IB HOA ~ Unit 2: The Plight of African Americans, circa 1870-1930

• Objectives: Students will be able to…

- describe the social, political, cultural, & economic progress & setbacks among African Americans, circa 1870-1930

- distinguish between the philosophies of Booker T. Washington & W.E.B. DuBois.

IB HOA P3 Curriculum:

• social, economic, & legal conditions of African Americans between 1865 – 1929

• Great Migration & Harlem Renaissance

• search for civil rights – ideas, aims, and tactics of Booker

T. Washington, W.E.B. Dubois, & Marcus Garvey

Relevant Past P3 Exam Questions:• Examine the impact of Marcus Garvey on the development of

African American society (May 2010).• Assess the advancement of Booker T. Washington and the

advancement of African American rights (May 2008).• Compare and contrast the ideas of Booker T. Washington and

W.E.B. Du Bois on improving the position of African Americans in the United States (May 2004).

• Analyze the main features and impact of one cultural or one intellectual development in the Americas in the period from 1850 to 1919 (May 2004 & 2007).

• Explain how and why the position of African Americans improved in U.S. society between 1877 and 1945 (May 2006).

• Examine the reasons for, and impact of, the Harlem Renaissance (May 2011).

• Compare and contrast the views of Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) and Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-68) on the advancement of African Americans.

• Examine the reasons for, and impact of, the Harlem Renaissance.

Racial Segregation in Post-War South:

• No help from judicial branch:- anti-segregation laws undermined all things from social equality to state commerce- Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) → segregation (even in public places) legal as long as facilities are equal

• Law not fully enforced, though, b/c facilities never =– endorsed southern, segregationist social order

• Racial inequality - executive & legislative branches timid; judicial branch accepting of it– Total segregation commonplace throughout South

New (racial) “order” in South:

• Black Codes• Jim Crow

Laws• Tenant

Farming (sharecropping)

• Crop-lien system

• AA voter disenfranchise-ment (caused by literacy tests, poll taxes, etc.)

• “…the quality of AA life was grotesquely unequal to that of whites. Segregated in inferior schools and separated from whites in virtually all public facilities, including railroad cars, theaters, and bathrooms, blacks were assaulted daily by galling reminders of their second-class citizenship. To ensure the stability of this political and economic “new order”, southern whites dealt harshly with any black who dared to violate the South’s racial code of conduct. A record number of blacks were lynched during the 1890s, most often for the “crime” of asserting themselves as equals. It would take a second Reconstruction, nearly a century later, to redress the racist imbalance of southern society.” – The AP, pg. 511

Black Codes?

= southern state laws to oppress socio-economic status of newly-emancipated blacks (1865)

1. main aim? to ensure stable, subservient labor force (e.g. one-year labor contracts, low wages, “negro catchers” who hunted down violators)2. Next, BC sought to restore status quo of slave-era race relations (laws recognized marriage & emancipation but forbade jury duty & land owning)3. Mostly, BCs inhibited AA economic independence, ↑ poverty, & created a sharecropping class that lasted for generations….• Essentially, freed blacks (& landless whites) b/cm

slaves again to the soil & to their creditors.• Which begged the ?s…Had the War been in vain?

Had slavery really ended? Had much … changed?

Jim Crow?

• = (legalized) racial segregation.• Rec. ended: 1877, at which time AAs who tried to assert

their rights faced unemployment, eviction, intimidation, terrorism, & physical harm.

• What had started as the informal separation of blacks & whites in the immediate post-war years developed - by the 1890s - into systematic, state-level, legal codes of racial segregation known as Jim Crow Laws.

• S. states also enacted literacy requirements, voter-registration laws, and poll taxes to ensure full-scale disfranchisement of the S. black population.

• The Supreme Court validated the South’s segregationist social order via Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), ruling that “separate but equal” facilities were constitutional under the “equal protection” clause of the 14th Amendment.

AA life → evidence of inequity:

• AAs: segregated in inferior schools; separated from whites in nearly all public facilities (e.g. RR cars, theaters, restrooms); confronted daily by galling reminders of their inferior status–44% of non-whites in South: illiterate in 1900!

• most AA lynchings → a result of the so-called crime of asserting themselves as equals to whites

• Also, downward spiral of southern economy caused frustration & bitterness in which blacks became scapegoats for white rage.

• The downward spiral of the southern economy in the late 1800s caused frustration and bitterness in which AAs became the scapegoats for white rage. As a result, lynchings & racial subjugation became the norm.

• Worst: in the Deep South (more rural & provincial), Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, & South Carolina

Northern attitudes & practices toward this racist imbalance of southern society?

1. Laissez Faire!→ 1877 (Hayes’ inauguration) marked end of North’s will to aid blacks in South; President Hayes urged blacks to trust southern whites; southern black suffrage NOT honored; Hayes/fed. govt did nothing to remedy problem…typical attitude? “Time is the only cure.”

