The First New South

1870-1900

Redemption

• By end of 1877 every Southern state government had been "redeemed." – political power had been restored to white Democrats, known as

the "Redeemers" or the "Bourbons.“• Some were from the plantation elite, others were “new men”

• Redeemers committed to:– "home rule" – social conservatism– economic development.– Lower taxes– reduced spending– diminished state services

Challenges to Bourbon Rule

• By late 1870s, groups were protesting cuts in services and the Bourbon commitment to pay off the prewar and Reconstruction debts in full– In Va. the "Readjusters" emerged, demanding that the state

revise its debt payment procedures so as to make more money available for state services.

• Readjusters won control of the VA legislature in 1879

• In 1880-90s, Populists also challenged Bourbons– Populists grew out of the concerns of small farmers

• sought to unite small farmers, black and white

• But dissident uprising proved only temporary– By 1900, South had developed into a one-party region

The “Lost Cause”

• Redeemers also promoted the “Lost Cause”– acknowledged defeat, but also merits of a greater cause

• CSA memorials in Southern cities• CSA cemeteries• Southern Historical Society• CSA memorial groups

– Sons of Confederate Veterans; United Daughters of the Confederacy

– Lost Cause was a psychological tool to deal with defeat• South lost in a just and noble cause—NOT an immoral cause• creates Southern white unity, across class lines• aids the Democratic Party• a “religious” movement

Lost Cause Imagery

                                                                                                                                                        

                                                                

Blacks and the New South

• Blacks and whites had always lived side by side in the South– emancipation and

urbanization created new tensions

• Dealt with through Jim Crow laws

                                    

                                       

Jim Crow society characterized by:

• Disfranchisement

• Segregation

• Economic subjugation

• Violence

Disfranchisement

• First Stage (1870-1890)– Violence, Intimidation & Fraud

• Physical and economic intimidation

• Rise of KKK and Democratic Rifle Clubs

• Gerrymandering, miscounts, electoral fraud

– Northern Abandonment• End of Reconstruction in 1877

Disfranchisement

• Second Stage (1890s)– Legal Disfranchisement

• Mississippi Constitution of 1890– Poll taxes

– Literacy Test/Understanding Clause

– Grandfather Clause

• Upheld by U.S. Supreme Court in Williams v Mississippi (1898)

– Policies did not violate the 15th Amendment

Segregation

• De jure segregation instituted in 1890s

• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)– Supreme Court held Louisiana’s separate

streetcar law did not violate 14th Amendment• “Separate but Equal” established as law

Violence

Economic Subjugation

• Tenantry– Sharecropping

– Renting

– Debt Peonage

Economic Subjugation

• Tenantry– Sharecropping, Renting & Debt Peonage

Alabama Sharecroppers, 1939

Causes of Jim Crow

• Ambivalence on the part of Northern defenders of black rights

• Economic problems of poor whites• ‘Negrophobia’--anti-black propaganda and fear• ‘Scientific’ justification for segregation• ‘White man’s burden’--imperialism abroad• Northern and Southern white reconciliation• Sanction of Supreme Court—Plessy, Williams• Jim Crow reinforces itself—becomes “normal”

Black Middle Class

• Segregation did allow for the development of a small black middle class– teachers, preachers, doctors, storekeepers,

lawyers• managed to acquire property, establish small

businesses, or enter professions

– Rise of a black middle class also helped give rise to black colleges

• Fisk, Dillard, Xavier, Morehouse, Tuskegee

Booker T. Washington (1856-1915)

• Born a slave in Virginia

• Educated at Hampton U.

• Founder of Tuskegee U.

Tuskegee Institute

Tuskegee, circa 1900

Classes at Tuskegee

Mattress making, early 1900s

Beekeeping

Tuskegee’s Blacksmith shop

Work at Tuskegee

The Atlanta Compromise

• Washington asked to give an address at the the “Negro Pavilion” at the 1895 Cotton States expedition in Atlanta

• Urged both southern blacks and whites to "cast down your bucket where you are.“

• "In all things that are purely social," he said, "we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress."

Washingtonian Accommodation

• Blacks should not blame whites for their situation

• Blacks should start from the bottom, work their way up– Build an economic base through farming and industry

• Accept Jim Crow—work for economic opportunity – Civil/political rights not as important as economic opportunity

• Opposed agitating for black rights – A diversion of energy

– Aroused white hostility

The Tuskegee Machine

• Washington’s accomodationist approach endeared him to influential whites– Money, patronage, jobs

• Up from Slavery (1901)– American tale of hard work

Dined with Roosevelt, 1901