American Civilization

CM4 (19 oct)

From Slavery to Segregation

Introduction
· Sept 2016:National Museum of African American History and Culture(NMAAHC)
· Director of NMAAHC Lonnie Bunch:"This is not just a museum for black people,but a museum to
help people of one culture to understand the experience of people of a different culture”
· Barack Obama:
"By knowing this other story, we better understand ourselves and each other: It binds us
together:It reaffirms that all of us are American,that African-American history is not somehow
separate from our larger American story, it's not the underside of the American story

Outline
I/ Slavery(1619-1865)
a) During colonial era
b) The peculiar institution
c) The North-South division
-The 1820 Missouri compromise
-The 1850 compromise
d)The American civil War

II/ Reconstruction(1860s-1890s)
a)Newly gained rights
b)The black codes/Jim Crow Laws

III/ Segregation(1896-1964)
a) “Separate but equal”
b) Early mobilizations against segregation
c) The Civil Rights movement led by Martin Luther King

I/ Slavery(1619-1865)
A) Slavery during the colonial era
·1rst African slaves brought by Dutch ship:1619 Jamestown, Viginia
·Slavery present both North and South in American colonies:
√South(half of slave population)→plantations/agricultural work: tobacco +rice first,then
cotton(19thcentury)
√North(mainly in New England)household duties + skilled jobs;a few freedmen

During the colonial pillar period which means before the American revolution slavery was
present everywhere in the country both north and south.
 Half of the slave population lived and worked in the plantations of the southern colonies and
provided cheap workforce for production of tobacco and rice. The production of cotton only
became the primary crop during the 19th century after cotton was introduced in 1790.
Yet slavery existed throughout the colonies including in the northern colonies like Massachusetts,
Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York. So in the northern colonies, slaves had significant
presence for example in Boston, they accounted for 10% of the population, and in New York they
represented 7.2% of the population.
If in the southern colonies salves were mainly used for agricultural, in northern colonies they
were owned mostly by ministers, doctors, the merchant elites and the slaves performed
household duties and skilled jobs, for example, the slaves were carpenters, sail makers, printers,
tailors, shoemaker, blacksmith bakers, etc. In the north a number of blacks had gained the status
of freedmen after being freed for their faithful service, and other accessed freedom through the
wills of their owners. However, free black people in the northern colonies had some kind of
intermediate status. They remained inferior. They were free, but they remained inferior.

B) The peculiar institution

· American revolution = more opportunities to obtain freedom
· US constitution (1787): tolerance towards slavery = « slave trade clause » → migration and
importation of slaves maintained till 1808
·Northwest Ordinance (1787) → no slavery in Old Northwest
· 1790:757,000 black persons in the US, including 60,000 free Blacks and 697,000 slaves

When the American revolution, started enslaved African Americans saved opportunity to
obtain freedom by joining the Army, in particular the loyalist army which supported great Britain.
In the north, the ideas of the revolution and the economy irrelevance of slavery produced
gradual emancipation of black people. On the contrary, in the south the patriots farmers and
planters continued defending the slave system.
After the revolution, slavery became known as the peculiar institution. Because in 1787 the
US constitution officially authorized a form of tolerance towards slavery in the US. The slave trade
close is stated that the migration or importation of Slaves should not be maintained by Congress
till 1808. In the northwest ordinance of 1787, the government had prohibited a slavery in the
territories of the old northwest. Consequently, northern states abandoned slavery one after the
other. The first state to abandon slavery was Pennsylvania in 1780. And it was followed by
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, etc. So northern states abandoned
slavery one after the other, slavery remained legal in the southern states. And the situation
created a cultural economic and political division between the two regions.
So in 1808 congress only banned the importation of slaves from Africa, but it did not stop
slave work in America.

