Today in U.S. History we had a in class day to work on our projects. The internet was very unreliable, so all we could really do was read over our section. After reading my section again I learned more about the poll tax and the grandfather clause. I learned that the poll tax was an annual tax that HAD to be paid before a person could vote. Most African Americans could not afford to pay the poll tax, so many were unable to vote. I also learned more about Plessy vs. Ferguson, which made it legal to have for example a restroom for whites and a seperate restroom for blacks. I think that the Supreme Court should have ruled differently on this topic. I learned that this one case made racial segregation legal for more than 60 years. The final thing I learned about African Americans was that they were often hung, which was called lynching, without even having a legal case. It was often done by mobs.African Americans were not the only people that were discriminated against. Native Americans, Mexican Residents, and Chinese immigrants were also discriminated usually in the West. I learned that Mexicans were vital to the building of railroads and also to the development of mining and agriculture to the Southwest. Even though they were so important they were foced into a debt peonage. I learned that a debt peonage was a system that bound laborers into slavery into to work off a debt to the employer. I also learned that Chinese people were often discriminated against because white people were afraid that the Chinese might take their jobs from them. They were usually forced into segregated schools and neighborhoods. That is what I learned aboutn the discrimination of Mexicans and Chinese Immigrants.
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