APAAS Unit 3

• The assassination of Abraham Lincoln occurred shortly after the Civil War ended
• He did not want former Confederate officers to hold office or vote when Southern states rejoined the Union
• Andrew Johnson, Lincoln's vice president, became president and was more sympathetic to Confederates
• Johnson pardoned over 13,000 former Confederates, allowing them to re-enter politics

Impact on Black Politicians

• Black politicians faced difficulties as former Confederates could now vote
• Johnson's pardons facilitated the spread of Black Codes by empowering white Southern elites

Black Codes

• Black Codes resembled Slave Codes, targeting newly freed Black individuals
• These codes restricted property ownership, with some states limiting the types of property Black individuals could own
• Black individuals were also barred from serving on juries

Radical Republicans

• The rise of Black Codes led to the "Radical Republicans" taking over Reconstruction in Congress
• They represented the Republican Party's progressive wing, considered radical for their era
• They created military districts as part of their Reconstruction plan after the Civil War
• They ensured Southern states ratified the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments

Social Life

• Following the Civil War, formerly enslaved individuals sought to reunite with separated families
• Some placed advertisements in newspapers
• The majority did not successfully locate their loved ones
• Religion played a significant role

Freedmen's Bureau

• The Radical Republicans passed measures to protect formerly enslaved individuals and established the Freedmen's Bureau in 1865
• The Freedmen's Bureau aimed to provide food, clothing, shelter, and other essential supplies
• It operated under the War Department, led by a commissioner appointed by the President
• It aimed to aid formerly enslaved individuals but largely failed to achieve its objectives

Black Codes, Land, and Labor

• Beginning in 1865, states enacted Black Codes to undermine Black people's freedom
• These laws limited movement and labor
• Their goal was to reinstate the old social order and surveillance system of Slave Codes

Efforts to Improve Living Conditions

• During the creation of Black Codes, efforts were made to improve living conditions for formerly enslaved people, such as the Freedmen's Bureau
• Union General William T. Sherman issued Special Field Orders No. 15 in 1865, intending to redistribute land in South Carolina and Florida to newly freed African American families in 40-acre segments
• These efforts had limited success due to lack of funding and political opposition

Defeat of Reconstruction

• Black Codes aimed to re-establish racial hierarchy
• Federal troops halted many of them, leading to the expansion of Black rights until the Election of 1876

Election of 1876

• The 1876 election pitted Republican Rutherford B. Hayes against Democrat Samuel J. Tilden
• Tilden did not support Black rights, while Hayes nominally supported them
• Tilden won the popular vote, but the electoral college outcome was contested due to claims of voter fraud and intimidation in Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Oregon
• Congress formed a 15-member Electoral Commission in January 1877, consisting of representatives from the House, Senate, and Supreme Court
• The Commission awarded all disputed electoral votes to Hayes by a vote of 8-7 along party lines, giving Hayes a 185 to 184 victory in the Electoral College
• Democrats conceded the presidency to Hayes in exchange for the withdrawal of federal troops from the South called the Compromise of 1877

Effect of the Compromise of 1877

• The withdrawal of federal troops allowed for the re-entry of Black Codes and the end of Reconstruction
• The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were not fully enforced in the South
• Most Black Codes were re-passed into law, including poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses
• This was reinforced by the 1896 Supreme Court ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson, which legally recognized "separate but equal," leading to segregation and unequal allocation of resources that hurt the Black community
• This ruling was reversed by Brown v. Board of Education in 1954

End of Reconstruction

• There's debate on whether Reconstruction improved living standards for Black Americans
• Many view Reconstruction as a failure, while others highlight the successes of Black representatives in Congress and the Freedmen's Bureau

Disenfranchisement and Jim Crow Laws

• Minstrel shows, a form of theater developed in the early 19th century, were performed mostly by white people in blackface and depicted negative stereotypes of Black people
• Two well-known characters from minstrel shows were Jim Crow and Aunt Jemima
• Jim Crow originally a derogatory term for Black people from the 1830s developed into a minstrel character
• Eventually became associated with segregation and discrimination against African Americans

