Target
• African Americas, Native Americans, and
women had almost no rights during many
time periods. What are some of the
reasons why the government might have
prevented these groups from buying land,
voting, starting a business, or signing a
contract?
Georgia’s Redemption
Years
According to the World Book,
redemption can mean buying back,
paying off a debt, or a state of being
rescued, or delivered from some
great evil…
How does Redemption fit Georgia
after the Reconstruction Period?
What played an important part in the rebirth of Atlanta
after the Civil War?
A City Rises from the Ashes
•Atlanta was burned by Northern
Troops
•By 1861, Atlanta was 4th largest city
•During the 1860’s center for
communication and supplies
•By 2000 there is more than 4 million
population in Atlanta
•Atlanta is state capital in 1868
The Bourbon Triumvirate
• Three Democrats that tried to help Georgia rebuild
after Reconstruction
• Wanted stronger economic ties with the industrial
North
• Wanted to protect White Supremacy
• Active in Georgia Politics from 1862-1890
• Influenced Georgia Politics well into the 20th century
• Bourbon – a line of kings from France who ruled for
over 200 years
• Triumvirate – a ruling body of three
Joseph E. Brown
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The oldest member of the triumvirate
Born in South Carolina, grew up in Union County
Graduated from Yale Law School
State Senator, Blue Ridge Judicial Circuit Judge
Georgia Governor in 1857 (served 3 terms)
Asked Georgians to go along with Radical
Reconstructionists
Chief Justice of Georgia Supreme Court
Worked for company that leased Western and Atlantic
Railroad
US Senator until 1891, when Gordon resigned(1880)
Trustee for University of Georgia
President of Atlanta Board of Education
Alfred H. Colquitt
• Born in Walton County, son of US Senator (Colquitt
County is named for his father)
• Princeton University
• Fought in the Mexican War
• State Senator with Brown in 1849, became a close
friend with Brown
• Major General in Civil War
• Elected Governor in 1876
• He was tried for corruption, but found innocent
• Reduced state debt and a new state constitution was
approved 1877, the next one would be 1945
• Served in the US Senate1883 and 1888, died 1894
John B. Gordon
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Son of a minister, born in Upson County
Attended the University of Georgia
Worked as a newspaper correspondent
Manager of a coal mine in Dade County at beginning
of Civil War
Lt. General in Civil War, wrote a book about it
In 1872, he became a US Senator
In 1880, he resigned the senate and worked with
railroads
In 1886, he became Georgia Governor
Reduced debt and brought industry into the state
Returned to US Senate in 1891-1897
Gordon College in Barnesville, is named after him.
5W’s and H
• Create a chart using the following words,
who, what, when, where, why, and how to
describe the following terms: Bourbon
Triumvirate, Joseph Brown, Alfred
Colquitt, and John B. Gordon
Quick check of Understanding
Bourbon
Triumvirate
Who
What
When
Where
Why
Joseph
Brown
Alfred
Colquitt
John B.
Brown
Which man has a statue at the state
capital? The only statue there of a man
on horseback…
Joseph E. Brown
Alfred H. Colquitt
What happened to cause the decline of
the Bourbon Triumvirate?
John B. Gordon
The Decline of the B. T.
• Not all Georgians were satisfied with the
accomplishments of the Bourbon Triumvirate
and other Democrats who sought to reconstruct
the economy of the south
• They did not help the poor, or education, no
reforms for factory working conditions, or
improvements in mental hospitals
• Not only did they not improve the lives of
convicts (prisoners) in the state, most profited
personally from their labors.
The Feltons Challenge the Bourbons
•New Group Independent Democrats
•Started in Cartersville, GA
•Leaders were William and Rebecca
Latimer Felton – William was a doctor,
Methodist preacher, farmer, and public
speaker.
•Their family owned The Carterville
Courant, a newspaper.
•Rebecca was a leader in Women’s
Suffrage and Temperance Movements
•In 1889, Hoke Smith asked her to be a
columnist for the Atlanta Journal.
•She remained with the Journal for 41
years.
