Louisiana’s Transition Era – (Chapter 12)
Study Guide
Section 1 – Political Control
Explain why political power shifted in Louisiana after the end of Reconstruction.
Explain why Redeemer Democrats were called Bourbons,
and describe their political and social beliefs.
Explain how the white Democrats controlled black votes in order to maintain power.
Identify the first Democratic governor after Reconstruction,
and tell how his views differed from other Bourbon Democrats.
Describe how the Louisiana Lottery Company chartered in 1868 was different from today’s state lottery.
Describe the extent to which the state benefitted from the lottery.
Explain how the lottery became so powerful during and after Reconstruction,
and tell how lottery supporters used the Constitution of 1879 to protect the lottery from opponents.
Explain why the writers of the Constitution of 1879 did not try to disfranchise African-Americans,
and explain what steps they took to separate the races.
Briefly cite the chain of events that led to the end of the Louisiana Lottery.
Explain why so many of Louisiana’s farmers got caught in a credit cycle.
Cite ways that Farmers’ Union members worked together to help improve their situations.
Identify the new political party that evolved from the farmers’ organizations,
and describe how they wanted government to help small farmers.
Explain why Louisiana’s sugar farmers left the national Democratic Party and supported Republicans.
Identify the two groups who formed the Fusion Movement,
and explain their purpose in joining together.
Explain why the Bourbon Democrats wrote another new Constitution in 1898.
List the voter requirements put into the constitution with the intent of disfranchising the freedmen.
Explain how the “grandfather clause” prevented the new constitution from disfranchising any white voters.
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Section 2 – Segregation, Discrimination, and Conflict
Define segregation and Jim Crow laws,
and give examples of how Jim Crow laws affected facilities in many parts of the U.S.
Briefly summarize the case of Plessy v. Ferguson,
and explain the separate-but-equal concept established by the U.S. Supreme Court in that case.
Describe how the convict lease system worked and how the state benefitted from the system.
Identify the Exodusters and explain why they wanted to move.
Explain the purpose of labor unions and strikes.
Section 3 – Economic and Cultural Progress
Make a chart listing examples of economic and technological progress in Louisiana from 1880-1920.
Use the following four categories:
Agriculture/Forestry, Mineral Resources, Transportation, New Conveniences.
Section 4 – The Progressive Movement
State the goal of the progressive movement, and who they thought should act to correct society’s problems.
List the three main ways progressives worked to reform society.
List at least four specific reforms accomplished by Louisiana governors in the early 20th-century.