...Lynching started or was formed in 1880. Between 1882 and 1968 around 4,743 people were killed by lynching. Black people were the main targets and whites only if they were supporting the blacks or did something actually wrong. People would be in fear because they thought the blacks were gonna take there land or jobs. People thought they were doing something wrong and they didn't want the blacks thinking they could retaliate. African-Americans suffered grievously under lynch law. With the close of Reconstruction in the late 1870s, southern whites were determined to end northern and black participation in the region's affairs, and northerners exhibited a growing indifference toward the civil rights of black Americans (Robert L). Taking its cue...
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...Introduction to Africana Studies | The Life Span of Jim Crow, Start to Finish | Sherman T. Gant | S.Gant 12/3/2009 | It’s hard to define a beginning to slavery in the United States. It is said to have begun in the mid 1600’s. The American Civil War began in 1961 when 11 states seceded from the United States. The North or the Union fought against the constitutionality of the secession and the expansion of slavery. Slavery came to an end when the North won the civil war, along with the passing of the 13 amendment. Although slavery was abolished in 1865, it did not give African Americans equal opportunity for education, employment, or basic human rights. Whites in the South during the late 1870s and early 1880s, established Jim Crow laws. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines Jim Crow as the ethnic discrimination especially against blacks by legal enforcement or traditional sanctions. This act, along with racist terrorism and mistreatment downgraded African Americans to a humiliating second class status for decades; until the U.S. Supreme Court started to dismantle Jim Crow laws in the 1950s. This paper will examine the force and the legacy of Jim Crow laws, from the start and finish, and the ongoing effect in today’s world. What was Jim Crow? Following the civil war, Congress passed three amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The thirteenth ended slavery December 18th 1865, the fourteenth banned discrimination July 28, 1868 and the fifteenth gave African-American...
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...Give Me Liberty! Give Us Suffrage! “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!” This famous quote used by Patrick Henry during his Virginia Convention speech was the declaration of the many persons who faced injustice and inequality in America. The United States of America was said to be the land of opportunity and prosperity, but opportunity and prosperity for whom? Terms and conditions were not stipulated upon living in or relocating to America that liberty would only be available to those that qualified. Prior to the 1900’s most of America’s population did not enjoy the full blessings of American Liberty. There were many factors during the 19th century that contributed to being afforded and denied American Liberty. While it was easier for white men with wealth and property to exercise full liberty, the color of ones skin, race, or sex was a hindrance to others wanting to enjoy the benefits of full liberty. During the 19th century, the United States was a “white man’s government.” Whites mainly associated liberty with ownership of property. Therefore, if one owned property, they were entitled to enjoy the benefits of liberty. However, the only persons that owned property prior to reconstruction were white wealthy men. White men in America during reconstruction wanted to keep the “privilege” of liberty to themselves. White men during reconstruction also wanted to keep the right to vote to themselves. According to J. Morgan Kousser “A man with a ballot in his hand is the master...
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...Bibliographic Essay on African American History Introduction In the essay “On the Evolution of Scholarship in Afro- American History” the eminent historian John Hope Franklin declared “Every generation has the opportunity to write its own history, and indeed it is obliged to do so.”1 The social and political revolutions of 1960s have made fulfilling such a responsibility less daunting than ever. Invaluable references, including Darlene Clark Hine, ed. Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004); Evelyn Brooks Higgingbotham, ed., Harvard Guide to African American History (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001); Arvarh E. Strickland and Robert E. Weems, Jr., eds., The African American Experience: An Historiographical and Bibliographical Guide (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2001); and Randall M. Miller and John David Smith, eds., Dictionary of Afro- American Slavery (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1988), provide informative narratives along with expansive bibliographies. General texts covering major historical events with attention to chronology include John Hope Franklin and Alfred A. Moss, Jr., From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans (Boston: McGraw Hill, 2000), considered a classic; along with Joe William Trotter, Jr., The African American 1  Experience (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001); and, Darlene Clark Hine, William C. Hine, and Stanley Harrold, The...
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...assassination was performed by John Wilkes Booth, an actor at the the Ford Theater and a Confederate advocate. The original plan was to kidnap the President and take him to the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, but obviously this failed. This assassination really brought the North into this racial controversy. News of post-war racism did not spread to the North quickly, and when it did, no one expected the South to go as far as to assassinate the President! How could the North stop this? At this point, with the KKK at almost full power, and many other smaller anti-equality groups at large, how was the North supposed to make itself known and exert their authority in a seemingly lose-lose situation? If the North decided to take part in resisting the South’s bouts of racism,they could have another major addition to the Civil War at their hands, but staying out could be the bane of thousands of former slaves who did not deserve to die. Conclusively, the North stayed out of the...
