Essential Questions: How did the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling affect the civil rights of African Americans? How did conditions for African Americans in the North differ from the South?
I. African Americans fight legal discrimination
A. Voting restrictions
1. Poll tax
a. This was a legal tax that had to be paid before
qualifying to vote
2. Literacy tests
a. Had to pass a reading test before qualifying to vote
B. Race relations in the New South
1. Downward spiral of the southern economy caused frustration
and bitterness in which blacks became the scapegoats for
white rage
a. Lynchings, anti-black riots, political
disenfranchisement all common
b. Most blacks lost right to vote in south, and Republican
Party almost disappeared from most southern states
c. States passed �Jim Crow� laws mandating racial
segregation in public facilities of all kinds
-Schools, hospitals, parks, and transportation
d. Separate facilities sanctioned in 1896 Supreme Court
case Plessy v. Ferguson
-This decision permitted racial segregation for
almost 60 years
II. Turn of the century Race Relations
A. Discrimination in the North
1. Many blacks moved to Northern cities for better jobs
a. They faced discrimination in the work place
-Labor unions often discouraged black
membership
-Sometimes competition between whites and
blacks became violent