Segregation and Discrimination.
That is the title for today. Let's get right into the key concepts.
What legal challenges did whites create for African-Americans to relegate them to second-class citizens?  And,
specifically here,
we're going to focus on the South.  The second concept---what implications the landmark court case Plessy v. Ferguson---
have for
African-Americans?
Finally, why did whites that fought against slavery prior to and during the Civil War appear absent
against these new injustices against freed
blacks?
The key vocabulary---you already heard about Plessy v. Ferguson, but
segregation, grandfather clause, and poll tax, round out that group.
At the end of our last video, I brought [up] the idea of
racial equality in the United States and did the progressive era address this at all?  And to answer that question,
we're going to start off with a rather simple question and that is---Are blacks
equal to whites at the time of the progressive
era?  And the simple answer to a simple question is no.  No, no, no, absolutely
not.  They are not.
But why?
Let's take a look at the history and
go back to the Civil War to gain some knowledge as to why there is a big gap in
equality between the two races in the United States.
At the end of the Civil war,
we see the ad passage of the 13th,  14th, and
15th amendments,
all of which have to do with the idea of gaining
equality for
blacks in the United States for former Slaves.  The 13th is abolishing slavery the other two have to do
citizenship and gaining voting rights.  Voting rights, very important to having,
establishing
citizenship in the United States or any country for that matter.  Now all that seems really good
except that.....
we have to understand why the south fought in the Civil war.
To do that, we need to go
revisit history prior to the Civil War and understand that the South fought
for many different reasons
but the overarching reason behind it all was
they were interested in preserving their way of life.
Slavery was a part of their way of life, but overall they wanted to preserve
their way of life.  Now when the civil war ends and the South loses, in case we forgot,
when the Civil War ends, they are still interested in preserving as much of their way of life as possible.
While slavery technically no longer exists,
They want to preserve their white way of life as much as possible.
Now the 15th amendment, which has to do with voting rights.....,
....Southerners are not happy that blacks---
former slaves, inferiors---
they are going to get the same
voting rights as
their white counterpart.
They see this is a problem.  So they do something that is a little bit unique.
I put here
freedom restrictions, and what's unique about this is the South
specifically is going to Introduce laws, or
qualifiers,
that say whether or not someone can
actually vote.  You have to be able to do this or do that in order to exercise
your right to vote whether you are white or black.
It's a very
neat little sidestep that is put into place that doesn't
directly violate the 15th Amendment, but it does inhibit the right to vote for many
African-Americans, former slaves
specifically.  And one of those examples is the literacy test.  If we look at the life of a form of a slave,
plantation owners new education could be a weapon
against slavery.
So they did what they could to prevent slaves from gaining and education which meant many
former slaves did not know how to read and/or write?
So....
freedom restriction---you go ahead and create a literacy test and if you cannot pass that, you cannot vote.
It prohibited or
inhibited many blacks,
many former slaves, from being able to vote
because they couldn't read or write.
Poll tax is another example of this.  Then, at other times, just sheer hostility.
Threats we're also put into play and, of course, some of it
technically legal and some of it
illegal for sure but
they succeeded.  Whites, I should say,
succeeded in
limiting the number or the influence of blacks and
allowing and disallowing them to exercise their right to vote. There is one catch.  [It] is
that many
whites in the South were poor and lacked the same literacy skills as former slaves.
However, that's where the grandfather clause comes into play which gives them the right to vote even though they can't necessarily
perform the same task required by former slaves.
Another restriction that is prevalent in the South has to do with the idea of segregation.
Segregation certainly was a way of life for the south prior to the Civil War and, if you want to keep your way of life
the same, then you try and keep segregation alive
and they do and they do so very successfully as seen by the court case Plessy v. Ferguson in the late
1800s.  It's a question that was asked.  Is segregation, okay/fair/legal and
that court case says the answer is yes.
It will be overturned, but it will not be overturned until really the beginnings of the Civil Rights movement in the
1950s.
Why aren't Americans,
specifically Americans that fought for the end of slavery in the Civil War, why aren't they coming to the.....[rather]
Why aren't they facing these
injustices put on blacks once more?  And
my argument would be that
the end of slavery was their victory and
there is not a battle, there iss no longer a fight to be won,
and that's why you see so many Americans sit on the sidelines.  And then we can take that idea and
push it into the Progressive Era.
The problems that exist in society
for the lower
class, for the working class, the problems that exist in the government, the problems that exist in big business at this time,
too many people think
those problems outweighed the problems that the largest minority group in the United States are
facing.  And those problems
they're facing are big, and they range from not being able to vote because of qualifiers and also things like murder and
lynchings that really go
unnoticed in so many different ways.  With that said, are
African-Americans free?  No.  Does the progressive movement really do them any justice?  The answer is no.  So,
African-Americans are
basically put in a situation where they have to look out for themselves.  And that's where we get the introduction of the NAACP.
These are the earliest, earliest
inklings or
suggestions that there is going to be a fight for true equality
between races in the United States.
But, this isn't even beginning to scratch the surface.  This group, being one of the earliest, is
also still alive today
and it's important to keep note of that because what they fight for then is much of what they fight for today. That's it for
Segregation and Discrimination.
Tomorrow, we'll go with something else.  Adios.
