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13th amendment

abolished slavery and involuntary servitude

14th amendment

1. made former slaves citizens; invalidating the Dred Scott decision
2. stated that life, liberty, and property cannot be denied to any person without due process; equal protection under the law
3. protected recently passed congressional legislation, guaranteeing civil rights to slaves.

15th amendment

provided suffrage for black males


- majority of freedmen entered sharecropping with former masters and other nearby planters
- led to a cycle of debt and depression for southern tenant farmers

black codes

-intended to place limits on socioeconomic opportunities for black people
- forced them to work under conditions closely resembling slavery

Compromise of 1877

1. called for the removal of all federal troops from the south
2. supported internal improvements in the south
3. promised there would be at least one southerner in the cabinet
4. gave conservative southern democrats some control over local patronage
5. gave the south a "free hand" in race relations; white conservatives returned to power, lynchings increased, and black voter were disenfranchised.

1873 slaughterhouse cases and the 1883 civil rights cases

- both narrowed the meaning and effectiveness of 14th amendment
- both weakened the protection given to blacks under 14th amendment

Plessy v. Ferguson

1896- upheld segregated railroad facilities
- sanctioned "separate but equal" in public facilities

tactics to disfranchise black voters

1. literacy tests and poll taxes
2. anyone whose forebear had voted in 1860 (grandfather clause)
3. electoral districts were gerrymandered to favor democratic party

Booker T. Washington

Atlanta Compromise Speech: 1895, called on blacks to seek economic opportunities rather than political rights.
-stressed importance of vocational education and economic self-help.
- opposed public political agitation

W.E.B. Du Bois

emerged during the progressive era as the most influential advocate of political, economic, and social equality for blacks.
- founded NAACP in 1909
- advocated intellectual development of a "talented tenth" of blacks
- opposed Booker T. Washington's program for black progress
- stressed fighting for full political and social rights


National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
- rejected Booker T. Washington's gradualism and separatism
- focused on using the courts to achieve equality and justice

The Progressives

Civil rights laws for black Americans were NOT part of the progressive program of reforms
- legislation during the Progressive Era was LEAST concerned with ending racial segregation

Ida B. Wells-Barnett

African American civil rights and early women's rights advocate
- principal public opponent to lynching in the south

the KKK

- first emerged during Radical Reconstruction (1865-1877)
- book The Birth of a Nation played a role of the resurgance of the KKK during the progressive era
- favored white supremacy and immigration restriction


- blacks fought in strictly segregated units
- first massive migration of black Americans from the south occurred during and after WWI

Harlem Renaissance

- during 1920s
- outpouring of Black artistic and literary creativity
- key figures: James Johnson, Langston HUghes, Zora Hurston, Josephine Baker

Marcus Garvey

- leader of Universal Negro Improvement Association
- thought blacks should return to Africa


1. black pride
2. black economic development
3. black nationalism
4. Pan-Africanism

New Deal

did help African Americans survive depression, but DIDN'T confront racial segregation and injustice.

Shift in Voting Patterns:

as a result of the Emancipation Proclamation, Republican party had the majority of black voters.
- during Franklin Roosevelt, witnessed a major shift to the DEMOCRATS


black migration to the north and west continued
- Roosevelt issues order forbidding discrimination in army
- continued to fight in segregated units

President Harry Truman

- issued executive order to desegregate army in 1948
- Dixiecrats walked out of 1948 Democratic National Convention to show their opposition to this legislation

Brown v. Board of Education

- segregation in public schools was a denial of equal protection of the laws guaranteed in 14th amendment
- as a result of this victory, NAACP continues to base the court suits on the basis of violating the 14th amendment


- sent federal troops to Little Rock's Central High School to enforce desegregation laws.
- although he sent troops to Little Rock, he wasn't very enthusiastic about civil rights
- granted power to the Civil Rights Comission in 1957 to investigate and report on cases involving discrimination

Martin Luther King, Jr.

- goal was peaceful integration of races
- nonviolent civil disobedience influenced by writings of Henry David Thoreau
- head of Southern Christian Leadership Conference
- citizens have obligations to disobey morally unjust laws

Sit-in movement

College students staged a sit-in in Greensboro, NC
- example of non-violent civil disobedience

Malcom X

leader of Black Muslims, opposed King's teachings

key Civil rights leaders

1. Dr. King- SCLC
2. Roy Wilkins- NAACP
3. Stokely Carmichael- Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
4. Black Panthers- Huey Newton
5. Black Muslims- Malcom X

Black leaders favoring separatism

1. Marcus Garvey- back to Africa
2. Elijah Muhammad- Black Muslim
3. Stokely Carmichael- Black Power
4. Huey Newton- Black Panther

Black power

established that blacks should take control of their economic and political life
- Huey Newton and Stokely Carmichael
- Black Panthers and Nation of Islam emphasized Black nationalism

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