1865-1876)
- President Andrew Johnson allowed white dominated Southern state parliaments to
pass the Blak Codes i . He also alloed hites to fo vigilante groups.
- Outrage at this led Congress to pass the Fourteenth – equality for all citizens under
the law – and Fifteenth – right to vote for everyone, regardless of colour –
Amendments to the American Constitution
- It also passed the Reconstruction Acts to allow for bi-racial governments to be
formed in Southern states
- This era ended because of increasing attacks by Southern whites, and decreasing
support from the Congress and Northern whites.
The Ji Co Ea s – 1965)
- Ji Co as a ollouial term for the era,
- During this time, racial segregation laws were brought enforced in the American
South.
- This included laws against miscegenation (racial intermarriage)
- Southern authorities introduced literary test and taxes aimed at preventing African-
Americans from registering to vote.
- Black life was criminalised, and convicts could be leased by the state
- Lynchings were commonplace – and often treated as special.
- This as ale to e doe ude the elief that they ill still e eual, et sepaate.
“epaate ut Eual?
- Southern State parliaments and local councils passed laws to keep blacks and whites
separate in all public facilities
- They said that there was nothing in the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution
to stop them doing this, because the las ee ased o the piiple of sepaate
ut eual
- This principle was put to the test in the US Supreme Court decision Plessy v Ferguson
in 1895.
- The Court upheld the Louisiana Law.
Slavery by Another Name
- Governments in the South passed laws to lease their prisoners as labourers to
private citizens or companies.
- This system created incentives for States to convict African Americans to make
money.
- Whipping was a common form of punishment and was also done to make profit.
- Leasing slaves to private citizens created revenue for the States.
Lynching
- Lynchings (hangings) were common during the Jim Crow Era
- A 2015 report from the Alabama-based Equal Justice Initiative said its researches
have documented nearly 4000 lynchings of African Americans in 12 states during the
Jim Crow Era
- A form of public spectacle.
- Scenes of Lynchings appeared on postcards
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
The Civil Rights Movement
- Emerged into an era where civil laws existed to protect black rights, however they
were being violated through loopholes.
- An era that was dehumanising to African Americans.
- I A a Ma
- Made up of a number of organisations
- NAACP: The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (1909)
- SCLC: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (MLK was the founding
President in 1957)
- SNCC: The Student Non-Violent Organising Committee (formed in North Carolina in
1960)
- Divided about what was the best way to achieve equality.
- Was quite complex
- Martin Luther King Jr. was quite strategic. Ideology was non-violence.
A brief history of civil rights
- 1954: Brown vs Board of Education 1954
- 1955: Montgomery Alabama bus boycott – enter Rosa Parks, & MLK
- 1960: Sit-in in Greensboro NC and Nashville TE
- 1961: Freedom Rides (attacked by KKK in Birmingham, AL)
- 1963: SCLC campaign in Birmingham to force white businesses to serve blacks
- 1964: March on Washington – alls fo futhe iil ights las. MLKs ost faous
speech.
- 1964: Civil Rights Act – 16th St Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham – Freedom
Summer church burnings and murders in Neshoba County MI
- 1865: Selma voting rights movement + march to Montgomery
- 1965L Voting Rights Act – Malcom X assassinated
- 1966-68: Increasing complexity in civil rights movement: rise of black power,
foundation of black panther party in Oakland
Brown vs Board of Education
- the Civil Rights movement is often said to have started with NAACP challenge to
school segregation:
- In Brown vs Board of Education (1954), the Supreme Court finally overturns Plessy v
Ferguson and finds the Jim Crow laws are unconstitutional
The 1950s
- The era of non-violent resistance to Jim Crow laws begins in earnest in the 1950s
- Even though segregation has been declared unconstitutional, Southern states
continue to enforce their laws
- Different black campaigners launched campaigns to fight this.
- The Montgomery campaign to end segregation on busses, begun by Rosa Parks
- MKL ends up joining the struggle and preaches non-violent resistance
- Stand offs in Arkansas over school segregation in 1957: Little Rock school board
votes to integrate schools, but Arkansas government sends its National Guard troops
to stop black children from attending school – Sept 4 1957.
- Sept 25 1957 – these children were allowed to attend this school.
- The school was then closed for a year.
- Arkansas citizens voted against integration.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
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