The Convict Lease System
• During the Civil War prisons were destroyed
• After the War, lack of jobs led to crime
• What was the state to do with increase of prison
population? (90% were black)
• One solution was the Convict Lease System
– Began in 1866
– Prisoners were leased to people who provide them
with food, clothing, and housing in exchange for
labor
– Began with the use of prisoners to do public work
By 1879…
• Injustices began to show in the Convict Lease
Program
• Most of the prisoners went to three main
companies, 2 owned by Brown and Gordon
• Companies agreed to pay the state $25,000 in
return for the use of however many prisoners
they could get
• They were to give the prisoners housing,
clothing, medicine, rest on Sundays
• The companies ignored the rights of the
prisoners and in some cases worked them to
death
In the 1880’s…
• Legislative committees met to study the
problem of prisoners
• Not only were prisoners hurt, but paid laborers
who were already poor, were not able to find
work because the prisoners took all the jobs.
• The Feltons worked tirelessly to change the
laws
• The Convict Lease System was changed in
1897
The Populists Movement
Dr. and Mrs. Felton pushed for:
–Improvements in Education
–Improvements in Prison
reform
–Limits on alcohol traffic
Henry W. Grady
•Born in Athens in
1850.
•Graduated from
UGA
•In 1880, he
became the
managing editor of
the Atlanta
Constitution.
Henry W. Grady
•In 1874, Grady
wrote for the
Atlanta Daily Herald
•He described the
need for a “New
South”
Henry W. Grady, the South’s Best
Salesman
• Grady visited northern cities
and spoke frequently about the
“New South”
• Spoke of the growing southern
economy, replacing agriculture
with industry, textile mills, coal
and iron mining, and tobacco
factories
• He wanted the African
Americans to become partners
in developing the “NEW
SOUTH”
Grady died of Pneumonia
at the age of 39. He
accomplished much in his
short life.
Education in the New South Era
Outline
The Three-Month School Year, met two
important needs:
a. Enabled students to get a public
school education
b. Enabled them to hold jobs in
factories/mills
c. Different times and places in each
community
Education in the New South
Era
Teacher Training late 1800’s
a.People who wanted to teach
took a test (70, passing)
b.Most had never been to
college
c.In 1882, 252 teachers went
to school in Georgia
Education in the New South Era
Education Takes a Giant Step
Backward
a. In 1877, limited to
elementary education
b. Segregated schools, until
1960’s
c. African Americans were left
to be schooled in
substandard schools with
second hand supplies
Tom Watson
• Georgia’s best known
Populist
• Concerned about Georgia’s
poor and struggling farmers
• Served in US Congress in
1890, Democrat
• 1891, switched to Populist
Party
• Introduced the RFD bill,
which gave farmers free mail
service
• He began two magazines in
Georgia to influence politics
1906 Race Riot
• Blamed on several sources
• Saturday, September 22,
local newspapers carried
false reports of black
assaulting whites
• By 9 pm, over 5,000 whites
and blacks gathered on
Decatur Street
• Rumors of whites with guns
caused fear to grow
• Reality struck, the riots
lasted for two days, Martial
Law was declared to stop
the violence 21 people were
killed, 18 black, hundreds
were injured
A French Newspaper reported
on the Race Riots in Atlanta
The Trial of Leo Frank
• Frank, born in NY, was
superintendent of the National Pencil
Company factory in Atlanta
• Charged with the murder of Mary
Phagan, a 14 yr. old employee
• He was tried and convicted and
sentenced to death.
• Proof was just from one witness who
was also a suspect.
• Frank was Jewish, and many people
did not like his religious beliefs.
• His lawyers appealed to the state
supreme court.
• The governor, Slaton, changed his
sentence from death to life in prison
•The change in his
sentence angered
KKK members
•25 armed Klan
members went to his
prison sale, took him
and hanged him
The Klan is Reborn
In July, 1915, due to the anti-Jewish feelings following the Leo
Frank case, the KKK received a charter from the Fulton County
Superior Court.
On Thanksgiving night 1915, Atlanta preacher and salesman
William Simmons and 34 others climbed to the top of Stone
Mountain and lit torches as they circled a burning cross. They
called their group the Knights of Mary Phagan.
Thus they were reborn in Georgia, and in other states.
County Unit System
1917 – Neill Primary Act
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What is it?
What did those who oppose it think?
What did those who supported it think?
How long was it in effect in Georgia?
Why did it end?
County Unit System
1917 – Neill Primary Act
• What is it?
– A method of counting votes for each county as a
unit
– The 8 most populated counties had 6 county unit
votes each (total 48 votes)
– The next 30 had 4 votes each (120 votes)
– The remaining 121 counties had 2 votes each (242
votes)
– The most populated areas were not represented
equally…
County Unit System
1917 – Neill Primary Act
• What did those who oppose it
think?