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...Ever since a young individual walked into a historic black church North Carolina and killed 9 people, the flags has been in the spotlight more than ever before. Mississippi is stereotypically known for being a state that struggles with racism. The Confederate flag is recognized as a symbol of hate and racism towards blacks. Many native white southerners feel that the flag is part of their heritage and that black people are overreacting and need to get over it. Black people can not simply just get over their history of slavery and lynching. It is a dark time in history where terrible things were done to black families. They do not know how it feels to have someone close lynched, called racial slurs, or be separated and sold from loved ones to never see them again. So for Mississippi to continue to use this flag as a symbol that represents hate sends a message of ‘white supremacy’ to their residents and the nation. According to Abcnews.org Mississippi Voted to keep the Controversial Flag. To some it is a symbol of hate and racism but to...
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...The Politicization of Civil Rights Moshe Pols-101 To most people, the Civil Rights Movement means equality for blacks and whites. However, over the years, the Civil Rights movement has been a politicized movement for the push of candidates and parties on all sides. They played a role with the southern states seceding from the USA, and the Civil War. Many people don't know that for a long time in fact blacks did play important roles through many important times, and weren't just mere slaves, as most think today. The reason for such a political polarization on the issue, for a wide multitude of reasons. This paper will sort through the beginning of America to more modern times to show how different political parties and policies shaped the civil rights movement and made it take almost 200 years for equality to start taking a foothold from the founding of America. Many seem to think America was founded only by white men wearing wigs. I found looking through history books over years, and looking at paintings of many of the important founders, and in turn the black founders. I will only point out a few and their accomplishments as they are so numerous: Peter Salem, a black hero at the battle of bunker hill, and saved scores of american lives that day. Reverend Jonas Clark and Prince Estabrook were both important in the Battle of Lexington, with the “shot heard around the world”. He called his congregation to the mixed church, and then rallied his black and white patriots...
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...To what extent was the lack of support from Presidents and Congress the main reason why little progress was made in the development of African-American rights between 1896 and 1941? In 1896, politicians were still a direct way in which African-Americans could use to gain higher levels of civil rights in the United States of America. It is arguable therefore that the support from Presidents and Congress over the time period of 1896 to 1941 was crucial to progress and the development of African American rights. However whether there was a lack of support which caused “little progress” or other factors such as deep racist attitudes in the south which were the cause of no development between 1896 and 1941. The Presidents can be seen as a main reason for little progress being made with African American rights between 1896 and 1941. Firstly there is the Booker T Washington case. President Theodore Roosevelt paid very little attention to the growing African-American concerns. He did however make consultations with Booker T. Washington in 1901, but, these were very empty gestures as they produced no significant action on rights for african americans. Much of the general public was disgusted that the President had met with Booker T. Washington and this is much evidence of a strong racist under current which undermined much of all that happened in the USA, despite this Congressmen and Presidents did to try and help rights for blacks. Another example of were Presidents have hindered...
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...Contemporary Hate Crimes, Law Enforcement, and the Legacy of Racial Violence Ryan D. King University at Albany-SUNY Robert D. Baller University of Iowa This article investigates the association between past lynchings (1882 to 1930) and contemporary law enforcement responses to hate crimes in the United States. While prior research indicates a positive correlation between past levels of lynching and current social control practices against minority groups, we posit an inverse relationship for facets of social control that are protective of minorities. Specifically, we hypothesize that contemporary hate crime policing and prosecution will be less vigorous where lynching was more prevalent prior to 1930. Analyses show that levels of past lynching are associated with three outcome variables germane to hate crime policing and prosecution, but the effect of lynching is partly contingent on the presence of a minority group threat. That is, past lynching combined with a sizeable black population largely suppresses (1) police compliance with federal hate crime law, (2) police reports of hate crimes that target blacks, and in some analyses (3) the likelihood of prosecuting a hate crime case. Our findings have implications for research on law and intergroup conflict, historical continuity in the exercise of state social control, and theories that emphasize minority group threat. Steven F. Messner University at Albany-SUNY onflict theories of crime and criminal law posit that the...
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...minutes to share his research but was fairly condensed it seemed, due to his nervous and fast pace of his presentation. After listening to Dr. Waters lecture on the up come of African Americans in Asheville, it really helped open my eyes on how important the YMI building represents the African Americans community as a whole. During this time (1892-1906) African Americans were viewed by the white society to be “unfit” in the community and incapable to succeed. In order to keep the African Americans in place (ignorant) they were often presented with violence such as lynching’s during this time. Dr. Waters covered material that caught my attention and that was new to me. In North Carolina there were forty-three documented lynchings and in our hometown (Asheville or nearby) there were four. The first lynching in Asheville occurred in 1891, the second and third in 1893 and the fourth in 1906; African Americans were not the only ones that were targeted by lynch mobs but the whites as well that were trying to uplift the “negro” through educational efforts. African Americans in Asheville were looking for new tactics to defeat this suppression of race; one of the tactics they used was black...
