Reconstruction
and
The Rise of “Jim Crow”
reconstruction (1865-1877)
 Confederate General Robert
E. Lee surrenders on April 9,
1865. Five days later,
President Lincoln is
assassinated.
reconstruction (1865-1877)
 Rebuilding the country after
the war and allowing
Confederate states back into
the Union is known as the
era of *Reconstruction*
and lasted from 1865 to
1877.
reconstruction (1865-1877)
 *The 13th Amendment*
(1865) made slavery
illegal. Freedom from
slavery meant rights: the
right to get married, earn
wages, own property, and
move.
reconstruction (1865-1877)
 Because the Southern
economy had relied so
heavily on slave labor,
*Black Codes* were
passed to force blacks to
stay and work in the
South.
 Some of the Black Codes
included vagrancy laws
(arrested for being
unemployed) and
apprenticeship laws
(hiring out orphans and
young people).
reconstruction (1865-1877)
 Union General William T.
Sherman issued Special
Field Order 15, which
would give black families
forty acres of confiscated
Confederate land and the
use of mules (Forty Acres
and a Mule).
 However, President
Andrew Johnson restored
confiscated land to former
owners.
reconstruction (1865-1877)
 The 14th Amendment
(1868) reversed the Dred
Scott case, while the 15th
Amendment (1870) gave
citizens the right to vote.
End of Reconstruction, RISE OF “JIM CROW” (1896-1919)
 After Reconstruction,
African-Americans in the
South found themselves
living in similar
conditions to slavery
days.
 African-Americans
worked in low paying
jobs: half in agriculture
and a third as domestic
servants.
End of Reconstruction, RISE OF “JIM CROW” (1896-1919)
 Few blacks owned their
own land and had to
resort to being tenant
farmers of sharecroppers.
 Large numbers of black
people were sent to
prison for petty crimes
and ended up in the
convict leasing system.
End of Reconstruction, RISE OF “JIM CROW” (1896-1919)
 Despite being ridiculed
and stereotyped by
whites during popular
*minstrel* shows,
African-Americans
became popular
performers.
End of Reconstruction, RISE OF “JIM CROW” (1896-1919)
End of Reconstruction, RISE OF “JIM CROW” (1896-1919)
 Black athletes were
banned from
competing against
whites when they
showed superiority.
 Boxer Jack Johnson
won fifty seven fights in
a row, which inspired a
hunt for a “great white
hope.”
End of Reconstruction, RISE OF “JIM CROW” (1896-1919)
 In 1877, professional baseball
banned black players, forcing
them to organize the “Negro
League.”
End of Reconstruction, RISE OF “JIM CROW” (1896-1919)
 Meanwhile, intellectuals
like *Booker T.
Washington* and *W.E.B.
Dubois* debated opposing
solutions to black dilemma.
End of Reconstruction, RISE OF “JIM CROW” (1896-1919)
 In the period after
Reconstruction, Southern
states appeared to have
returned to their old ways
by taking away voting
rights, segregation, and
violence.