Chapter 7

1. Chapter 7

2. Daily Question How were the civil and political rights of certain groups in America undermined during the years after Reconstruction?

3. Objectives • Assess how whites created a segregated society in the South and how African Americans responded. • Analyze efforts to limit immigration and the effects. • Compare the situations of Mexican Americans and of women to those of other groups.

4. Did You Know? Ida Wells was born in Mississippi in 1862, the daughter of enslaved African Americans. She was educated in a Freedmen's Bureau school. At the young age of fourteen, Wells began to teach in a rural school. In 1884 she moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where she continued teaching as well as attended Fisk University. In 1891 she lost her teaching position because she had refused to give up a seat in a "whites only" railroad car. This led to a profession in journalism in which she began a campaign against lynching.

5. In the course of the Gilded Age, the equal rights extended to African Americans during Reconstruction were narrowed. • This move away from equality for all had a lasting impact on society in the United States.

6. Resistance and Repression • Southern states used loopholes in the Fifteenth Amendment and began to impose restrictions that barred almost all African Americans from voting.

7. In 1890 Mississippi required all citizens registering to vote to pay a poll tax, which most African Americans could not afford to pay. • The state also required all prospective voters to take a literacy test. Most African Americans had no education and failed the test. • To allow poor whites to vote, some Southern states had a grandfather clause in their voting restrictions. This clause allowed any man to vote if he had an ancestor on the voting rolls in 1867.

8. Other Southern states adopted similar restrictions. The number of African Americans and poor whites registered to vote fell dramatically in the South.

9. Legalizing Segregation • In the late 1800s, both the North and the South discriminated against African Americans. In the South, segregation, or separation of the races, was enforced by laws known as Jim Crow laws.

10. In 1883 the Supreme Court overturned the Civil Rights Act of 1875. The ruling meant that private organizations or businesses were free to practice segregation. • Southern states passed a series of laws that enforced segregation in almost all public places.

11. The Supreme Court ruling in Plessy v. Fergusonendorsed "separate but equal" facilities for African Americans. This ruling established the legal basis for discrimination in the South for over 50 years. • In the late 1800s, mob violence increased in the United States, particularly in the South. Between 1890 and 1899, hundreds of lynching’s—executions without proper court proceedings—took place. Most lynchings were in the South, and the victims were mostly African Americans.

12. What was the result of the Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson? • (The Supreme Court ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson endorsed "separate but equal" facilities for African Americans. This ruling established the legal basis for discrimination in the South for over 50 years.)

13. The African American Response • Booker T. Washington, an African American educator, urged fellow African Americans to concentrate on achieving economic goals rather than legal or political ones. He explained his views in a speech known as the Atlanta Compromise. • Washington also ran the Tuskegee Institute which became known as a vocational education institute.

14. The Atlanta Compromise was challenged by W.E.B. Du Bois, the leader of African American activists born after the Civil War. • Du Bois said that white Southerners continued to take away the civil rights of African Americans, even though they were making progress in education and vocational training. He believed that African Americans had to demand their rights, especially voting rights, to gain full equality.

15. Question • How did the viewpoints on solving discrimination differ between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois? • Booker T. Washington urged fellow African Americans to concentrate on achieving economic goals rather than legal or political ones. Washington said African Americans should prepare themselves educationally and vocationally for full equality. • Du Bois said that white Southerners continued to take away the civil rights of African Americans, even though they were making progress in education and vocational training. He believed that African Americans had to demand their rights, especially voting rights, to gain full equality.

16. In 1892 Ida B. Wells, an African American from Tennessee, began a crusade against lynching. She wrote newspaper articles and a book denouncing lynching's and mob violence against African Americans.

17. poll taxes literacy tests grandfather clauses violence Segregation via Jim Crow laws became the norm, and blacks lost voting rights.

18. Chinese immigrants also faced racial prejudice in the West at this time. Faced with severe job discrimination, some Chinese-Americans started their own businesses.

19. Turning to the Federal Courts • In 1886 in the case of YickWo v. Hopkins, the U.S. Supreme court sided with the Chinese immigrant that challenged a C.A. law banning Chinese from owning businesses. • 1898, The court ruled that individuals of Chinese decent, born in the U.S. could not have his or her citizenship taken away.

20. Sante Fe Ring • After the Mexican-American War, despite garuntees of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that Mexicans would retain their property rights. They began to loose the land they had farmed and ranched for years. • The ‘Sante Fe Ring,’ an association of rich Americans got the federal government to grant control of millions of acres of land in New Mexico. The “new” land owners propmtly began kicking the Mexicans off of their property.

21. Las Gorras Blancas,a Mexican American group, fought for their rights by inflicting property damage on landowners and publishing grievances in their own newspaper. In the Southwest, four out of five Mexican Americans lost their land after the Mexican-American War, despite a treaty which guaranteed their property rights.

22. Prior to the Civil War, women played a large role in reform movements, including the call to abolish slavery. • Under Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the duo united two groups to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in 1869. The head of the NAWSA's congressional committee, Alice Paul, a Quaker social worker, used protests to force President Wilson to take action on woman suffrage. • After the NAWSA became alarmed at Paul's activities, she left and started the National Woman's Party. This group picketed the White House and went on hunger strikes if arrested.

23. Susan B. Anthony voted in an election in 1872 and was arrested. • Awaiting trial, she toured the nation, delivering a powerful speech on the issue. Activists did not secure women’s suffrage during the 19th century.

