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Name_____________________________
Date: 2/25/16
Period: 8
United States History and Government: Segregation Reading
The United States went through a turbulent [crazy] period of change during the aftermath of the
American Civil War. The southern states were occupied by the federal army like a conquered [taken
over] territory and new laws were passed which affected millions of people. Social unrest [large
numbers of angry people] spread throughout the country as southerners were forced to accept African
Americans into their society. Racial tensions increased and the relationship between the freedmen
[recently freed African Americans] and the planters [powerful landowning white men] became
incredibly strained.
1. Why was the relationship between freedmen and planters so strained?
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2. How was the social situation during Reconstruction similar to race relations in the United States
today?
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It was during this time that many southern politicians regained [got back] their old seats in the
United States Congress. They were determined to keep the freedmen inferior to white men in the south
at all costs. They hadn’t been able to stop the Radical Republicans from passing the Reconstruction
Amendments in the mid-1860s but they blocked any further attempts at federal reform by tying up bills
in the Senate. Republicans were not able to protect the freedmen as well as they had before thanks to
southern interference.
3. Why weren’t the Radical Republicans as efficient [effective] at protecting freedmen once the
Democrats regained their seats in Congress?
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At the local level, southerners (who were members of the Democratic Party) began passing
small laws to infringe [violate] the rights of African Americans without breaking the 14th or 15th
Amendments. Democrats began a campaign to separate white culture and society from the developing
African American culture in the south. This process was called segregation and its effects can still be felt
today.
Democrats and other racist white southerners figured that if
they couldn’t enslave African Americans anymore, then they
wanted nothing to do with them.
Segregation was the official process of legally forcing whites and blacks to live separate lives by
creating separate places for them to live, work and relax. Each new building that was constructed during
Reconstruction was designed to have two sets of waiting rooms, bathrooms and water fountains. One
was set aside for white people, and one was set aside for African Americans. “Whites Only” or “No
Coloreds” signs were hung up in businesses, parks, movie theaters, and government buildings to
separate people by race in public.
Signs like this popped up all
over the southern states to split
everything up based on race.
Have you ever felt discriminated against based on your race, creed or sexual orientation? How did it
make you feel?
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4. Define the term segregation and use it in a sentence.
Definition:
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Sentence:
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Segregation lasted for almost 100 years thanks to the support of Democrats in the federal
government. It was difficult for Republicans to stop segregation because there were thousands of small
state and local laws that supported it and they didn’t have the manpower to sort through them all.
Additionally, by this time most people in the northern states were tired of hearing about racial tension
in the south. Many of them had decided that Reconstruction was over and it was time for African
Americans to take care of themselves.
Democrats defended segregation by claiming
that freedmen were separate from whites but
they had equal opportunities and facilities as
them.
5. Identify 2 reasons why segregation was able to last so long despite being an unfair system
A.
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B.
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Reconstruction officially came to an end in 1877 when the federal army was withdrawn from the
south and the military districts were officially disbanded. There was now no one to prevent segregation
from spreading and growing stronger. Nothing would be done about segregation until the 1960s when
the Civil Rights Movement began.
6. When did Reconstruction come to an end?
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Name_____________________________
Date: 2/25/16
Period: 8
United States History and Government: Segregation Homework
Directions: Read the following excerpts from newspapers. One is from 1873 when segregation was
spreading through the south and one is from 2014 on the relationship between young men of color and
the police of NYC.
Document 1
New Law to Separate Negros from Whites to be Voted on Today
Montgomery, Alabama April 2nd 1870
The city legislature is meeting this afternoon to vote on a progressive new law that will create “separate
but equal” accommodations for negro men, women and children on all public property. If the vote passes, the city
council is predicting that “white and colored people will have their own spaces designed to prevent further racial
tension and solve the issues created by the introduction of thousands of free negroes into our communities.”
1. Is this document a primary source or a secondary source? How do you know?
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2. How do you think most African Americans reacted to the news of segregation? Why?
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Document 2
America's two systems of justice
For more What in the World watch Sundays at 10 a.m. & 1 p.m. ET on CNN
By Global Public Square staff
Michael Brown – killed by a police gun in Ferguson, Missouri. Eric Garner – killed at the hands of the police
in Staten Island, New York.
Young black men were 21 times more likely than white men to be shot dead by cops, between 2010 and
2012, according to a ProPublica analysis. With regard to drugs, many studies – including by the Justice
Department itself – show that blacks are about three times as likely to be arrested than whites. That's true even
though government data shows that they do not use drugs three times the rate as whites.
The conclusion is obvious. Many of the gains of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s have slipped away and
an unspoken system of segregation has settled in the United States once again.
1. Is this document a primary or secondary source? How do you know?
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Critical Thinking:
Both articles cover similar topics although they were written over 140 years apart.
What does that imply about race relations in the United States?
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Name_____________________________
Date: 12-17-14
Period: 2
United States History and Government: Segregation Exit Ticket
Define the term segregation in your own words
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Why did segregation develop in the southern states after the Civil War?
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
The southern lawmakers couldn’t make laws that blatantly violated freedmen’s rights anymore
African Americans and white both wanted separate societies
Southern lawmakers created it to fulfill campaign promises from before the war
None of the above
Name_____________________________
Date: 12-17-14
Period: 2
United States History and Government: Segregation Exit Ticket
Define the term segregation in your own words
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Why did segregation develop in the southern states after the Civil War?
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
The southern lawmakers couldn’t make laws that blatantly violated freedmen’s rights anymore
African Americans and white both wanted separate societies
Southern lawmakers created it to fulfill campaign promises from before the war
None of the above