The American Dark Ages
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Transcript The American Dark Ages
The American Dark Ages
Focus on 1880s-early 1900
Introduction to the American Dark Ages
This time period was coined the American Dark Ages by
historian Rayford W. Logan due to an increased violence—
e.g., lynching—in the south based on race.
Whites used a three pronged attack aimed at stopping
African Americans' participation in politics and the economy
and maintain white supremacy:
1. Disenfranchisement—every southern state, between 1890 and
1905, passed laws designed specifically to prevent African
Americans from voting.
2. Jim Crow Laws—In this same period, each southern state passed
laws formally segregating public facilities. It was in the 1890s that
the famous "white" and "colored" signs appeared.
3. Lynching—In this same period, a campaign of lynching began,
targeting African American men especially
Disenfranchisement
In order to deter black men (and poor whites) from voting,
southern states created laws within their state constitutions:
Poll tax—payment upon voting (usually being asked to pay back
taxes).
Literacy tests—(40-60% of blacks were illiterate) needing the ability to
read or write (to sign name, write candidate down, place in
appropriate box).
Arbitrary registration practices
Grandfather Clauses were created in order to allow anyone whose
grandfather voted pre-Civil War to bypass any sort of tax or test upon
voting.
Aside from laws, blacks faced violence and possible fraud when
attempting to vote
Intimidation or physical violence
Having their vote for a non-white candidate thrown out
Jim Crow Laws
Up until Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) the idea of “separate but
equal” was not law of the land in the south (although it existed
in some areas).
Formal legal segregation became known as Jim Crow Laws
The term Jim Crow comes from an American actor names
Thomas D. Rice who lived in the early to mid-1800s and who
would imitate black culture—speech, habits, songs—all in black
face.
Once segregation was made into law, specified in signs in
public places started popping up.
Separate drinking fountains, bathrooms, restaurants, hotels, train
cars, and separate sections of beaches, parks and theaters.
Lynching
Lynching was a cruel combination of racism and sadism used to
sustain the caste system in the South.
Most of the lynchings were by hanging or shooting.
Other forms of lynching include: burning at the stake, maiming,
dismemberment, castration.
Mississippi, Georgia, Texas, Louisiana, and Alabama were the
leading lynching states (had nearly half the total victims
combined).
However, there were lynchings in ever state except MA, RI, NH and VT.
Lynchings occurred most commonly in the smaller towns and
isolated rural communities of the South where people were poor
and mostly illiterate.
Mobs were made up of small land holders, tenant farmers and
common laborers, whose economic status was very similar to that
of the Negro.
Lynching
According to the Tuskegee Institute, between 1882 and 1951,
4,730 people were lynched in the United States: 3,437 Negro and
1,293 white.
Tuskegee records also show that between 1882 and1951:
41 % felonious assault
19.2 % rape
6.1 % attempted rape
4.9 % robbery and theft
1.8 % for insult to white persons
22.7 % for miscellaneous offenses
Lynchers were rarely ever indicted by a grand jury or sentenced.
Judge, prosecutor, jurors and witnesses were all white.
If sentenced, the participants in the lynch mobs were usually
pardoned.
Lynching
William Brown recalls a Florida lynching in 1902.
Works Referenced
http://www.umich.edu/~lawrace/disenfranchise1.htm
http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1979/2/79.02.04.x.
html
http://withoutsanctuary.org/main.html
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/shipp/Lynchcau
ses.html
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/shipp/lynchingy
ear.html