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African American lives, 1877-1900 (Economic changes (Southern life…

- - - - 1879: 6000 black Americans headed to Kansas (known as the Exodusters)
        
        By 1880, Kansas had around 15,000 black citizens
        
        Blacks had headed West to escape white violence
        
        Families used Homestead Act to claim 160 acres each
  - - - Some found jobs but it wasn't easy
        
        Even more educated blacks less likely to get jobs than less-skilled whites
      - White workers feared black job competition so didn't help black workers
        
        Business owners used black workers to help break strikes
        
        Resulted in worse white/black relations
  - - - Cotton demand had collapsed
        
        European nations had bought from other countries during war
    - - Northern-owned railroads propped Southern states up with money
        
        1900: Southern income half that of the North
    - - But trapped in low paid work
        
        Many ended up as sharecroppers, working on plantations owned by former slave holders
  - - - An African American educator and author
        
        Became the leader of African Americans in the USA
      - 1882: Opened a school for black students
        
        Boys taught farming and trades. Girls taught to be housekeepers
        
        Booker wanted to give blacks practical skills but some criticised him for perpetuating idea of black inferiority
      - 1900: He set up the National Negro Business League to support black businesses
        
        His work helped black Americans lift themselves out of poverty
        
        1900: America had 23,866 black teachers, 417 black doctors and 300 black lawyers
- - - - Known as Jim Crow laws, they aimed to keep blacks and whites separate
        
        Transport, services and education kept separate
        
        Separate churches, trains, stations, shops, churches etc.
        
        White schools received 10 times more funding
      - Whites claimed these laws were needed to protect them from uneducated and 'violent' blacks
      - 1896: The Supreme Court said it was ok to have separate facilities for black and white Americans
        
        This meant Jim Crow could continue
  - - - By 1900, black churches had been set up and become popular
        
        Churches important in promoting a sense of community
        
        Many preachers unwilling to challenge Jim Crow laws
  - - - But, many families lived in poor-quality housing
        
        In the North...
        
        Many blacks grouped together in poor neighbourhoods
        
        There were racist landlords
        
        By 1900, most black workers lived in 90% black areas
        
        Housing often terrible
  - - - Gained degrees from Universities of Harvard and Berlin
      - DuBois part of an educated, Northern black elite
- - - - They remained a powerful force in the South
        
        1900: Blacks in the South faced the threat of KKK violence and intimidation
  - - - Known as 'Redeemer' governments
        
        Because they claimed they were undoing the 'damage' caused by abolition and Reconstruction (1865-77)
    - - Literacy tests started
        
        In order to vote people had to pass a literacy test
        
        Because many blacks were uneducated, they failed the literacy tests and so couldn't vote
        
        1896: There were 130,334 blacks registered to vote. by 1905 only 1342 were registered (this was the impact of literacy tests)
  - - - Black Americans used constitution to campaign for civil rights
    - - Sadly, black services not equal due to Jim Crow
  - - - Victims' bones broken, skin burned and bodies cut before being hanged
        
        Hardly any perpetrators arrested or bought to trial