Issues of the Gilded Age

Race, Politics and the Rise of Populism

1877-1900

African Americans Loose Freedoms

OAfter Reconstruction African American voting rights taken away in southern statesOJim Crow Laws- Poll taxes, literacy tests, grandfather clauses to limit votingOBlack participation in voting drops

New Laws Force Segregation

O Across south segregation part of everyday life

O 1870 Supreme Court cases undermine rights of African Americans

O Plessey v. Ferguson (1896) court upheld constitutionality of Jim Crow Laws

O As long as facilities “separate but equal”, did not violate 15th amendment

O Supreme Court rulings kept African-Americans from having equal access in society

African American Oppose Injustices

Booker T. Washington-African Americans needed to establish themselves as hardworking citizens, not fight to overturn segregationFounded Tuskegee Institute to provide industrial education

African American Oppose Injustices

OW.E.B. Du Bois- Did not want to accommodate whites, wanted full equality,ODid not think blacks should limit themselves to vocational education

African American Oppose Injustices

OIda Wells – established a newspaper in Memphis that criticized mistreatment of African Americans, helped establish NAACP 1909

OMany African American newspapers, political and social originations, schools, colleges established to secure freedom

Chinese Immigrants face Discrimination

OMany Chinese came to the U.S. to work on the RR’s and goldfieldsOFaced racial prejudice on the west coast, blamed for taking “white jobs” during economic downturn 1870’s O1879 Chinese banned from employment in CaliforniaOChinese Exclusion Act (1882) prohibited Chinese from entering country

Chinese Immigrants face DiscriminationO Chinese fought

discrimination in courtO 1886 Yik Wo v. Hopkins-

Supreme Court ruled Chinese could not be banned from employment

O 1896 Chinese born in America could not be stripped of citizenship

O Upheld Chinese Exclusion Act, other discriminatory practices

Mexican Americans Struggle in the West

Center of Mexican American struggle was landEnd of Mexican- American War (1848)property rights guaranteedHad to prove ownership- poor records, idea of communal land ownership made this difficult

Mexican Americans Struggle in the West

O Anglo Americans used the federal government to control land

O Mexicans had no representation in Washington, D.C. to challenge power

O Las Gorras Blancas- Hispanic group that fought for land rights. Cut fences, burned houses

O Supported by national labor organizations

O Increased anti- Mexican feelings across the west

Women Make Gains and Suffer Setbacks

During Gilded Age women began to fight for the right to vote, own property, educationRight to vote for women not included in 14th or 15th Amendment1869 Elizabeth Cady Stanton established National Women's Suffrage Association to gain constitutional amendment that granted women right to vote

Women Make Gains and Suffer Setbacks

OBy 1906 only four western states granted women right to voteOWomen had success in fields of college attendance, public health and welfare reform