C) The North-South division

· Western expansion → Issue of maintaining the balance between slave states and free states
·1820 Missouri Compromise after debates on the admission of Missouri as a new slave state →
no slavery north of the Missouri- Arkansas border
·1850 Compromise over admission of California as a state → California = free state + severe
fugitive slave laws.
· Underground railroad
· Abolitionist movement

In 1819, the misery territory applied to be admitted as a new slave state, changing the
balance/equilibrium, which was 11 free staves and 11 slaves staves. And when Missouri applied
to become a new slave state, it meant that it would give the advantage. In the senate to the
south it would give the voting advantage. So the whole situation led to passionate debates in
congress and the misery compromise was arranged in 1820. According to this compromise,
Missouri was admitted as a slave state and Maine was admitted as a free state. And also north of
the Missouri Arkansas border slavery would be prohibited forever.
In 1850, agitation was revived after the admission of California, Utah and New Mexico as free
states. The south viewed with anguish this situation because the north would have more power.
So with the admission of California, Utah and New Mexico, there would be 18 free states and 15
slave states.
Moreover southerners were very worried about losing slaves because there was a secret
northern organization called the underground railroad which helped runaway slaves to escape
and reach Canada. So southerners felt betrayed by the north. And in order to solve this crisis, a
new compromise in 1850 was reached. California could become a free states and more fugitive
slave laws would be passed. As a consequence, people helping fugitive slaves had to pay very
heavy fines and could go to jail up to six months.
Stormy debates continued dividing the country as anti-slavery agitation spread everywhere in
the north under the influence of the abolitionist movement. A movement in favor of the abolition
of slavery and this movement was born in the 1830s. So the abolitionist movement gathered
both white and black activists were advocating the end of slavery and in the south this content
was similar, the most extreme southerners call for secession. So the situation was very tense.

D) The American Civil War

· December 1860 : Lincoln elected president → call for separation of southern states
·Secession = Confederate States of America
√ Like an independent country with its president (Jefferson Davis), its capital city (Richmond), its
own army etc.
· War like 2 countries within one country
· 650,000 men killed + most of South destroyed
·End of war :1865 → abolition of slavery = 13th amendment to US constitution

When Lincoln was elected president of the United States in December 1860, southerners
viewed his election as the victory of the abolitionists. And the southerners became convinced
that the only safety for the south lay in a separate southern confederacy. South Carolina first left
the union/seceded. And soon followed six other thousand states, so this thousand states
proclaimed secession and created the confederate states of America. This confederate states of
America operated as an independent country with its own president named Jefferson Davis with
its capital in Richmond Virginia with its own army etc.
The civil war was indeed like having two countries within one country, and that fratricide war
lasted for four years, opposing Americans with other Americans and killing 650,000 men and also
destroying most of South. What was at stake was the economic and the political dimensions of
slavery as well as its human aspects, slavery was finally abolished after the victory of the north in
1865 with congress passing the 13th amendment to the constitution. The 13th amendment to the
constitution abolished slavery and ended it everywhere in the country. As a result, four million
slaves were freed in America.

II/ Reconstruction(1860s-1890s)
A) Newly gained rights during the Reconstruction
·After-war challenges
a)reintegrating the Southern states
b)transforming life of newly freed black people
·14th Amendment(1868)：US citizenship
·15th Amendment(1870):right to vote
·Freedmen's bureau →helping in transition from slavery to freedom

The goal was also rebuilding the self which had been physically, politically, and economically
broken by the war in order to create a favorable environment where white and black people
could live together.
Black people gained a real status in American society when congress voted two new
amendments. First, the 14th Amendment in 1868 which made black people US citizenship. So they
gained US citizenship with the 14th Amendment. Second the 15th Amendment in 1870 which gave
African Americans the right to vote. So in 1870 with the 15th Amendment African Americans were
given the right to vote. In this amendment guaranteed that the right to vote could not be denied
based on race color or previous condition of servitude.
The freedmen's bureau was also created at that time to help black people in their transition
from slavery to freedom. So the freedmen’s bureau offered housing, food, legal assistance, it
participated in the construction of hospitals to provide care for black people and also in the
creation of universities to bring education. The most famous universities created by the
freedmen's bureau were Fisk University and Howard University.