–Men who were elected to office without
a majority of the state’s popular vote did
not represent the people of Georgia
County Unit System
1917 – Neill Primary Act
• What did those who supported it think?
– This system allows small, less-populated counties
to have the same power and influence as large
counties
• How long was it in effect in Georgia?
– Until 1962
• Why did it end?
– It was declared UNCONSTITUTIONAL
Denial of Civil Rights
• Jim Crow Laws - established separate facilities
for blacks and whites
– Restrooms, water fountains, dining areas, railroad
cars, waiting rooms, hotels
• Plessy V. Ferguson – made segregation the law
of the land until 1954
– Gave states the right to control social discrimination
and to promote segregation of the races
• Cummings V. Richmond County Bd. Of
Education – again the Supreme Court sided
with Georgia against Black parents in Augusta
Denial of Civil Rights
• Grandfather Clause: a clause inserted in the
Georgia Constitution in 1908 that stated only
those men whose fathers or grandfathers had
been eligible to vote in 1867 were eligible to
vote – it disenfranchised most of Georgia’s
African Americans
• Poll Tax: a tax to be able to vote, they also
had to own property and be able to pass a
literacy test. These tests were not standard
and could be made up on the spot.
Booker T. Washington
•Economic independence
is the only road to social
and political equality
•He gave his most famous
speech at the Cotton
States and International
Exposition
•His speech was delivered
to a racially mixed crowd
•His speech shaped race
relations and strongly
influenced black
leadership for the next 20
years
A ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a
friendly vessel. From the mast of the unfortunate vessel
was seen a signal, “Water, water; we die of thirst!”
The answer from the friendly vessel at once came back,
“Cast down your bucket where you are.” A second time
the signal “Water, water; send us water!” ran up from the
distressed vessel, and was answered, “Cast down your
bucket where you are!” A third and fourth signal for water
was answered, “Cast down your bucket where you are.”
DISCUSSION:
What does this mean?
Which Civil Right Leader of the 1950-60’s also used
this same idea in his speeches?
Do you think Washington was trying to help the blacks
or the whites? Why?
Cotton States and International
Exposition, 1895
This exposition was a way to showcase the
economic recovery of the south and to
show natural resources to attract Northern
businesses to the south.
W. E. B. Dubois, Professor of
Economics, Atlanta University
•Did not agree with
Washington
•Truth and knowledge would
help integrate the races
•“Talented 10th” – would be
educated and would lead and
teach the other 90% of the
African American population
•He called Washington and
his followers the “Tuskegee
Machine”
John and Lugenia Hope
• John Hope had more in common with Dubois, he was close
friends with Dubois and they were both educators in the Atlanta
University system
•Hope was the President of Atlanta University
•Hope brought all the African American Colleges together and
formed the Atlanta University Center.
•Mrs. Hope
organized the
Neighborhood
Union which
offered vocational
training, health
center, and boys
and girls clubs.
•Also gave
financial aid
Alonzo Herndon
•Born a slave on a Walton County
Plantation
•Learned to be a Barber
•Opened a shop in Atlanta
•Started to expand businesses as a
white barber
•Began buying property and ended
up owning most of Auburn Avenue
•In 1905, he bought a small
insurance company and hired African
American students to run the
company.
•It became the largest African
Herndon died in 1927: “Some
American Owned company in the
Nation at the time. Today it is still a of us sit and wait for
leader worth over $200 million and opportunity when it is
always with us.”
does business in 17 states
Rich’s
• Famous Atlanta Department Store (now known
as Macy’s)
• Started in 1867, by Morris Rich
• Known as a store “with heart”
– took farmers’ produce in payment
– took teachers’ scrip as money during the Great
Depression
• Grew to be a regional shopping chain
Coca-Cola
• Invented in Atlanta in 1885, by
John S. Pemberton as tonic
• Business purchased and expanded
by Asa Candler
• Sold company in 1919, for $25
million
• Robert Woodruff grew company to
billions of dollars in sales each year
• Woodruff and Candler generous
givers to worthy causes
Asa Chandler
In 1812, this political
cartoon appeared in the
Boston Weekly
Messenger depicting
the odd shape of a
voting district created
by Massachusetts
governor Elbridge
Gerry to gain political
advantage for his party.
The cartoonist called it
a “Gerry-mander.”