Georgia
Studies
Unit 5: The New South
Lesson 2: Social and
Political Change
Study Presentation
Lesson 2: Social and
Political Change
• ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
– How did influential African Americans
influence social, political, and
economic change?
Separate But Equal
• Civil Rights: rights a person has as a citizen
• Jim Crow laws passed to separate blacks and
whites; legal basis for segregation (separation of
people based on race)
• Plessy v. Ferguson: Homer Plessy, in an act of
planned civil disobedience, was arrested for sitting
in a white only train car. Plessy, who was only 1/8
black, was considered colored in Louisiana.
• Supreme Court decided that segregation (Jim Crow
Laws) was allowed by federal law in public
institutions as long as they were “separate but
equal” – decision in place until 1954 (Brown v.
Board of Education).
A Loss of Voting Rights
• Rules created to keep African Americans in
Georgia from voting (disenfranchisement):
– Poll tax: a tax paid to vote
– Voters had to own property
– Voters had to pass a literacy test (which was
determined by the poll worker and could be
different for different people)
– Grandfather clause: only those men whose
fathers or grandfathers were eligible to vote in
1867 could vote
– Gerrymandering: election districts drawn up to
divide the African American voters
Racial Violence
• Race riots and terrorist activities (like the
1906 Atlanta Riot and the lynching of Leo
Frank) increased during the New South
(1877-1918).
• White Supremacist Groups, like the Ku Klux
Klan, continued to spread and grow
throughout the South during this time period.
• Racial violence in the United States
(particularly in the South) continued for
decades and would not begin to slow until
the civil rights movement of the 1960’s.
Booker T. Washington
• Outstanding civil rights leader of the era
• President of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama
• Supported good relations between blacks and
whites
• Worked to improve the lives of African Americans
through economic independence
• Believed social and political equality would come
with improved economic conditions and
education (known as accommodationism).
• Gave the famous “Atlanta Compromise” speech
in 1895; discussed his ideas of shared
responsibility and the importance of education
over equality.
W. E. B. DuBois
• Professor at Atlanta University
• Recognized the importance of speeches given
by Booker T. Washington but did not agree
with accommodationism
• Believed in “action” if African Americans and
whites were to understand and accept each
other
• Thought Booker T. Washington was too
accepting of social injustice
• Began urging black activists to organize
together in protest against segregation and
discrimination.
African Americans
Organize
• W.E.B. DuBois founded the Niagara movement; group
which met in Niagara Falls to assemble a list of
demands, which included the end of segregation and
discrimination
• NAACP (1909): National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People. Worked for the rights
of African Americans
• W.E.B. DuBois left Atlanta to work for the NAACP in
New York
• National Urban League formed in 1910
– Worked to solve social problems of African Americans in cities
– Assisted people moving from rural South to urban North
John and Lugenia Burns Hope
• John Hope was a Civil rights leader from
Augusta, GA
• President of Atlanta University
• Like DuBois, believed that African
Americans should actively work for equality
• Part of group that organized NAACP
• Hope’s wife, Lugenia, worked to improve
sanitation, roads, healthcare and education
for African American neighborhoods in
Atlanta
Atlanta Mutual Insurance
Company
• Alonzo Herndon started barber business
• 1905: Purchased small insurance
company and managed it well
• Now one of the largest African American
businesses in the US
• Worth over $200 million and operates in
17 states
Women’s Suffrage
• Suffrage: the right to vote
• Seneca Falls, NY – famous meeting of
suffragettes
• 1920: 19th Amendment gives women
the right to vote – Georgia did not
ratify (approve) the amendment