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...the South seceded, he was the only Southern senator to remain loyal to the Union • That is why the republicans chose him to be Lincoln’s vice-presidential candidate in the 1864 election, so that border states with large slave-holding populations would vote for the Republican candidate • But when Lincoln died, Johnson implemented his own Reconstruction Plan during the first 8 months of his term as president. (It was based on Lincoln’s “Ten Percent Plan”) Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan • Handed out thousands of pardons to Confederate soldiers and politicians • Enforced Lincoln’s plan to admit states if they ratified the 13th Amendment • Took back the land promised to the slaves of Edisto Island, South Carolina (“40 Acres and a Mule”) • But, Johnson's plan left rebuilding the South in the hands of the same people who controlled the Southern governments during slavery • “States Rights” , to Johnson, meant not just letting the South rebuild what the Union army destroyed, but also giving them the responsibility to help the 4,000,000 freed blacks get enough food, clothing, shelter, land, medical care, and education • But the South had no intention of doing this o They set up the Black Codes o Ku Klux Klan is started with help of Nathan Bedford Forest Radical (Congressional) Reconstruction • The...
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...The Great Migration was the relocation of African Americans from the South to mostly the North. From 1915 to 1918, roughly seven hundred thousand African Americans moved in hopes for a better life. There are many reasons why African Americans migrated from the South to the North in large numbers. Because of the Great Migration, African Americans experience some positive and negative realities once they move North. Moreover, the Great Migration has a drastic effect on the entire country as a whole and to the black population. In the South, colored people were placed into harsh environments. African Americans would work long, hard hours tending to fields and/or cooking and caring for their owner’s family for the return of the basic necessities...
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...African American Studies Final Question Answers M5Q1 NOTES: 1. Which of the following best describes Henry David Thoreau's response to Brown's raid? |1.|Thoreau praises Brown and seeks to defend his memory against those who viewed him as a murderer or insane man| |2.|Thoreau is horrified by the violent methods Brown used, arguing that violence will turn many Americans who oppose the extension of slavery against the abolitionists| |3.|Thoreau argues that Brown should not be put to death as this would cause sectional strife and lead to a civil war| |4.|Thoreau is one of many abolitionists who plea for Brown's life to be saved| 3 points Question 2 1. Which of the following best summarizes the letters John Brown wrote to his family while in prison? |1.|Brown is very hopeful that his wife and remaining children will come visit him| |2.|Brown calls upon his sons to continue his work. Although he speaks in very vague terms, it is clear that he hopes they will launch another slave uprising so that his death will not be in vain| |3.|Brown is upset at the fact that some of his children are ashamed to be sons and daughters of the man who planed the raid at Harper's Ferry| |4.|Brown does not write any letters to his family members while in prison, a fact John Earle makes plain in his introduction| |5.|Brown is upbeat and speaks in mostly religious terms about how there is no need to grieve for their father| Question 3 1. Which of the following is TRUE regarding John...
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...art that translated “politics into cultural terms.”2 The FAP looked for a “new sense of authentic American culture – one that championed national values and traditions by celebrating regional and racial diversity.”3 As a result, many artists worked to place African Americans in the historical narrative of the United States while combating long held stereotypes. None were less important than Aaron Douglas, Jacob Lawrence, Dox Trash, and the creators of the Harlem Hospital murals. Throughout the decade, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples (NAACP) continued its struggles to gain social and political equality for African Americans. The NAACP employed many avenues to achieve its goals. An Art Commentary on Lynching and the Marian Anderson concert were two such...
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...represented a Segregated Party commonly known as the Dixiecrats. Each of the three men running for presidency had strong political views with a main focus on their ideals about racial discrimination. “In the biggest surprise in American presidential history,” Harry Truman ended up winning the election marking the start of America’s fight to end the racial problem in the United States. Immediately after President Truman took office, he made it clear that his main goal was to end racial segregation, especially in the southern states. He focused on the main issues including ending segregation in public schools, stop lynching, establish equal voting rights, and integrate the armed forces. The white citizens located in the northern and western parts of the nation were on President Truman’s side to stop racial discrimination. Society’s view of African Americans in the North began to change for the better, schools became integrated and violence was decreased in racially divided cities. With the progressive changes involving race occurring after 1948, it was clear that the people in the northern and western parts of the United Stated did not share the same racial views as Strom Thurmond and others in the South. Leading up to the 1960s, Strom Thurmond had always been a robust democrat that supported racial segregation. He led the fight among politicians that opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1957, and filibustered for a record twenty-four hours. It was starting to become clear to Thurmond...
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