As we begin this video, here is a reminder
to watch Eyes on the Prize: AWAKENINGS 1954
– 1956 to complete your reaction paper.
Chapter 6 covers African Americans, beginning
with the period of Slavery, the Emancipation
to Reconstruction Eras and the Restoration
of White Supremacy as well as Migration and
Urbanization, the Civil Rights Movement to
Segregation and some victories in the courts.
In previous chapters we read that the first
Africans that arrived in Jamestown were purchased
as bonded or indentured servants, there were
Whites servants as well, however there was
a shift. Blacks became the main source of
cheap labor. Africans vigorously resisted
enslavement. Many committed suicide. Blacks
did not migrate of your own free will. In
contrasts to the American Indian and the Mexican
Americans, African Americans were not here
when the pilgrims arrived in this country.
During the period of 1650 to 1700, tobacco
cultivation in the colonies led to the acceptance
of Black Slavery as a way out of labor problems.
Slavery left a BIG impact on it’s victims.
Elkins in 1968, argued that were was not great
resistance on the part of the Black slaves
because the slave system, was oppressive and
reduced human beings to a subhuman condition
which generated extreme submissiveness and
obedience from the slaves.
Fogel countered that argument in 1989 with
a book titled Without Consent or Contract
and stated that the system of slavery did
have devastating effects on the lives of slaves.
“Fogel argued that although slaves were
able to retain certain African customs, to
modify the European religions they practiced,
and to produce songs and folklore, the U.S.
slave system resulted in virtually unrestrained
domination of the slaves’ personal lives.”
Most people agree that slavery turn out to
be the biggest factor controlling the relationships
between Whites and Blacks.
When we look at the African Americans, Blacks
were both an immigrant minority as well as
a colonized minority up to the time of the
Civil War. There were very unusual cases were
some Blacks became highly assimilated culturally
during the slave period. Most were deliberately
kept from learning the White man’s ways.
Free blacks were also highly discriminated
against.
As the Civil War drew near abolishing slavery
was not a popular option. President Lincoln
would have rather deported the Black slaves
as one of the solutions to the problem of
slavery. The main problem was to save what
was becoming the united states. It was not
to affect slavery at all. As a matter of fact,
many Northern officers were unwilling to serve
with Black soldiers and many turn over slaves
to plantation owners. These circumstances
changed when President Lincoln signed the
Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.
This ordered the slaves to be freed and authorized
the armed forces to the U.S. to sign up freedmen.
Around 180,000 Blacks fought against the Confederacy.
The inclusion of Blacks did not mean that
Blacks were going to be treated equally. They
did not get paid the same as White troops
and the Black regiments did the heavy labor.
At the end of the Civil War, A Freedmen’s
Bureau had been set up to help former slaves
to take on and learn how to be free. There
were almost 4 million “freedmen” and they
had no way to earn a living. In 1865, after
Lincoln was assassinated, President Andrew
Johnson approved a Reconstruction plan and
the 13th Amendment eliminating slavery was
approved. Then in 1866, Congress passed the
Civil Rights Act of 1866 because in the south,
they had laws called “Black Codes” which
restricted the rights of Blacks. The 14th
Amendment was also approved. It reaffirmed
state and federal citizenship for persons
born or naturalized in the U. S. and forbade
any state to reduce the privileges and immunities
of citizens. It also declared that states
could not deprive any person of life, liberty,
or property without “due process of law”
or deny any person “the equal protection
of the laws.” With that, it enraged the
old planter class and the hostility grew.
Whites used secret methods to threaten and
scare Black from using their new rights. In
1866, the most notorious organization that
was formed was the Ku Klux Klan.
The Klan quickly created a culture that endorsed
White racial privilege. This helped in the
restoration of White Supremacy. A system of
“sharecropping” was established. Sharecropping
worked like this, Banks and other lenders
gave credit or provided loans to the planters
for shares of the planter’s crop. Both were
usually a large amount. It created a brutal
cycle of borrowing and indebtedness. Blacks
were at the greatest disadvantage because
they could not read.
As part of the Black codes regulating the
movements and privileges of the freed slaves,
Mississippi, Florida and Texas each passed
rules limiting the use of 1st class railroad
cars by Blacks. These laws came to be known
as the Jim Crow laws and they required a separation
of every type of public facility from schools
to cemeteries. Eventually it included housing,
jobs, school, etc….
You see some of that segregation in cemeteries
today even here in the valley. It is especially
noticeable in the southern cemeteries.
During this period, there was a noticeable
increase in violence against Blacks. The rate
at which Blacks were being lynched by Whites
rose dramatically. Blacks were prevented from
voting, Whites developed schemes to get around
the 15th amendment. Mississippi changed the
voting requirements and the “old Confederate”
states followed Mississippi’s lead. Voters
had to pass literacy test, pay poll taxes
in advance of an election, nominating people
to office was restricted to Whites because
they were “private” matters, there was
even a “grandfather” clause that only
people whose ancestors had been eligible to
vote in 1860 could vote. Well, you guessed
it, most Blacks were removed or eliminated
from voting.
