The Aftermath of Emancipation and the “New South” (1865–1877)
- Following the Civil War, the 13th Amendment (1865) abolished slavery, but the promise of freedom was limited by economic hardship and racial violence in the South.
- During Reconstruction (1865–1877), African Americans briefly gained political representation and civil rightsunder federal protection, with leaders like Hiram Revels and Blanche K. Bruce elected to Congress.
- However, after federal troops withdrew in 1877, white Southern elites regained control and promoted the idea of the “New South," an economy based on industrialization and cotton, but still dependent on cheap Black labor through sharecropping and tenant farming.
- Sharecropping trapped many freedpeople in cycles of debt, creating conditions similar to slavery and reinforcing economic dependency on white landowners.
Legal Repression: Black Codes, Jim Crow, and Plessy v. Ferguson
- The Black Codes (1865–1866) were Southern state laws that restricted Black freedom, limiting movement, enforcing labor contracts, and criminalizing unemployment.
- By the 1890s, Jim Crow laws institutionalized racial segregation across the South in schools, transportation, and public spaces, enforcing a rigid racial hierarchy.
- The Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) legalized segregation under the doctrine of “separate but equal,” providing constitutional justification for systemic discrimination.
- Violence and intimidation, including lynchings and attacks by groups like the Ku Klux Klan, enforced white supremacy and suppressed Black political participation.
Definition
Jim Crow Laws
State and local laws enacted in the U.S. South after Reconstruction that enforced racial segregation and disenfranchised African Americans until the mid-20th century.
The Search for Civil Rights: Leadership and Ideological Debates
- Booker T. Washington, founder of the Tuskegee Institute, promoted vocational education and economic self-help as the path to racial progress. His Atlanta Compromise (1895) urged accommodation with white society, prioritizing economic stability over immediate civil rights.
- W.E.B. Du Bois, co-founder of the NAACP (1909), rejected Washington’s gradualism, advocating for political activism, higher education, and protest. His concept of the “Talented Tenth” argued that educated Black leaders should guide the community toward equality.
- Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican-born leader, founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and championed Black pride, economic independence, and Pan-Africanism. His “Back to Africa” movement inspired global racial consciousness, though it faced criticism for separatism and unrealistic goals.
