Chapter 15 Black Southerners Challenge White Supremacy

1. Chapter 15 Black Southerners Challenge White Supremacy

2. Social Darwinism • Semi-scientific evidence and academic scholarship • Whites (Anglo-Saxons) culturally and racially superior • Applied evolution to human societies, races • Justified great wealth • Obligation to share values of western world • “White man’s burden” poem echoing the responsibility of the advanced white man to take care of the genetically less advanced

3. II. Education and Schools • Irregular and uneven • Field work limited black education • Few opportunities • Equipment and supplies • Segregated schools • Two school systems • Expensive

4. Black and White Illiteracy in the United States and the Southern States, 1880–1900 • Figure 15–1. Black and White Illiteracy in the United States and the Southern States, 1880–1900 • Although more than half of adult black Southerners were still illiterate in 1900, black people had made substantial progress in education during the last two decades of the nineteenth century. This progress is especially remarkable considering the difficulties black youngsters and adults faced in acquiring even an elementary education.

5. South Carolina’s Black and White Public Schools, 1908–1909

6. The Hampton Model • S.C. governor Coleman Blease, “Instead of making an educated negro, you are ruining a good plow hand and making a half-trained fool.” • Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute • Founded 1868, Virginia • Samuel Chapman Armstrong – white missionary • Vocational training • shoemaking, carpentry, tailoring, sewing • Middle class values • Accepted Jim Crow practices • “Prized Student” = Booker T. Washington

7. Washington and Tuskegee • Booker T. Washington • Apostle of industrial training • Hampton graduate • Born a slave, 1856 • Founded Tuskegee Institute, 1881 • Accepted segregation—for now • Stressed learning a skill • industrial-agricultural work would earn respect and acceptance for race • Gained white people’s support and money

8. Booker T. Washington • Booker T. Washington, looking regal in this portrait, was the most influential black leader in America by 1900. White business and political leaders were reassured by his message that black people themselves were responsible for their economic progress and that people of color should avoid a direct challenge to white supremacy. Although W. E. B. Du Bois appreciated Washington’s commitment to the advancement of black people, he believed more emphasis should be placed on developing an educated elite who would take the lead in solving the race problem. Washington was a Southerner who looked for practical solutions to the problems of everyday life; Du Bois was a Northerner who stressed the need for intellectual advancement.

9. Tuskegee Critics • Subordinate roles • Trained black people for lives of labor • Education more than acquisition of skills • Intellectual growth and development • W. E. B. Du Bois • Harvard trained scholar • “Talented tenth” • The best educated 10% of blacks had to help promote progress and advance the race

11. III. Church and Religion • Baptist was largest denomination • More autonomy - self rule • Less supervision from church hierarchy • Churches provided opportunity free from white interference • Sanctuary for black women

12. Church Affiliation Among Southern Black People: 1890 • The vast majority of black Southerners belonged to Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian congregations in the late nineteenth century, although there were about 15,000 black Episcopalians and perhaps 200,000 Roman Catholics. Source: Edward L. Ayers, The Promise of the New South, pp. 160–61.

13. The Church: Solace and Escape • “The joys of heaven” – trials of life will gain you rewards in afterlife • Emotional involvement • Enthusiastic participation • Many did not challenge white supremacy • Black religious gatherings threatened white people • Churches burned, black ministers assassinated

14. Cool Down • Explain the position of both Booker T. Washington and WEB Dubois on education. • In the late 1800s who’s position do you support as being better for black education? Explain?

15. Page 511 – Chapter 15 Section 3 two column notes

16. IV. Red Versus Black: The Buffalo Soldiers • Army Reorganization Act of 1869 • Required four all-black regiments • Western frontier fighting the Plains Indians • Segregated units • White officers -Often racist • Poor equipment, inferior food, inadequate housing • Less likely to desert or use alcohol • Developed immense pride as professional soldiers • Plains Indians associated black soldiers with buffalo

17. Military Posts where Black Troops Served, 1866–1917 Map 15–1. Military Posts where Black Troops Served, 1866–1917 Black troops in the Ninth and Tenth Calvary and the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Infantry were assigned almost exclusively to western military posts from the end of the Civil War until the early twentieth century.

18. The Buffalo Soldiers • Combat • Black soldiers used to subdue Red people • Civilian hostility to black soldiers • Brownsville, 1906 • Discriminated by white people and Mexicans • Civilian attacks on individual soldiers • August 14th, violence erupts and black soldiers blamed • 167 black soldiers dismissed • Government admits injustice, 1972

19. V. African Americans in the Navy • More unappealing than the army • Black sailors represented ten percent • Integrated ships • Blacks and sailors served together • White sailors • Refused to eat, bunk, or take orders from black men • Black men stoked boilers, cooked, and served food

20. VI. The Black Cowboys • 5,000 black cowboys • Rode herds • Cattle drives to Kansas, Nebraska, and Missouri

21. Cool Down • Do you believe that Booker T. Washington's approach of learning a skill or craft was a positive approach towards civil rights or do you believe that it was accepting of an inferior status? Explain.

22. IX. Black Entrepreneurs • Black businesses • Banks, newspapers, insurance companies, etc. • Maggie Lena Walker – founded St. Luke’s Penny Savings Bank. Became the wealthiest black women in America • Madam C. J. Walker – developed a formula to enrich the hair of black women. Donated to Bethune Cookman, Tuskegee and the NAACP. Died a millionaire • Business failures • Too dependent on poor, black people • Difficult to obtain financing

23. X. African Americans and Labor • Black men worked in factories, mines, and mills • Usually paid less than white men • White men claimed blacks robbed them of jobs • Black women worked for white families • Cooks, laundresses, and maids

24. XI. Black Professionals • Strictly segregated • Medicine • Barred from AMA • National Medical Association, 1895 • Black nurses • Inappropriate profession for black women • Considered domestics, not trained professional • Law • Permitted to practice in court • Barred from ABA

25. XII. Music • Ragtime • Composed for piano, no lyrics • Jazz • Not composed and not confined to piano, mostly improvised • Originated in New Orleans • Blues • The music of poor, black southerners • Guitar, harmonica, washboard

26. XIII. Sports • Boxing - No official prohibition • Jack Johnson – First black heavyweight champion • Whites looked for “a great white hope” • Retired former champion, Jim Jeffries, unretired to fight Johnson and reclaim the title for whites. • Johnson knocked him out. • Johnson divorced his first wife (black) and married a white woman. • They faced social ostracism, she committed suicide • Married a second white woman • Johnson was arrested for violating the Mann Act • Mann Act – Illegal to transport a woman across state lines for immoral purposes • Sentenced to a year in prison and fined $1,000 – he fled to Canada then France. • Lost his title in 1915 in Havana in the 26th round – many believe he threw the fight to avoid a longer sentence. • Returned to the US and served 10 months in Leavenworth Prison.

27. Jack Johnson Spars with Marty Cutler • Jack Johnson spars with Marty Cutler in the early twentieth century. Johnson was a superb fighter whose ability to defeat white boxers rankled many white men. But Johnson’s involvement with white women infuriated them even more and led to his imprisonment.

28. Sports cont. • Baseball • Both blacks and whites played after the Civil War • Moses Fleetwood Walker – the last black man to play in MLB. Segregated in 1887. • Basketball • Black children played in organized YMCA games, 1906 • College Athletics • Black students not allowed to participate • All black conference was created, CIAA, Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association

29. Cool Down • In what ways did black people make significant professional gains?