2. segregation widely accepted; AAs not totally disenfranchised until 1890s (with the increased use of poll taxes & literacy tests in southern states)– Louisiana: 1896 – 130,000 black voters– Louisiana: 1900 – 5,000 black voters

3. Re. racial inequality? executive & legislative branches timid; judicial branch accepting of it– total segregation commonplace throughout

South

Continued: attitudes about race…

● new mindset of Social Darwinism made it easier for northerners to accept racial status quo– some black schools, mostly vocational (e.g.

Tuskegee Institute)• BUT…HBCUs ↑ (e.g. Spellman College:

endowed by J.D. Rockefeller, 1891)– common opinion among whites about blacks?

Darwinian• racially inferior, fact of nature…vicious circle…

they’re stupid, so they don’t deserve education; no education keeps them poor; poverty proof of stupidity which means they can’t be educated

• Black reactions to white prejudice?– small pockets of racial pride & militancy; not

much of a following, though; some upward mobility, but not much

Minstrel Shows• an American entertainment

form from mid 19th c. to the turn-of-the 20th c., consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, & music, usually performed by white people in blackface (make-up)

• perpetuated racist stereotypes, portraying AAs as dim-witted, lazy, buffoonish, happy-go-lucky (and musical)

• By 1910 minstrel shows had declined in popularity…as AAs began to score legal and social victories against racism and successfully asserted political power.

AA response to all this?

…a philosophical struggle in the black community between Booker T. Washington ↑ and W.E.B. DuBois →

Booker T. Washington → accommodationist

• born a slave; main champion of black education at time…stopped short of directly challenging white supremacy

• 1st AA invited to White House (TR)• Atlanta Compromise Speech

– He grudgingly accepted racial segregation in order to promote economic independence, which – he believed – would bring political & civil rights faster.

• founded Tuskegee Institute (AL), an industrial school for AAs

– AAs taught useful trades to earn self-respect & economic security

• his approach = pragmatism & patience– self-help; AAs must prove themselves before asking for equal

rights (economic improvement before political & social =ity)

• Then, AAs positioned better to ask for equality

• B.T. Washington → If a “negro” young person learns how to do a trade well (making furniture, sewing, practicing medicine), he/she will be rewarded regardless of color/race. – Also believed: AAs must improve their

economic status, and then they will be better positioned to demand social and political rights.

Booker T. Washington:

• “Cast down your bucket….”?= metaphor of a ship which had been lost at

sea – whose sailors were dying of thirst. They managed to survive after they listened to the advice of the skipper of a friendly vessel who told them to "cast down their bucket" into the sea and draw up the water to drink….• Salty but there is still opportunity in it.

W.E.B. DuBois → confrontation

= free black; from MA; 1st AA to earn Ph.D. from Harvard (1895); college professor; founding member of NAACP &…

• …the Niagara Movement: b/c of his exasperation w/ B.T.W's conciliatory policies towards whites &

B.T.W.’s enormous power w/n black community, Du Bois called for mtg. of W's critics at Niagara Falls, NY

Objective? to form an organiz. offering a militant alternative. group included intellectual elites of AA community renounced B.T. Washington's policy of accommodation &

his refusal to speak out on behalf of black rightsdemanded the black vote, end of discrimtn. & segregtn.

in public facilities, & to enjoy all liberties whites enjoyed.

Eventually, NM disbanded, but white liberals joined nucleus of Niagara members to found NAACP (1909)

lawsuits challenged segregation & voting discrimination (e.g. Brown v. Board of Education (1954))

NAACP (founded 1909)

= National Association for the Advancement of Colored People• Some of its legal actions:– filed law suits to challenge racial segregation• e.g. Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

– supported/organized anti-lynching legislation & education

– organized nationwide protest against film Birth of a Nation (1915)

AAs → (still) mostly rural…

• As of 1910, 89% of AAs lived in South, & 80% of those were in rural areas

• Despite Great Migration, AAs remained predominantly rural & southern in early 20th c.

• Most were sharecroppers who couldn’t escape circle of debt to landowners….

Great Migration (circa 1910-1930)

• movement of 1.6 million blacks out of Southern U.S. to N, NE, Midwest, & W

• …sought better life by migrating to industrial cities in North

• By 1970, AAs had become urbanized population– more than 80% lived in

cities…53% remained in South; 40% lived in North; 7% in West

Causes of the Great Migration?

• AAs moved as individuals or family groups – why?–economic factors: often northern industries

- such as RRs, meatpacking, & stockyards - recruited people; burgeoning industries = job opportunities.–social/political factors: racial climate &

widespread violence (e.g. lynchings in S.); in N., AAs could find better schools, adult men could vote (joined by women after 1920).

Effects/legacies of Great Migration?• In 1890 63% of black male laborers worked in AGR• by 1930: only 42% of black male laborers

worked in AGR• (Also) by 1930, the rate of:– AA teachers doubled– AA entrepreneurs tripled– literacy among AAs soared from 39% to 85%

• By mid-1920s:– over 200 black hospitals, 25 nursing schools, AA

social service organizations, recreation centers, & welfare agencies; newspapers (networks & media)

• Harlem Renaissance• Increased black churches/religion

Marcus Garvey• Jamaican-born American

racial civil rights leader of this era…

• Inspired:– race pride among approx. 4

million blacks (caused self-confidence & self-reliance)

• Supported: – Back-to-Africa Movement,

which promoted the return of the African Diaspora to their ancestral lands

– black businesses to keep black $s in black pockets

Counter-claim: Despite incredible adversity, there is evidence that lives for AAs

improved during this time:• 1890: 63% of AA male laborers worked in AGR

– …but by 1930 only 42% did.