24. The debate over the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments split the suffrage movement into two groups and weakened its effectiveness. • By 1900 only Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, and Colorado had granted voting rights to women.

25. The temperance movement called for the moderation or elimination of alcohol. Many progressives believed alcohol was the cause of many of society's problems. • In 1874 the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was formed. At first the temperance movement worked to reduce alcohol consumption, but later it pushed for prohibition—laws banning the manufacture, sale, and consumption of alcohol.

26. 7-2 • Objectives • Analyze the issue of corruption in national politics in the 1870s and 1880s. • Discuss civil service reform during the 1870s and 1880s. • Assess the importance of economic issues in the politics of the Gilded Age.

27. Daily Question • Why did the political structure change during the Gilded Age?

28. Did You Know? President James A. Garfield lived for 80 days after an assassin shot him in the arm and the back. Doctors could not find the bullet lodged in his back. Alexander Graham Bell tried to find the bullet using an electrical device, but he too failed. Garfield ended up dying from an infection. At that time, there were no X-ray machines, CAT scans, MRIs, or modern antiseptics that probably would have saved Garfield's life.

29. President Rutherford B. Hayes attacked the practice of patronage. • The "Stalwarts"—a group of Republican machine politicians who strongly opposed civil service reform—accused Hayes of backing civil service reform to create openings for his own supporters. • Civil service reformers were called "Halfbreeds."

30. It was extremely difficult for either party to push it political philosophy during the Gilded Age. • Neither party could gain control of the White House or both houses of the Congress, which resulted in an uneasy balance of power in Washington D.C. • This made it extremely difficult for the parties to pass effective legislation.

31. Both the Republicans and the Democrats were well organized in the late 1800s. The presidential elections were won with narrow margins between 1876 and 1896. In 1876 and 1888, the presidential candidate lost the popular vote, but won the electoral vote and the election.

32. In the presidential election of 1884, Republicans remained divided over reform. Democrats nominated Governor Grover Cleveland of New York, a reformer who opposed Tammany Hall. • Republicans nominated James G. Blaine, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives. Blaine was popular among Republican Party workers. • A major issue in the campaign was corruption in American government. Voters focused on the morals of each candidate.

33. Cleveland • Only one president in this time period had a reputation for honesty. • In 1884 President Grover Cleveland became the first Democratic President in twenty-four (24) years.

34. Corruption plagued national politics as many officials accepted bribes.

35. The Republican candidates for the election of 1880 were a Halfbreed, James Garfield for president, and the Stalwart, Chester Arthur for vice president. They won the election. • President Garfield was assassinated a few months into his presidency. He was killed by a Stalwart who wanted a civil service job through the spoils system.

36. A Campaign to Clean Up Politics • Under the spoils system, or patronage, government jobs went to supporters of the winning party in an election. • Writers, such as Mark Twain, expressed concerns over the corruption. • By the late 1870s, many Americans believed that patronage corrupted those who worked for the government. They began a movement to reform the civil service.

37. The spoils system, in which party supporters received government jobs regardless of their qualifications, shifted power to a few. This system made the political parties extremely powerful.

38. In 1883 Congress passed the Pendleton Act and President Arthur signed it into law. • This civil service reform act allowed the president to decide which federal jobs would be filled according to rules set up by a bipartisan Civil Service Commission.

39. The Pendleton Act • Candidates competed for federal jobs through examinations. • Appointments could be made only from the list of those who took the exams. • Once appointed to a job, a civil service official could not be removed for political reasons.

40. The Republican candidate in the 1888 election was Benjamin Harrison. His campaign was given large contributions by industrialists who wanted tariff protection. • The Democratic candidate was Cleveland. He was against high tariff rates. Harrison won the election by winning the electoral vote, but not the popular vote.

41. As a result of the election of 1888, Republicans gained control of both houses of Congress and the White House. The Republicans were able to pass legislation on issues of national concern. • The McKinley Tariff cut tariff rates on some goods, but increased the rates of others. It lowered federal revenue and left the nation with a budget deficit.

42. Tariffs taxed imported goods, which supported American industry but increased consumer prices. Monetary policy disputes concerned the gold standard, where gold became the basis of the nation’s currency. The economic issues of tariffs and monetary policy caused debate during the Gilded Age.

43. 7-3 • Objectives • Analyze the problems farmers faced and the groups they formed to address them. • Assess the goals of the Populists, and explain why the Populist Party did not last.

44. Daily Question • What led to the rise of the Populist movement, and what effect did it have?

45. Did You Know? During the hard times for farmers in the 1880s, many farmers left their homesteads in the West and headed back to the East. "In God we trusted, in Kansas we busted," was a sign that one wagon carried as it headed East. Another sign read, "Going home to Mother."

46. Millions of Americans moved west after the Civil War to pursue the American dream. • A variety of factors made their lives extremely difficult, which led to the social and political revolt known as Populism—and created one of the largest third party movements in American history.

47. In the 1890s, a political movement called Populism emerged to increase the political power of farmers and to work for legislation for farmers' interests.

48. People moving to the West and South in the late 1800s knew that their lives would not be easy. • They did not anticipate many problems that made survival nearly impossible. low prices for crops high transportation, equipment, and loan costs drought reduced influence in politics

49. Frustrated by these problems, farmers began to organize.

50. The nation's money supply concerned farmers. To help finance the Union in the Civil War, the government issued millions of dollars in greenbacks, or paper currency that could not be exchanged for gold or silver coins. This rapid increase in the money supply without a rapid increase in goods for sale caused inflation—a decline in the value of money. The prices of goods greatly increased.