Jim Crow and the Nadir

• Jim Crow became shorthand for mocking Black people and transformed to laws dehumanizing Black people and enabling segregation
• White people referred to facilities used solely by Black people as "Jim Crow Facilities"
• The Jim Crow Era lasted from the 1870s to the 1960s
• Plessy v. Ferguson legalized segregation
• The Jim Crow era saw the return of Black Codes after a brief pause due to the protection provided by federal troops in the South
• The period from the 1870s to the early 1900s was the Nadir, marked by extreme racism, widespread disenfranchisement, legalized segregation, lynchings, and severe limitations on civil rights
• This era saw the rise of pseudo-scientific racial theories like social Darwinism

Impact of Jim Crow Laws

• Jim Crow Laws limited Black people's ability to vote and enforced racial segregation in hospitals, schools, public transport, and cemeteries, with Black facilities being significantly worse than white facilities
• Sometimes, separate facilities were not even offered
• Terrorist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) emerged
• Jim Crow began to end with Brown v. Board of Education and the Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Loving v. Virginia in 1967 banned laws against interracial marriage, which 16 states still banned at the time

Violence During the Nadir

• The Nadir was characterized by public acts of violence
• Lynchings were acts of terrorism against Black people
• Mob violence aimed to intimidate Black communities, particularly during elections
• The KKK carried out such acts before and after the Nadir Period

Reactions of Black Press

• There was an increase in race based violence in the late 1800s and early 1900s
• Lynchings increased
• Black Journalists were on the front lines calling all of this out
• Many highlighted lynching in particular
• Ida B. Wells is the most well known, wrote for The Living Way, and often knew the people she was reporting on her experiences
• She faced many death threats and retaliation
• She was friends with Frederick Douglass
• Southern Horrors and The Red Record were most well known writings (1892 and 1895)
• She highlighted that Black people never deserved to get lynched, which many white people insisted they did, and how in the vast majority of cases they didn't even commit a crime
• Many Black Americans spoke out
• The amount of Black Americans who were vocally speaking out dramatically increased during WWI
• Many Black soldiers were treated better in Europe and expected better treatment when coming back to the United States
• Many White American reacted negatively to this
• Due to this many cases of violence committed against Black people turned into Race Riots

Race Riots

• Race riots were conflicts arising from racial tensions or issues
• They didn't always involve two races on opposing sides, in the examples we will examine, it does
• Many of the most remembered race riots either during or after WWI (End of WWI: November 11, 1918)
• These include the Houston Race Riot (1917), Chicago Race Riot (1919), and Tulsa Race Riot (1921)

Color Line & Double Consciousness

• In the late 1800s and early 1900s, new leadership brought different philosophies relating to activism
• This included Du Bois and Dunbar

Du Bois and Dunbar

• Du Bois (1868-1963) was a very influential social activist who believed in total equality, in contrast to Booker T. Washington
• Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) was a poet, novelist, and short story writer who died young of Tuberculosis

Lifting as We Climb

• Key concept from Dunbar is "The Mask," which introduces the idea of wearing a mask to hide one's true feelings
• The mask "grins and lies" on "torn and bleeding hearts" implying people show a happy face while inwardly suffering
• Dunbar called on Black Americans to openly call for better treatment and stop wearing the mask

Key Concepts From W.E.B Du Bois

• "The Color Line" refers to racial segregation and discrimination defining the US social, economic, and political systems
• It's not just a literal divide like laws or physical segregation but a figurative one as well, where prejudice and inequality persist across all levels of society
• Two different worlds
• "The Veil" metaphor symbolizes the barrier that separates Black people from White people
• It represents how white Americans cannot truly see or understand the lived experiences of Black people, while Black Americans are painfully aware of the divide because they live on both sides of it
• "Double Consciousness" is the internal conflict Black people feel when navigating a world dominated by white perspectives
• It's the sense of "two-ness" arising from being both African and American, often forced to reconcile these identities in a hostile society
• This dual awareness can be painful as it involves both self-awareness and a constant negotiation of one's identity to survive in a world that devalues Blackness

Washington, Burroughs, and Cooper

• Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) was a social activist, educator, and author
• A racial accommodationist, he rejected the pursuit of political equality with whites in favor of developing vocational skills and a reputation for stability, contrasting with De Bois
• Nannie Helen Burroughs (1879-1961) a civil rights leader, religious leader, and feminist, focused on religion within the Baptist Church
• She believed women should be involved in civil rights through collaboration, not competition
• Anna Julia Cooper (1858-1964) was an educator, sociologist, Black liberation activist, and Black feminist leader who saw education as liberation and believed women should be involved in civil rights