• # of AA teachers doubled by 1930.• # of AA entrepreneurs tripled by 1930.• AA literacy rate soared from 39% to 85% (during GM).• By mid-1920s over 200 AA hospitals had been built.• By 1930, 25 AA nursing schools had been built.• Many AA social service organizations, recreation centers, welfare

agencies, etc. had been built.• AA newspapers established.• 1st civil rights leaders & organizations appear & begin work.• Black churches: 1st AA institutions in America & remained

cornerstone of the black community at this time.• Harlem Renaissance: 1920s → where AA culture flourished & was

celebrated….

Harlem Renaissance (circa 1919-1930s)

= AA cultural movement, flowered social thought which was expressed through paintings,, music, dance, theater, literature • the emergence of AA cultural & intellectual life, centered

in Harlem in the interwar years– more than a literary or artistic movement – it had

sociological importance through a new racial consciousness & racial integration.

• result of AAs who built a middle-class culture all their own

• AAs forced to create economic & social institutions that catered specifically to their race. Urban AAs in particular founded a plethora of businesses and est. sizable estates, especially in Harlem (New York).

• Note: AA artists drew from their own cultural heritage; attracted attention from whites; many AAs still depended on white patrons for support; AA writers & artists expressed racial pride.

• HR: Not a political movement – but did contribute to subsequent racial civil rights movement of 1950s/60s!

Where is Harlem?

The island of Manhattan

New York City is on Manhattan island

Neighborhoods

Where was the Harlem Renaissance centered?

• Centered in the Harlem district of New York City, the New Negro Movement (as it was called at the time) had a major influence across the Unites States and even the world.

How did the Harlem Renaissance connect to the Great Migration - &

future Civil Rights Movement?

• The economic opportunities of the era triggered a widespread migration of black Americans from the rural south to the industrial centers of the north - and especially to New York City.

• In New York and other cities, black Americans explored new opportunities for intellectual and social freedom.

• Black American artists, writers, and musicians began to use their talents to work for civil rights

and obtain equality.

Causes of the Harlem Renaissance?

impact of WWI risked lives in war for a country that did not honor

equal rights Great Migration of AAs to northern cities (NYC -

& Chicago; Washington, D.C.; etc.) social factors

desire to explore their identities as black Americans & to celebrate black culture

an awareness of the need to address a sense of alienation and marginality

political factorsresult of increased political awareness as a

consequence of the activities of the NAACP and the continued exclusion of AAs from political life

Effects of Harlem Renaissance:

• cultural → – influenced AA writers, artists, intellectuals– led to growth of Jazz Age due to popularity of AA

artists, such as Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong

• social → – fueled & shaped a black middle class– helped lay foundation for post-WWII phase of

1950s/60s (racial) Civil Rights Movement

• Note: work of individuals – such as Marcus Garvey & WEB Dubois - contributed to both the causes AND effects of the HR….

Also:• HR increased racial

integration

–Whites frequented black clubs to hear live jazz music – which was heard most frequently in Harlem’s night clubs - which was becoming increasingly popular

The Cotton Club• The Duke Ellington

Orchestra was the house orchestra for a number of years at the Cotton Club, which featured jazz musicians, glamorous dancers, acclaimed tap dancers, vaudeville performers, and comics. All the white world came to Harlem to see the shows.

• The first Cotton Club revue was in 1923. There were two new fast-paced revues produced each year for at least 16 years.

Lawrence’s Work

• Jacob Lawrence painted his Great Migration series during the 1940s to capture the experience of African Americans during the 1920s http://www.columbia.edu/itc/history/odonnell/w1010/edit/migration/migration.html

Louis Armstrong• = greatest of all Jazz

musicians• defined what it was to

play Jazz–his amazing

technical abilities, joy & spontaneity, and amazingly quick, inventive musical mind still dominate Jazz to this day

Bessie Smith

• considered one of the greatest of the classic Blues singers of the 1920s

• Youtube.com: Bessie Smith - St. Louis Blues (1925)

~ Her rendition of "St. Louis Blues" with Armstrong is considered by most critics to be one of finest recordings of the 1920s

Duke Ellington• brought a level of style &

sophistication to Jazz that it hadn't seen before.

• a gifted piano player, but his orchestra was his principal instrument, for he was also a composer and arranger, not just a musician

• Youtube.com: Duke Ellington, "Take the A Train"

Langston Hughes

= American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, & columnistone of earliest innovators

of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry

best known for his work during Harlem Renaissance

Zora Neale Hurston

• was an American folklorist, anthropologist, and author during HR

• She is best known for her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Youtube.com

• Our Harlem Renaissance Documentary, Part 1 (8:57)