The other main focus in 1896, of the restoration
of White Supremacy was the “Separate but
Equal” rail-car facilities. It was challenged
in the Supreme Court case of Plessy v. Ferguson.
Under the law, Whites and Black were not allowed
to sit together in a coach or section of a
coach. Criminal charges could be filed for
a violation of the law. Justice Harlan challenged
the court majority. He believed that the law
was unconstitutional. By 1920, Jim Crow system
of segregation had “normal” practice.
This system made many forms of friendly contacts
pretty much impossible. Blacks were pushed
into the slums, many forms of racial discrimination
occurred. For example: hotels were “filled”
when Black guests tried to register, theatres
were “sold out” when Blacks tried to purchase
tickets.
After the Civil War, African Americans began
to move around, at first it was around the
South, however the movement favored the North
because of the industrial jobs and high earnings.
World War I changed conditions suddenly. Northern
employers favored Blacks because they were
found to be competent and easier to work with
than immigrant workers from foreign countries.
That was deterred by prejudice and discrimination
of Whites. Whites struggled to prevent Blacks
from gaining union membership and the better
training.
The decision of Plessy v. Ferguson marks the
moment at which Black people in the South
officially lost the struggle to retain the
advantages won in the Civil War. Some African
American leaders concluded that it was wisest
course of action was to accept the fact that
Whites were not going to allow Blacks to be
equal, this was expressed by Black leader
Booker T. Washington. In his speech the “Atlanta
Compromise” he stated that Blacks should
focus “upon the everyday practical things
in life”. His argument was that Blacks were
too removed from slavery to take their place
next to Whites as equals. White people loved
that point of view.
Washington’s opinion on racial relations
was accepted among Blacks as well as Whites.
In 1905, under the leadership of W.E.B. Du
Bois the Niagara Movement was formed. They
disagreed with Booker T. Washington on many
major issues. In 1909, the formation of the
National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP) was formed when most
members of the Niagara Movement came together
with a group of White liberals. This association
opposed the systematic persecution of Blacks
and demanded that everyone, including Blacks
be given free public schooling that would
focus on professional education for the most
gifted – what Du Bois called “the talented
tenth” – as well as industrial training
for all who wished it.
There was racial violence that continued during
this time. The actual number of lynchings
that were recorded were under counted. We
know for sure that many lynchings were conducted
in sadistic ways and whites would use a carnival
atmosphere when lynching Blacks. Many victims
were burned and tortured. The newspapers would
actually invite Whites to come and be witnesses.
Between the emancipation and the Great Depression
there were over 3000 Blacks that were lyunched.
The other form of violence included mob attacks
by Whites on Black people themselves as well
as on their property.
Since World War I had been fought “to make
the world safe for democracy” Blacks were
given a sense of racial identity by the writers
and artists located in Harlem. The “Black
Renaissance” writers generated poetry, novels
and newspaper columns that paid tribute to
Black pride, and blacks exclusively. It seemed
to promote separatism.
Since conditions for Blacks were not improving,
people felt that Blacks in America would never
get an opportunity to advance. A new leader
emerged, Marcus Garvey. He organized the Universal
Negro Improvement Association and started
the “Back to Africa” movement, however
in 1927 he was deported back to Jamaica as
an undesirable alien. You will read about
him on page 165-66. After his deportation,
the UNIA declined and some of it’s followers
eventually joined The Lost Nation of Islam.
Non-violence became the appeal when dealing
with social conflicts. The Congress of Racial
Equality (CORE) was formed in 1942. They started
with patient negotiations, if that was unsuccessful
then stir up public opinion against the opponent’s
discriminatory practices. If none of these
actions worked then CORE encouraged the use
of boycotts, picket lines and strikes.
In 1942, this tactic was used when a group
of 25 people entered the restaurant and took
seats. The White people were promptly served
however the Blacks among the group were not.
The manager refused, the Whites did not eat
and continued to occupy the seats. The other
customers began to leave so eventually the
manager had all the protesters served. These
were the first “sit-ins” that became popular
for the next 20 years.
The NAACP continued to battle. There was a
ruling in 1938 by the Supreme Court that the
State University of Missouri must admit a
Black applicant to its law school and other
similar rulings that set up the 1954 ruling
of Brown vs Topeka Board of Education. This
ruling was important because it questioned
the 1896 Plessy decision of “separate but
equal doctrine”. Justice Warren’s argument
that race generated a feeling of inferiority
affected the mind and hearts was unlikely
to ever be undone. “Separate but equal”
had NO place in public schools and that it
violated the 14th Amendment.
The Brown decision ushered new hope for Blacks,
however for White citizens they formed citizen
councils to combat integration.
There was the well documented episode in Little
Rock, Arkansas where they declared the Brown
decision unconstitutional. Nine Black school
children were selected to attend Central High
in 1957. President Eisenhower had to send
in Federal troops to escort the Little Rock
Nine into Central High School.
As we come to the end of Chapter 6…
I have 2 questions for you to contemplate:
Should White children be forced to integrate
school in neighborhoods that are predominantly
Black??
Should Black children be bussed out of their
neighborhoods to integrate schools in predominantly
white neighborhoods??