The New Negro Movement & Harlem Renaissance:

• Alain Locke, a professor and intellectual, published "The New Negro" in 1925
• He gathered works of poets like Langston Hughes, writers like Zora Neale Hurston, and thinkers like W.E.B. Du Bois, binding their voices to paint a picture of what it means to be Black in America
• Creating the term “The New Negro."
• Stand tall, embraces African heritage, and uses art, music, and literature to demand change

Harlem Renaissance

• A cultural and intellectual revival during the early 20th century where Black Americans expressed a renewed sense of racial pride and identity
• It emphasized self-expression and non-conformity to whiteness
• Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston are examples in literature
• Alain Locke's anthology "The New Negro" shaped the movement's philosophy
• Political expression used art and literature to advocate for social change
• Much of the "New Negro Movement" was centered in Harlem, NY

Photography and Social Change

• Black Photography in the early 1900's had two important elements
• During the New Negro movement, African American photographers sought to create a distinctive Black aesthetic grounded in the beauty of everyday life, history, folk culture, and pride in an African heritage
• , African American photographers, such as James Van Der Zee recast global perceptions of African Americans by further illustrating the qualities of the "new negro”

Symphony in Black

• Jazz music played an important role in the Harlem Renaissance by opening opportunities for African American record labels, musicians, and vocalists to gain a wider audience
• The rise of radio broadcasted African American genres including jazz and blues across the nation
• Originated in New Orleans among African Americans
• Developed new styles following migration to the North, Midwest, and West from big band to free jazz
• “Cabin in the Sky”, a film significant because it was the 1st movie with an All-Black cast

Understanding Activation

• All of The Harlem Renaissance works rebutted racist ideologies
• By countering racist claims of a lack of History
• By countering misconceptions about the intelligence or ability to succeed
• Particularly, Social Darwinism from the 1870's to 1930's

Great Migration & Afro-Caribbean Migration

• The Great Migration involved the migration of Black Southerners to the North and Midwest driving their pursuit of economic opportunity, as well as out of the Southern Jim Crow South, which helped create and spread new forms of culture and music.
• The Afro-Caribbean people migrated from the Caribbean with predominant African descent in the peak of 1913 through 1937
• Over 140,00 Afro-Caribbean Immigrants arrived between 1899 and 1937
• They settled mostly in Florida & New York

Push/Pull Factors

• The decline of the Economy post WWI in the Carribean
• Oversupply of Sugar
• Unstable Governments
• Increased US Interventions
• Expansion of the US Economy Post WWI

The Rise of UNIA

• Founded by Marcus Garvey in 1914 in Jamaica, and expanded to the US in 1916
• By the early 1920's, the UNIA was the largest black-led organization in the world
• Advocated for Black Nationalism, Economic self-sufficiency, and African Redemption
• Promoted race pride, self-determination, and solidarity among people of African descent

Core Beliefs and Goals of UNIA

• Advocated for Black independence & Racial uplift
• Encouraged Black economic and political independence
• Had pride in African heritage and rejected white supremacy
• Had a unified Slogan "One God! One Aim! One Destiny"
• Aimed for Economic Self-Sufficiency
• Wanted to establish Black-owned businesses including the Black Star Line shipping company
• Encouraged Black communities to build their own economic institutions
• Advocated for Pan-Africanism & African Redemption
• Believed that Africa should be people of African descent.

The Role of Women in the UNIA

• Women were active leaders & organizers
• Amy Jacques Garvery (Garvey's Wife), played a major role in spreading Garveyism
• Black Cross Nurses provided health services and symbolized Black self-help

The Impact and Influence of the UNIA

• Black Start Line (1919-1922) - Attempt to create a Black controlled gobal trade network

Opposition & Decline of the UNIA

• Criticism from Black leaders & Due Bois
• Du Bois considered Garvery's back to Africa movement unrealistic
• Garvery was Anti-Integration
• Garvey met with white supremacists, including leaders of the Ku Klux Klan, and senator Theodore Bilbo
• Garvey promoted Anti-Semitic Views
• Garvey was convicted of mail fraud related to the Black Star Line

Legacy of the UNIA and Garveyism

• Continued to influence on later Black nationalist and the Pan-African movements
• Inspired leaders like Malcom X and Kwame Nkrumah