Civil rights movement (1896–1954)
The Compromise of 1877 marked the end of Reconstruction and the withdrawal of northern troops from the South. This political deal decided the contentious presidential election in favor of Rutherford B. Hayes over Samuel J. Tilden. In exchange, southern White elites gained freedom to impose discriminatory practices without federal interference. Violence and fraud had already reduced Black voter turnout between 1868 and 1876. The Radical Republicans had attempted to eliminate governmental and private discrimination through legislation. Their efforts largely ended when the Supreme Court ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment did not give Congress power to outlaw racial discrimination by private individuals or businesses. By 1890, Mississippi passed a new constitution including provisions for poll taxes and literacy tests. These measures severely reduced the number of Blacks who could register to vote. From 1890 to 1908, ten states adopted similar constitutions with provisions to disfranchise most Blacks and many poor Whites. In Alabama, no more than 1,500 Blacks were registered in 1941. Many fewer actually voted despite having the legal right to do so.
In 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court established the doctrine of separate but equal in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson. This ruling upheld state-mandated discrimination in public transportation under the guise of equality. Justice Harlan was the only member of the Court to dissent from the decision. He predicted that if a state could prescribe rules for railroad travel, it could regulate streets to compel white citizens to keep on one side and Black citizens on the other. The Plessy decision provided the legal foundation for Jim Crow laws throughout the South. These laws mandated separate public facilities for Black and White Americans, including schools, restrooms, and transportation. African Americans had to drink from separate water fountains and use separate restrooms. They attended separate schools and were buried in separate cemeteries. Many parks barred them with signs reading Negroes and dogs not allowed. One municipal zoo listed separate visiting hours. The etiquette of racial segregation was harsher in the South. Black men and women were addressed as Tom or Jane, rarely as Mr. or Miss. Whites referred to Black men of any age as boy and a Black woman as girl. Both often were called by labels such as nigger or colored.
The period from 1900 to 1930 is known as the Golden age of black business. According to the National Negro Business League, the number of Black-owned businesses doubled rapidly from 20,000 in 1900 to 40,000 in 1914. There were 450 undertakers in 1900, rising to 1,000 over this time period. The number of Black-owned drugstores rose from 250 to 695. Local retail merchants jumped from 10,000 to 25,000. Madame C.J. Walker built a national franchise business based on her development of the first successful hair straightening process. Booker T. Washington ran the National Negro Business League and traveled from city to city to sign up local entrepreneurs into the national league. Charles Clinton Spaulding founded North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, which became America's largest Black-owned business with assets of over $40 million at his death. Despite this flourishing, Black entrepreneurship was severely handicapped in the rural South where most Blacks lived. They depended on one cash crop, typically cotton or tobacco, and traded with local White merchants who provided credit until harvest time. Only a small number of wealthy Blacks existed, overwhelmingly real estate speculators in fast-growing cities like Robert Church in Memphis.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People formed in 1909 through the efforts of W.E.B. Du Bois and others including Mary White Ovington and Oswald Garrison Villard. Du Bois became editor of its magazine The Crisis. In its early years, the NAACP concentrated on using courts to attack Jim Crow laws and disfranchising constitutional provisions. It successfully challenged the Louisville, Kentucky ordinance requiring residential segregation in Buchanan v. Warley. The organization also gained a Supreme Court ruling striking down Oklahoma's grandfather clause in Guinn v. United States in 1915. Between the first and second world wars, the NAACP devoted much energy to mobilizing a crusade against lynching. Its offices in New York City regularly displayed a black flag stating A Man Was Lynched Yesterday to mark each outrage. Elbert Williams of Brownsville, Tennessee, is believed to be the first NAACP member lynched for his civil rights activities on the 20th of June 1940. He had been part of an effort to register Black voters in his city for that year's presidential election. From 1940 to 1946, the NAACP membership grew from 50,000 to 450,000.
