Download From Slavery to Emancipation

African Americans:
Path to Civil Rights
Lesson Objective:
 Today we will analyze the INJUSTICES of African
Americans in the United States up to World War II.
From Slavery to Emancipation
Emancipation = to set free
America was built on the backs
of millions of slaves
Cotton picked by slaves fueled
the textile (clothing) factories of
the north
Tobacco was also an important
early product that made
America a wealthy country
Many Americans were opposed
to slavery on moral or economic
grounds, or both
How did African American’s
contribute to the success of
southern America?
From Slavery to Emancipation:
Black Participation in the Civil War
 The Civil War was not
originally about freeing the
slaves
 “If I could save the Union by
keeping slavery, I would. If I
could save the Union by
freeing slaves, I would. My
goal is to save the Union”
 Fighting for freedom became
a primary goal
 Blacks contributed in many
ways
Black Participation in the Civil War
 Over a hundred thousand blacks
joined the Union Army (the
North)
 Hundreds of thousands of Blacks
fled Southern Plantations
 Many helped the North by
transporting supplies, being
cooks, providing heavy labor, and
spying on the South
 Many southerners were genuinely
surprised their slaves left them
African Americans Are Free!!!,
sort of…
 Lincoln issues the Emancipation
Proclamation
 Frees slaves in the Southern
States, which he does not have
the power to do
 Does not free the slaves in the
border states, even though he
would have the power to do so
 Needs the Border States for
support
New Rights for African Americans
 13th,14th, and 15th
Amendments gave African
Americans new rights
 African Americans became
citizens, slavery was
outlawed, the right to vote,
the right to public
accommodations (hotels
and trains)
 Shortly after the war, Grant
became President. He won
by 300,000 votes, of which
700,000 African Americans
voted for him
• Blacks eagerly set up their own
schools, churches, and businesses
• Two Senators, 20 Congressmen,
hundreds of State Legislators
Virtual Slavery to Escape
Post Civil War Era
 Blacks were officially free, but faced
many problems
 Land was given back to Southern
traitors, not the slaves that helped the
Union
 difficult to buy or lease land
 had to sign a labor contract for one year
 The homeless, jobless, and orphans
were sent to plantations to be
“apprentices”
Post Civil War Era
 Sharecropping and
tenant farming, endless
debt
 the dreaded company
store
 Southern States did not
have to guarantee rights
for blacks
 Intense poverty and
discrimination
 How did sharecropping
and tenant farming keep
AA’s in debt?
No money, no land
rent is paid by working someone else’s
land and paying with crops
At harvest time,
sharecroppers can not cover their debt
sharecropper
cannot leave the farm until debt is paid
• Jim Crow was the name of a
song and dance performer
• A white man who put on black
face and then acted “black” It
was a very popular show for
decades
• Jim Crow laws were laws that
discriminated against AA’s
• Segregation in housing,
schooling, and public facilities
(transportation, hospitals, trains,
etc.)
• Also a system of respect and
lack of respect
Jim Crow Laws
• Whites often called black men of all
ages, “boy”
• Black men would have to tip their
hats as whites walked by
• Sometimes, blacks would have to
step off the side walk onto the street
to let whites pass by
• “Yes sir, no sir”
Click on image
Segregation – separating on the basis
of race
 African Americans had
separate schools,
transportation, restaurants,
and parks, many of which
were poorly funded and
inferior to those of whites.
Belzoni, Mississippi Delta, Mississippi
Roadblocks to Integration
Intense racism
continued
New rules went largely
un-enforced by State
and Federal
Governments
Emergence and
acceptance of the Ku
Klux Klan (KKK)
African Americans in the early 1900s: “I am tired of being poor. I am tired
of being lynched. I am tired of the South. I am going to move North!
This movement of African Americans became known as the “Great Migration.” Many African
Americans headed towards New York and started a cultural movement called the Harlem Renaissance.