African American Responses

Tuesday, February 2nd

Announcements:

Coach class today after school Quiz on Thursday! Today is a review from yesterday PLUS new

material NHD during lunch- please!

Re-Cap: Black Codes & Jim Crow Laws

Laws meant to restrict freedom & opportunities of African Americans

Three purpose:1. To say what blacks COULD do

own property, marry, work for wages

2. Make sure planters still had people to work for them by enforcing contracts

3. Kept social order Jim Crow laws tried to prevent

blacks from being equal to whites, by having things like all white buses and rail cars

Re-Cap: Plessy v. Ferguson

Court case from 1896 Ruled “separate but equal” The Supreme Court

said that segregation was legal as long as the facilities were equal

Allowed such things as schools to be segregated based on race.

Black facilities were almost NEVER equal to that of whites.

Recap: Lynching Lynching is when blacks

(and sometimes whites) were killed by mobs through hanging.

It occurred most frequently in Mississippi, followed by Louisiana and Texas

Meant to scare blacks into cooperating with whites & maintain social order

Re-Cap: Poll Taxes

Black men would have to pay money (a poll tax) in order to vote

They could not usually afford this, so that meant they couldn’t vote

Meant to keep black men from voting

Recap: The KKK

White supremacists who believed that whites were superior to blacks.

Burnt African American churches, homes, and schools

Attacked Freedmen’s Bureau officials and murdered blacks when they could

Recap: Redeemers

Another white supremacist group in the South Their goal was the “redeem” (save) the South

by returning it to “white man’s rule” They supported poll taxes and literacy tests to

keep blacks from voting.

Denial of Civil Rights African Americans, despite their

technical, legal rights were still treated as second-class citizens

They were not allowed to use the same facilities as whites, had to pay in order to vote, had to abide by the Black Codes & Jim Crow laws and were constantly in fear for their lives due to things like the KKK and lynching.

What could African Americans do about this?

Responses: Education Black children could not

attend white schools due to the Plessy v. Ferguson decision.

Therefore, black schools were opened, with black teachers, for black children.

This mean that black children could finally attend a school, although it was not equal to the facilities of white schools.

Education is power. Being allowed to go to school was a BIG DEAL.

Responses: Churches

African Americans were finally allowed to openly worship. Although they did not join white congregations, they did open their first churches.

Black churches became a major source of support throughout the struggle for equal rights.

Response: Newspapers

African Americans were now able to read and write.

This led to a demand for newspapers and a need to spread news that directly impacted their lives.

Therefore, there was a rise of African-American run and directed newspapers, that would write about news that was important to their lives- not the lives of whites. This also helped them to join together to fight for equal rights.

Snapshot: W.E.B. DuBois

Born in 1868 in Massachusetts; he grew up in a mainly white community

His family was part of the free black population; he was a descendant from a West-African and Haitian family

Because he grew up in the north, and was mixed raced, he never really saw segregation in the way other African Americans did until he was older

Snapshot: W.E.B. DuBois

He was very gifted academically and believed that knowledge could be used to empower African Americans.

He attended Fisk University in Tennessee and then Harvard in 1890; he was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard

He went on and founded the NAACP: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and published various newspapers

Snapshot: Booker T. Washington

Born into slavery in Virginia After being freed, he worked

in West Virginia and decided he needed an education. He worked his way through Hampton University and Wayland Seminary

He became the popular spokesperson for African American citizens

Snapshot: Booker T. Washington

He was criticized by the leaders of the NAACP and DuBois for not having a harder line on civil rights protests.

He believed that confrontation in demanding civil rights would lead to disaster; he thought cooperation with supportive whites was the only way to overcome racism

Snapshot: Ida B. Wells Journalist, newspaper

editor and early civil rights leader

She was born in Mississippi and both of her parents were slaves

After emancipation, she attended the Freedmen’s School, but lost both parents and her brother to a yellow fever epidemic

Snapshot: Ida B. Wells She dropped out of school and then

became a teacher in a black school after her parents died

She refused to give up her seat on a train to a white man and was dragged out of it; she then sued the train company and won

She wrote about racism in the US, especially lynching.

She was militant in her demands for fighting for equality and justice for African Americans

Letter Activity:

Write a one-page letter to W.E.B. DuBois praising and critiquing him for what he did in fighting for the rights of African Americans.

That is, explain and evaluate what DuBois did in order to advance equality of African Americans.

Then, briefly compare him to the work of Wells and Washington.

You will be working on this individually! It will be due at the end of the period.