B) The black codes/Jim Crow Laws

· Southerners were pardoned by US president and their lands restored → no change in
mentalities
· Black codes:additional taxes, restrictions (firearms, home- ownership, access to Jobs), no equal
access to public facilities
· Preventing black people from using their right to vote: poll tax, literacy test,« Grand Father
Clause »
· Jim Crow Laws :local discriminatory procedures in the South

However the mentality inherited from the stave-owning society had not disappeared overnight
in the defeat of the South and the abolition of slavery. White southerners had been pardoned by
the US President and their lands had been restored. So they did not question much of their racist
views. Consequently, three blacks continued suffering much in the south as local southern
governments maintained white supremacy with the establishment of black codes also known
under the famous name Jim Crow laws. So these black codes Jim Crow Laws kept blacks in the
state of social and economic inferiority.
For instance, they were imposed taxes when they were farmers, they were forbidden from
owning a dog, their access to home ownership was limited, they were excluded from certain
profession, they could not possess a gun, they could not testify in court, interracial marriages
which mean marriages between black and white people were forbidden, and also they did not
have access to the same public facilities as white people. For example they did not have access to
the same transportation, schools, hospitals, libraries, restaurants, hotel bathrooms, drinking
fountains.
Black people were also prevented from using their right to vote by measures such as poor
taxes literacy and property tests and a special measure called the grandfather clause. The
grandfather clause was created in 1898 and it meant that people could only vote if their father
and grandfather could vote before 1867. And of course it was impossible because their father
and grandfather were before the abolition of slavery. So logically they could not vote. The Jim
Crow Laws were local discriminatory procedures in the Southern states and they were designed
to prevent black people from using their rights as real citizens but at that time they were not
already established as a system.

III/ Segregation(1896-1964)
A) “Separate but equal”
·1896 Supreme Court Ruling Plessy V. Ferguson → racial segregation is
constitutional=doctrine“Separate but equal”
·Black people:considered inferior,2nd rank citizens
·Separation of black and white people in public places

Things changed in 1896 with the Supreme Court Ruling or Supreme Court Decision Plessy V.
Ferguson. The Supreme Court Decision Plessy V. Ferguson made racial segregation constitutional
under the doctrine of separate but equal.
In 1890, Louisiana passed a separate declaring car act declaring that all companies in Louisiana
must provide different accommodations for white and black passengers. so 2 years later in 1892
someone called Homer Plessy bought a first class ticket and he was a black man. He sat in the car
for white only so he was arrested for violating the separate car act. He argued in court that the
separate car Act was evaluation of the 13th and the 14th Amendment of the constitution.
Plessy lost in court twice in regional courts. It took his case to the US Supreme Court but it was a
failure because instead of winning the Supreme Court decided that racial segregation was
constitutional. so the decision Plessy V. Ferguson officially acknowledged that African Americans
were considered inferior at the national level. Under the doctrine separate but equal, African
Americans really became 2nd rank citizens. The Jim Crow Laws became more aggressive causing
separation between white and colored in new places such as swimming pool etc.

B) Early mobilizations against segregation

· 1901 Booker T. Washington to the White House
· 1909 NAACCP / W.E.B Dubois
· Artistic movement :« The Harlem Renaissance »
· A. Phillip Randolph → Black labor union “The Brotherhood of the Sleeping Car Porters”/ fair
employment

Now let's talk about the early mobilization against segregation.

From the 1800s to the 1840s African American citizens and intellectuals and activists started
the struggle against segregation. As early as 1901, black educator and politician Booker T.
Washington presented the cause of his fellow black in Washington DC when he was the first black
guest at the White House invited by President Theodore Roosevelt. Booker T. Washington was
born a slave and he accepted the gradual access to civil rights under the control of Wight
needles. For Booker T. Washington what is important was the gradual access to civil rights under
the control of white leaders.
In 1909, the first Civil Rights organization the NAACP (the national Association for the
Advancement of coloured People) was created by blacks University professor W.E.B Dubois. The
NAACP was created with the help of black and white activists fighting to achieve equal rights for
black people. The NAACP printed a newspaper called the crisis organized demonstrations,
political gathering and helped black people in general with education, housing etc. Dubois was
strongly opposed by a division of Booker T. Washington. Dubois demanded full civil rights
immediately and an increase of political representation for black people.
The 1910s also coincided with what is called the Great Migration of African Americans to the
north. The Great Migration was the moment when they left the agricultural South to move to
the urban and industrial North to find new job opportunities and better living conditions. So in
the 1910s, there was this Great Migration of African Americans to the North and the west and
also the development of a strong African American cultural identity and pride with the artistic
movement named the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem renaissance comprised writers, poets,
painters, filmmakers, singers, musicians etc .
In the late 1920s, the next generation of militants was led by someone called A. Philip
Randolph. A. Philip Randolph created the first black labor Union called The Brotherhood of the
Sleeping Car Porters. This first black labor Union fought for the equal treatment and equal wages
of color trained workers. Randolph battled to establish fair employment for black in the industry
in the Railroad. In 1941 Randolph introduced the idea of mass mobilization to pressure politician
when he began to organize a march to Washington to protest against discrimination in the
different industry. To avoid this gigantic march, the president of the time Franklin Delano
Roosevelt FDR issued an order bearing discrimination in defence industries and federal bureaus
it was called the fair Employment Act.

