Matthew Blazejewski Reconstruction Review Study and Discussion Questions

9/5/11 Ms. McGraw

1. What changed (improved) for African Americans after emancipation and what did NOT change (improve)? Improved Freedmens Bureau improved their quality of living (Brinkley 408) Could finally search for their families (Brinkley 417) Allowed to marry (Brinkley 417) Allowed to live wherever they desired (Brinkley 417) Were not forced to work long hours on the fields (Brinkley 418) African Americans worked in the south to establish schools (Norton 457) Foundation of colleges (Norton 460) 13th Amendment abolished slavery (Norton 421-422) 14th Amendment allowed adult males to become citizens (Brinkley 410; Norton 450) 15th Amendment suffrage for all adult males (Brinkley 412; Norton 453) Williams v. Mississippi, 1898 voided grandfather laws (Brinkley 434) African American politicians fought for Did not improve African Americans were discriminated against and lynched purely because of their color (Brinkley 434-435) Hostility from white people (Norton 445) Increase of segregation (Norton 457) Institution of Jim Crow Laws (Norton 501) Ku Klux Klan Attacks, including Alfred Richardsons testimony (Alfred Richardson Testifies about Reconstruction Era, Kennedy 25)

Social

Political

Use of the poll tax (Brinkley 434) Use of grandfather laws (Brinkley 434) Northern Democrats denounced racial equality and integration within whit communities (Norton 449)

Economic

laws requiring equal accommodations in the South, and were successful (Norton 457) Booker T. Washingtons Efforts (Brinkley 431) Industrialization of the South (Norton 456) Provision of jobs (Norton 456)

Sharecropping (Brinkley 429) Crop-lien system (429; 436) Unable to obtain land because it was being sold to wealthy investors in the North (Norton 446) Unable to obtain land because they were blocked by white people (Norton 454) Federal government did not provide land, which frustrated Frederick Douglass in his account following the abolishment of slavery (Frederick Douglass Complains, Kennedy 34)

2. To what extent were the Republicans and federal government in general interested in equal rights for African Americans? Be able to demonstrate with specific reasons and examples, including significance of Supreme Court cases and laws. Demonstrated interest Freedmens Bureau (Brinkley 408) 13th Amendment 14th Amendment (Brinkley 410; Norton 450) 15th Amendment (Brinkley 412; Norton 453) Ku Klux Klan Acts (Brinkley 421) Grants exemplary leadership Failed to demonstrate interest Democrat voters in Connecticut, Minnesota, and Wisconsin rejected black suffrage in 1865 (Norton 446) Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896 validated segregation in railroad cars (Brinkley 433; The Supreme Court Declares that Separate is Equal (1896) Kennedy 56-67)

through use of the military in protecting civil rights of victims of the KKK in South Carolina (Brinkley 421) Desegregating street cars in New York City and the District of Colombia (Norton 446) Public accommodations law in Massachusetts (Norton 445) Proposal to extend the life of the Freedmens Bureau (Norton 449) Proposal to pass a civil rights bill which would counteract black codes in the South (Norton 449) South Carolinas establishment of a land commission (Norton 457) Labor contracts established by the Freedmens Bureau (Norton 464)

Cumming v. County Board of Education, 1899 laws establishing schools for only whites were allowed even if there were no comparable schools for African Americans (Brinkley 433) Johnsons vetoing of both proposed bills (Norton 449) Corrupt Republicans only interested in earning money (Norton 458) Slaughterhouse Cases, 1873separated state and national citizenship (Norton 468) US v. Cruikshank, 1876 -- 14th Amendment did not give federal government power to act against whites who attack blacks (state responsibility) (Norton 468) US v. Reese, 1876 15th Amendment did not guarantee a citizens right to vote, but listed unallowable grounds for denying suffrage (Norton 469)

3. Describe and explain the significance of minstrel (blackface) shows.

Popular form of American entertainment, especially in the North (Brinkley 426) Included a group of seventeen or more white men who had darkened their faces seated facing the audience (Brinkley 426) Included jokes, dances, ballads, music, and instrumentalists (Brinkley 426) White minstrels lashed out at abolitionists and antislavery activists because they had declared the performances derogatory (Brinkley 426) Created demeaning stereotypes, especially of African American soldiers (Brinkley 426) Significant because it attested to the high level of racism (Brinkley 426) Increased white prejudice towards African Americans (Norton 558) Also significant because African Americans began to put on their own minstrel shows, usually more authentic than white performances (Brinkley 427) Black minstrels introduced new dances to their routines that established foundations for tap and jazz (Brinkley 427) Black minstrels also introduced new music, including ragtime, jazz, and rhythm and blues (Brinkley 427) Black minstrels began performing in dramas (Brinkley 427)

4. In what ways was the New South new? (Brinkley 427-436).

Areas of progress within the postReconstruction South Growth of industries, including textile manufacturing, tobaccoprocessing, iron, and steel (428) Railroad development and expansion (428) Need for an industrial work force (428) Strong senses of community in mill towns (428) African Americans rise to the middle class (420) Increasing support of education for African Americans (430) Voiding of grandfather laws in Williams v. Mississippi (434) Ida B. Wells anti-lynching movement (435) Beginnings of public school systems in each Southern state (Norton 460)

Areas of continued problems within the post-Reconstruction South Long hours and low wages in various industries (428) Inflated prices of goods (428) Suppression of workers protests and union formation (428) Hardly any employment opportunities for African Americans (if they were able to find a job, it was menial and they were not paid highly) (428) Convict-Lease System (428) Sharecropping (429) Crop-lien system -- lead to increasing indebtedness, bondage, and economic failures (429; 436) Gradual growth of white supremacy (433) Poll taxes (434) Literacy tests (434) Grandfather laws (434) Elaborate system of segregation (434) Lynchings (434-435) Ku Klux Klan attacks on Republicans in the South (Norton 459) Hayess withdrawal of troops from the South following the Compromise of 1877 (Brinkley 424)