The World of Jim Crow
Angela Brown
Chapter 7 Section 3
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Voting Restrictions
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Concerned African Americans would gain too
much political power by voting
Began to require voters to own property and pay
a poll tax or special fee
Pass literacy tests – reading tests in which
much more difficult passages were given to
blacks than whites.
Grandfather clause – passage of legislation
that exempts a group of people from obeying a
law provided they met certain conditions before
the law was passed.
http://www.cnn.com/US/9512/bus_boycott/parks_on_bus.
Segregation
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System of legal segregation called Jim Crow
after a minstrel song-and-dance routine
1st railroad segregated passengers in Mass. in
1830s
Dominated all aspects of life in 1900s
Separation in schools, parks, public buildings,
hospitals and transportation systems, water
fountains, restrooms, theaters – African
American facilities were inferior
Plessy v Ferguson
Supreme Court upheld the Jim Crow laws
 1883 overturned Civil Rights Act of 1875
– guaranteed African Americans rights in
public places
 14th Amendment – could not prevent
private organizations from discriminating
 “Separate – but – equal” case
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Plessy argued equal protection laws
violated in Louisiana by segregating public
railroads.
 Court stated 14th Amendment “not
intended to give Negroes Social Equality
but only political and Civil Equality –
facilities were rarely equal.
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Violence
Lynching – a mob’s illegal seizure and
execution of a person
 1882-1892 estimated 1200 blacks lynched
 Sometimes included mock trial, torture,
mutilation before hanging and being
riddled with bullets.
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Conditions in the North Decline
African Americans moved North to escape
legal segregation.
 Found de facto segregation
 White feared racial equality – race riots in
1900 NY City and Springfield
 Militia gained control of mob after two
days.
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NAACP
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National Conference on “Negro Question”
organized by Mary White Ovington 1909
Niagara Movement leaders attended (Du Bois)
Marked the founding of the NAACP – National
Association for the Advancement of Colored
People)
1914 NAACP had 50 branches – 6000 members
Magazine edited by DuBois - Crisis 30,000 readers
 1915 victory – Supreme Court held
grandfather clause on voting rights
unconstitutional
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African American Achievement
National Urban League, 1911, improved job
opportunities and housing for blacks
 National Negro Business League 1900 320
branches by 1907
 1912 Madam C.J. Walker spoke to National
Negro Business League
 (Example of African American Achievement)
 She was the first African American woman to
be a self-made millionaire.
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