January 28th, 2014 Journal EntryOption 1

Journal EntryFebruary 6th, 2014

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February 6th, 2014 Journal Entry

• Describe this image however you would like in you journal. • Once you are finished write one word that you think of when you see this and

circle it. • We will share them at the end.

Option 2

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Option 2

Option 1, 2

The Progressive Era 1889-1919Section 3 “The Continuing Fight for Civil Rights”

Chapter 10, pg. 350

Civil Rights

Civil Rights• Civil Rights– The rights that a person has simply because he or

she is a citizen.• (Ex. Freedom of speech, freedom of religion and the press,

right to assemble and petition the government, right to privacy, protection by due process of law, access to jobs, voting, property ownership, etc.)

– Problems are NOT just in the South– Most whites and African Americans accepted

racial segregations as natural way of life unofficially protected by the Jim Crow Laws

Jim Crow Laws• Jim Crow Laws 1876-1965

– Laws passed in the South to establish “separate-but-equal” facilities for whites and for blacks • (ex. Restrooms, water fountains, railroad cars, waiting rooms, dining

areas, schools, etc.)

– 1889 Georgia general assembly segregated a large number of public facilities

– Large protests held throughout America by African Americans

– Henry McNeal Turner claimed Jim Crow Laws were “barbarous”

• "Come listen all you galls and boys,I'm going to sing a little song,

My name is Jim Crow.Weel about and turn about and do jis so,Eb'ry time I weel about I jump Jim Crow.“

• written by Thomas Dartmouth "Daddy" Rice

• Performer throughout late 1820s-1830s

• By the end of the 19th century, the words Jim Crow were less likely to be used to derisively describe blacks; instead, the

phrase Jim Crow was being used to describe laws and customs which oppressed African Americans.

Jim Crow Laws• Most Common forbid:– Interracial marriage– business owners or public institution mixing clientele between African Americans and whites

• Georgia- “No colored barber shall serve as a barber [to] white women or girls.”

• Oklahoma- “The [Conservation] Commission shall have the right to make segregation of the white and colored races as to the exercise of rights of fishing, boating and bathing.”

Jim Crow Laws Cont.Examples:

• Georgia - "All persons licensed to conduct a restaurant, shall serve either white people exclusively or colored people exclusively and shall not sell to the two races within the same room or serve the two races anywhere under the same license.“

• Georgia- "It shall be unlawful for any amateur white baseball team to play baseball on any vacant lot or baseball diamond within two blocks of a playground devoted to the Negro race, and it shall be unlawful for any amateur colored baseball team to play baseball in any vacant lot or baseball diamond within two blocks of any playground devoted to the white race.“

• Alabama- “No person or corporation shall require any white female nurse to nurse in wards or rooms in hospitals, either public or private, in which negro men are placed.”

• Louisiana- "Any person who shall rent any part of any such building to a Negro person or a Negro family when such building is already in whole or in part in occupancy by a white person or white family, or vice versa when the building is in occupancy by a Negro person or Negro family, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.“

• North Carolina- "Books shall not be interchangeable between the white and colored schools, but shall continue to be used by the race first using them.“

• Alabama- “It shall be unlawful for a negro and white person to play together or in company with each other at any game of pool or billiards.”

Segregation Continues“The Great Migration”

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xwiufq_america-the-story-of-the-us-boom-8-12_people&start=1470

A Loss of Voting Rights• Disfranchisement– To take the right to vote away from someone or some group

• Background- – 1900- 12% of African Americans in US lived in

Georgia– 47% of Georgia’s population but little political power– Many laws passed to keep them from voting

• 1908- Georgia issues the Grandfather Clause (pg.357)– This meant only those men whose fathers or

grandfathers had been eligible to vote in 1867 (very few) were eligible to vote

A Loss of Voting Rights Cont.• Those able to vote still faced problems at voting booth after more

qualifications were created in order to vote• (ex. Had to own property, pay a poll tax, and pass literacy

tests but exams were not standard and often created to stump the potential voter)

• Poll Tax– A tax to be able to vote

• Literacy Tests– Non-standard tests created in order to stump or fool African Americans attempting to gain eligibility to vote• Pg. 358

Along with the Grandfather Clause…• Southern Politian's also used Gerrymandering to prevent

African Americans from voting– To draw up an election district in such a way that it

benefits a certain group• (ex. Drawn to benefit racial groups, political parties, or

other special interest groups)

• What other group of citizens at this time also do not have their voting rights?

• How does gerrymandering impact us today? Does it even exist?

County Unit System• 1917 Georgia= primarily Democratic• County Unit System

– A procedure created in 1917 for political primaries that gave the more populous counties more unit votes (established by the Neill Primary Act)

• Little regard for population differences (~Atlanta)

• Gave counties (rural) control over big urban areas

• Affected all 159 counties in Georgia

*But how did they decide this new election system? How were votes tallied?

• 159 counties were classified by population into 3 categories:

• Now, candidates focused more on winning counties instead of the state’s popular vote– Spent more time in rural area & small towns rather than

urban cities.• Winning plurality of the popular vote in a county= Entire county unit vote

• 1960 census shows:– Rural counties had 32% of GA population BUT had

59% of total unit vote

• Example– Smallest 3 counties had 6,980 population– Largest county had 556,326• Now, the 3 smallest counties (3x2= 6) were EQUAL to

just one large county (1x6= 6)

• So what were the outcomes of this?

• Rural votes (comprised of a surplus of whites) protect policies such as legal segregation & other aspects of white supremacy

• Dilute the influence of more liberal urban voters and of blacks who were highly concentrated in urban Georgia cities

• County Unit System does not disappear until 1962

Plessy vs. Ferguson• 1892- Homer Plessy buys train ticket from New

Orleans, LA to Covington, LA

• Plessy is 7/8 white and 1/8 black but still sits in “Whites only “Car

• Refuses to move and is arrested under the “Jim Crow Car Act of 1890”

• Plessy STAGED the event as a result of the 1890 law– Brave move?

A mere 40 miles by car today

Plessy vs. Ferguson Ruling• 1896- US Supreme Court rules that in a 7-1 vote, the law could be

upheld= separate but equal is legalState wins, Plessy loses

• Only vote to disagree came from Justice John Marshall Harlan (A southern keep in mind) who later said “Our constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of Civil Rights, all citizens are equal before the law.”

*Is this still how we see our constitution todayor has it changed?

http://on.aol.com/video/historical-cases---plessy-v--ferguson-161531619

Cummings vs. Richmond County Board of Education

• Augusta, Georgia 1899• Until 1899, Richmond County had the only public high school

in GA for descendants of enslaved Africans (roughly 60 students)

• School board closed school for “purely economic reasons” • Opened it as an elementary school for 300 students. • 3 parents sue over Plessy vs. Ferguson and file for Injunction– A court order stating that something must or must not be

done– They want to close the white school until another HS was

opened for African American students• This will test Plessy v. Ferguson

Cummings vs. Richmond County Board of Education

• Results– Lower court agrees to lawsuit filed by parents but Georgia

Supreme Court overturns the decision– Taken to the US Supreme Court in Dec., 1899

Official Rulings:• 1) African Americans had right to be educated only to

8th grade• 2) Closing the white school did not relate to the equal

rights granted by the 14th amendment• 3) Use of funds to open the elementary school and

close high school was a state issue

Annette Kellerman promoted women's right to wear a fitted one-piece bathing suit, 1907. She was arrested for indecency.

But we also cannot fail to mention women during this time…