C) The Civil Rights movement led by Martin Luther King

· 1954 Supreme Court Ruling Brown . Board of Education of Topeka → Desegregation of school
· 1955 Rosa Parks arrested →Montgomery Bus Boycott(lasted 382 days) →1956 Desegregation of
public transportation
· Principles of non-violence,civil disobedience:1960 Lunch counter sit ins,Greensboro,SC + 1961
Freedom Rides
· August 1963 March on Washington → « I have a dream » speech (MLK)
· 1964 Civil Rights Act +1965 Voting Rights Act +1968 Fair Housing Act

The Civil Rights Movement of the 50s and 60s led by Martin Luther King. The first major
landmark triggering the start of segregation was the Supreme Court Ruling Brown v. Board of
Education of Topeka in 1954. A plaintiff named Oliver Brown filled a class action suit against the
board of education of topical cancers board of education.In 1951 Oliver Brown filled a class
action suit against the Board of Education of Topeka Kansas after his daughter Linda was denied
entrance to an all-white elementary school so the final decision states that the field of public
education rejected the separate, but equal doctrine and that segregated school were inherently
unequal so this decision started the desegregation of school.
The following year in 1955, the issue of transportation desegregation was raised because of
the Montgomery Bus Boycott.This is probably the most famous event of the civil rights struggle
and this Montgomery Bus Boycott started after the arrest of Rosa Parks who refused to give her
seat to a white passenger in a city bus . The black population of Montgomery under the guidance
of a young pastor Doctor Martin Luther King organized an embargo of the city buses, an embargo
which lasted 382 days. African Americans represented at least 75% of Montgomery bus users.
They created strategies to avoid using buses causing a major financial loss for the city, for
example, they organized carpool some of them in order to take buses preferred going to work in
carts that were led by horses chariot.
In December 1956 the supreme court of the US declared unconstitutional segregation on
buses the civil rights movement followed the principle of non-violence and civil disobedience and
used very diverse strategies to express its resistance to segregation . To name only a few
examples, we can evoke the freedom rights young black white people riding buses together in
the south . The freedom rides the lounge counter seating and all these strategies were faced with
rage of white protesters, for example in the camps of the freedom riders. They were a group of
black and white people who participated or organized bus trips through the south in 1961. They
were faced with the rage of white protesters who stopped buses, attacked them and sometimes
burned the vehicles.
The odds are the other example. I was giving you a lunch counter sitting. and in 1960 in
Greensboro, North Carolina some African American students asked for service in a restaurant at
the white only counter. Their request was refused but they remain on their seats as a form of
protests. Their sitting drew national and other black students joined the protest organizing similar
counter sit-ins during six months.
 The most iconic moment of the battle led by the civil rights movement was the massive march
on Washington in August 1963 when Martin Luther King pronounced his famous I have dream
speech in front of the Lincoln memorial. After the protests the civil rights act was proposed by
president Kennedy. Kennedy proposed to provide equal treatment of every American regardless
of race. Unfortunately Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963. The civil rights act was
signed later in1964 by President Johnson who had taken the presidential office after the death of
Kennedy. On July the 2nd 1964, president Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act .
The Civil Rights Act ended segregation in public places employment discrimination on the basis
of race, color, religion, sex and national origin. The end of employment discrimination on the
basis of race, color, religion, sex and national origin. The 1964 act also paved the way for two
major follow-up laws. After that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which prohibited literacy tests and
other discriminatory voting practices. Finally the Fair Housing Act of 1968 which banned
discrimination in the sale rental and financing of property so finally the end of discrimination
regarding housing with the end of discrimination in the sale rental and financing of property.