To What Extent Were The Rights Gained By African Americans During Reconstruction Eroded By 1912

The Reconstruction Period which ended in 1877 had, in theory, improved the situation of African Americans (hereafter, blacks) in America. However, the Reconstruction Period had ended with white America washing their hands of blacks and the problems associated with them. The civil rights gained during the Reconstruction Period sent a wave of optimism through black communities across America however, due to a loss of interest from whites, these rights seemed to lose almost all substance. The rights that were introduced during this period came in the form of three main sectors: constitutionally, politically and socially. Therefore, in order to determine the extent of the damage done to these changes by 1912, these three factors must be analysed. The degree of the erosion of these changes must also be analysed while taking into account the difference between the north and the south of America. In the south, the vast majority of rights gained during Reconstruction had become near non-existent. Furthermore, the situation of the black social and political standing was once again extremely poor. However, in the north of America the black situation was more prosperous. Although there was still the common theme of a loss of interest and a racist attitude in the north, the black situation appeared contrastingly better. Blacks who had been either living in the north, or had migrated during the Great Migration, had more political freedom, had a stronger social standing and their economic position appeared stronger.

The social standing of blacks in the south had returned to its extremely poor state despite efforts being made, in the form of rights, during the Reconstruction Period. Contrastingly, in the north, blacks appeared to have a much better social status. The majority of white America saw little wrong with the manner in which the south was treating blacks. Furthermore, after Rutherford B. Haze, a Republican, had promised the south that the Federal Government would leave the south alone if they voted for him to become President (which he succeeded in becoming) the south had complete freedom to treat blacks however they pleased. This lack of intervention from the north allowed extremely oppressive schemes such as the Jim Crowe system to be established. The Jim Crowe system, in essence, was legalised segregation. It prevented blacks from going to the same schools as whites and introduced segregated public transport and restaurants. This system virtually segregated anything in the public domain and succeeded in its aim to separate the two races and create a reality of superiority for white people. This led to an tremendously poor standard and quality of living for blacks in the south and also caused there to be a huge feeling of helplessness for black people as they felt like the Federal Government was doing nothing to stop the oppressive south and the rest of the country was simply ignoring their painful struggle. The Jim Crowe system meant that segregation had become formalised, stronger and created a much more distant divide between the whites and blacks. Furthermore, the Jim Crowe system that was introduced in the south completely violated the 14^th Amendment (which essentially gave blacks civil rights). However, even though upholding the Constitution is of utmost importance in America, the north simply ignored these violations and it was this hypocrisy that meant many of the rights blacks had gained were of little importance in south. A prime example of the lack of willingness to uphold the Amendments that were introduced during Reconstruction is the separate but equal case of 1896. Plessy, a mixed race man, complained about the fact that train tickets for blacks and whites were equal while the quality between black and white carriages was extremely contrasting. Plessy believed this was a violation of his 14^th Amendment rights. However, the Supreme Court chose to vote in favour of the railway company stating that the railway company was private property which therefore gave it the right to choose the quality of its carriages as it pleased. Although the importance of the right to own property is huge, the fact that Plessy was given no sympathy (which is shown by the justices vote of 8-1 against Plessy) indicates how unwilling the majority of America was to allow black rights to have any substance or meaning. Furthermore, blacks, by the end of 1877, had almost no political role. Congress and state legislatures began to lose their black members which meant bringing about true justice in a court case that involved both a black and a white person became impossible. Therefore, although the south was more extreme in its hatred and rigorous in its efforts to get rid of black rights, it is undeniable that public opinion was similar throughout America and whites across the country still did not view blacks as being equal- as indicated by the unjust and biased legal system.

Although, the Jim Crowe system did not exist in northern states, there was a high level of informal segregation there. However, due to the fact that this segregation was not imposed by laws and was instead created by public opinion, the black situation had the potential to improve in the north. It is due to this reason that hugely important black civil rights activists such as Booker T. Washington had the opportunity to bring about improvements. For example, Washington was able to play on the heartstrings of influential white people which eventually meant they were willing to fund black schools . Washington was able to combat white public opinion successfully and bring about important changes due to the fact that black rights had not been attacked by racist laws. The seemingly more liberal approach of the north also allowed W.E.B DuBois to bring about the setting up of one of the most influential black groups in American History, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People . The NAACP was able to prosper and, although it had a contrasting ideology to Washington s due to its more extreme approach, was unified in terms of its end goal, to bring about equality. The Crisis was the name of the NAACP newspaper that acted as a form of black propaganda that illustrated both the terrible injustices blacks faced and their achievements, such as academics. Both DuBois and Washington gave blacks a voice in the north and also meant that whites saw and sympathised with black aims which in turn, improved the social standing of blacks in the north and meant that their rights were being upheld, to an extent.

Furthermore, during the Reconstruction Period blacks were granted the freedom of travel which allowed The Great Migration (which began in the 1880s) to take place. In turn, due to the fact that blacks could travel freely they were able to make use of job opportunities that were arising due to the mass industrialisation that was taking place in the north. This meant that the standard of living for black people living in the north was improving. Black families could now afford to send their children to schools as they were no longer required to work with their families on the fields. However, the Great Migration brought a number of new problems to blacks. Black people living in the south were commonly arrested after choosing to migrate as the south did not want to lose the cheap labour blacks provided to the north. Furthermore, due to the commonly held opinion throughout America that blacks were lesser people, there was tension in workplaces. For example, if a factory was to undergo a strike, the white workforce would be replaced by a black one. This led to race riots and a reputation that blacks were undercutting white labour which would have worsened the public opinion of blacks. However, it is important to understand that blacks were no longer being trapped by constraints of sharecropping (the industry in which 75% of blacks in the south worked in) due to the fact that their right to travel was, on the most part, unchallenged. This allowed blacks to form a steady middle class due to higher paid jobs that were in abundance in the north.

What gave blacks the vast majority of their rights during the Reconstruction Period were the Constitutional Amendments. Due to the segregation that the south wanted to impose between the races, southern governments began to find loopholes in the Amendments. For example, in order to prevent blacks from voting (which was introduced via the 15^th Amendment) southern governments introduced literacy tests that were necessary in order to vote. Seeing as 45% of blacks were illiterate this greatly reduced the effect of political rights blacks had gained. Other systems such as The Grandfather Clause and the Poll Tax were also employed as a means of preventing blacks from voting. However, these schemes were only found in the south in the north blacks could freely vote. This once again indicates that the extent of the erosion of black rights is completely contrasting depending on which part of America is being analysed.

The black situation varied across America in terms of how extreme the erosion of black rights was. In the south, essentially all of the rights that had been granted were gone. Due to the negligence of the northern governments, the south was completely free to do what they wished. Due to the exceptionally racist sentiment that public opinion held, no one saw any issue with systems such as Jim Crowe which, although completely violated the new rights blacks had, were not viewed as negative due to the common feeling of white superiority. The only right that had been truly upheld in the south was that blacks were no longer slaves, by definition. However, they were now victim to a life that was as close to slavery as the south could get away with. Contrastingly, in the north, the majority of black rights had been upheld. Although public opinion in the north was still racist, blacks were not constricted by laws that attacked their rights which allowed for black prosperity in many sectors such as economic and educational. Due to the fact that travel for blacks was allowed, the oppressive laws of the south could be escaped from to the more liberal north. This allowed them to indulge in the livelihoods that they believed the rights of the Reconstruction Period had granted them and escape from their forgotten rights in the south.