A. Philip Randolph took leadership of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters at its founding in 1925. The union faced opposition not only from the Pullman Company but from press and churches within the Black community. Many were beneficiaries of financial support from the company. The union eventually won recognition from the Pullman Company in 1935 after a ten-year campaign. It secured a union contract in 1937 and became the only Black-led union within the American Federation of Labor. Randolph chose to remain within the AFL when the Congress of Industrial Organizations split from it. The CIO was much more committed to organizing African-American workers and made strenuous efforts to persuade the BSCP to join it. In 1942, Randolph threatened a March on Washington if the government did not take steps to outlaw racial discrimination by defense contractors. He limited the movement to Black organizations to maintain Black leadership. Randolph only dropped the plan after winning substantial concessions from the Roosevelt administration. Members such as Edgar Nixon played significant roles in civil rights struggles of following decades. Many CIO unions made advocacy of civil rights part of their organizing strategy and bargaining priorities.
In 1931, nine Black teenage boys were arrested after a fight with some White men riding rails. They were convicted and sentenced to death for allegedly raping two White women dressed in men's clothes later found on the same train. The NAACP and the Communist Party USA organized support for what became known as the Scottsboro Boys case. The International Labor Defense largely prevailed in controlling those cases and strategies. Their legal campaign produced two significant Supreme Court decisions: Powell v. Alabama and Norris v. Alabama. These rulings extended the rights of defendants facing state criminal proceedings. The political campaign saved all the defendants from the death sentence and ultimately led to freedom for most of them. For a period in the early and mid-1930s, the ILD was the most active defender of Blacks' civil rights. Its campaigns focused national attention on extreme conditions which Black defendants faced in the criminal justice system throughout the South. No Whites were charged with crimes in any of the murders during this era. Whites were so confident of their immunity that they photographed victims and made postcards out of the pictures.
Thurgood Marshall headed the NAACP's legal department in a litigation campaign spanning several decades. Instead of appealing to legislative or executive branches, they focused on challenges through courts. Congress was dominated by Southern segregationists while the Presidency could not afford to lose the Southern vote. The first cases did not challenge the principle directly but sought to establish factually that segregated facilities were not equal. They were typically underfunded with outdated textbooks and facilities. In 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren announced the Court's decision overturning Plessy v. Ferguson. It stated that segregation of children in public schools solely on basis of race was unconstitutional. Governor Thomas B. Stanley of Virginia insisted he would use every legal means to continue segregated schools. Some school districts closed down rather than integrate. By fall of 1955, Cheryl Brown started first grade at an integrated school in Topeka. This marked the first step on long road to eventual equality for African Americans. The decision deprived minority group children of equal educational opportunities and thus equal protection under law.
Common questions
What was the outcome of the Compromise of 1877 for Black voters?
The Compromise of 1877 marked the end of Reconstruction and the withdrawal of northern troops from the South. This political deal decided the contentious presidential election in favor of Rutherford B. Hayes over Samuel J. Tilden while southern White elites gained freedom to impose discriminatory practices without federal interference.
When did the U.S. Supreme Court establish the doctrine of separate but equal?
In 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court established the doctrine of separate but equal in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson. This ruling upheld state-mandated discrimination in public transportation under the guise of equality and provided the legal foundation for Jim Crow laws throughout the South.
How many Black-owned businesses existed during the Golden age of black business in 1900?
According to the National Negro Business League, the number of Black-owned businesses doubled rapidly from 20,000 in 1900 to 40,000 in 1914. There were 450 undertakers in 1900, rising to 1,000 over this time period.
Who formed the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1909?
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People formed in 1909 through the efforts of W.E.B. Du Bois and others including Mary White Ovington and Oswald Garrison Villard. Du Bois became editor of its magazine The Crisis.
When did A. Philip Randolph take leadership of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters?
A. Philip Randolph took leadership of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters at its founding in 1925. The union eventually won recognition from the Pullman Company in 1935 after a ten-year campaign.
What was the result of the Scottsboro Boys case legal campaign?
The political campaign saved all the defendants from the death sentence and ultimately led to freedom for most of them. Their legal campaign produced two significant Supreme Court decisions: Powell v. Alabama and Norris v. Alabama which extended the rights of defendants facing state criminal proceedings.