Notes

[Joey Hanson]

My Questions:-What laws and restrictions were put on African-Americans and other minorities after Reconstruction ended? Voting rights-Explain the significance of Plessy v. Ferguson.The decision established the doctrine of separate but equal witch allowed to maintain segregated facilities for blacks and whites as long as they provided equal service.Notes for Plessy v. FergusonPlessy, Having white skin, attempted to sit in an all-white railroad car. After refusing to sit in the black railway carriage car, Plessy was arrested for violating an 1890 Louisiana statute that provided for segregated “separate but equal” railroad accommodations. Those using facilities not designated for their race were criminally liable under the statute.At trial with Justice John Ferguson presiding. Plessy was found guilty on the grounds that the law was a reasonable exercise of the state’s police powers based upon custom, usage, and tradition in the state. Plessy filed a petition for writs of prohibition and certiorari in the Supreme Court of Louisiana against Ferguson, asserting that segregation stigmatized blacks and stamped them with a badge of inferiority in violation of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth amendments. The court found for Ferguson and the Supreme Court granted cert.Notes for Section 3 Segregation and Discrimation:African Americans Fight Legal Discrimation:Voting Restrictions: some states in the South limited voting rights to only blacks who could read. All blacks had to pay a poll tax so the government can find out who can vote. The grandfather clause stated that if a man failed the literacy test or couldn't pay the poll tax then if his father or grandfather could vote before January 1, 1867.Jim Crows Laws: During the 1970s and the 1980s Supreme Court failed to overturn the poll taxor the grandfather clause.Turn-of-the-century Race Relations:Blacks face both formal and informal discrimination and that is called racial etiquette. Most times blacks were humiliated because of racial etiquette. For example blacks had to yield and take off their hats to white people. Booker T. Washington said that white and black people should work together for social progress. He earned support from white people.Violence: Blacks who didn't follow the racial etiquette could face severe punishment or death.Discrimination in the North: Most blacks in the South thought that in the North there was no discrimination but when they got there they quickly found out that there was discrimination in the North like the South. In New York City in the year of 1900 a young black man killed a white police officer because he thought that his wife was being mistreated by the white police officer.Discrimination in the West: Blacks were not the only ones that were discriminated against Native Americans, Mexicans, and the Chinese all were.Mexican Workers: Mexicans worked on the railroads in the Southwest because the Mexicans were used to the regions hot and dry climate. Some Mexicans were forced into debt peonage.Excluding the Chinese: In 1880 there were more than 100,000 Chinese immigrants.Notes for Section 4-1American Leisure:Amusement Parks: The Roller Coaster opened in 1894 and the first Ferris Wheel opened in 1893. Many Americans were ready for new forms of entertainment.Bicycling and Tennis: The first American bicycles really challenged their riders. A bump might have tossed the rider over his handlebars. Bicycling started as an only male sport but later became a female and male sport.Baseball: Alexander J. Cartwright founded the game of baseball off of a British game named Rounders in 1845. In five years there were 50 clubs and 12 in New York in the Mid-1860's. In 1869 the Cincinnati Red Stockings were the first team to tour America to play baseball which led to formation of the National League in 1876 and the American league in 1900. The first World Series was in 1903 where the Boston Pilgrams beat the Pittsburgh Pirates. Blacks had their own league the Negro American league and the Negro National League.