In the Post-Reconstruction South, segregation sprang from whites conviction that they were the ‘dominate race’, which violated the principle of equal liberty [1]. Slavery was abolished in 1865 with the intention of creating equality for African Americans. Unfortunately, this only made the white southerners more irritable towards Southern blacks. Despite the efforts of the Reconstruction, white southerners continued to restrict and explicitly segregate African American’s political and social rights throughout the rest of the 19th century. After the efforts of the Reconstruction, from 1877 to 1900, white Americans continued to limit the freedoms of African Americans in society through restrictions on marriage, voting, labor, transportation, and public services. This explicit segregation was further fueled through hate crimes, that were a common occurrence during this time. During Post Reconstruction, the South had laws against interracial marriage. Antimiscegenation laws, were laws against the mixing of races through marriage.[2] African Americans were not allowed to marry, cohabitate, or be involved in a relationship with a white person.[2] This segregation was a way to keep the white race 'pure.' In labor, African Americans rights were further limited by white authority. [3][4] Blacks received little compensation and faced threats of violence to enter into labor contracts in the sharecropping system. [3] Those convicted of small crimes were part of a convict lease system of labor that was disease ridden. [4]Strict rules left black laborers in poverty and left them with little to earn a living of their own and to enjoy the "fruits" of freedom promised to them after the Civil War. Making a living was for survival and not for enjoyment, as blacks found themselves able to pay for only the basic of necessities like food and clothes; scarcely for other products like whiskey for Christmas. [5] Also during this time, major transportation and essential public services were separate. Buses, trains, and even drinking fountains were segregated between the whites and blacks in society. Additionally, with the political power of the African-Americans growing, the Southern whites took action in dealing with the surge of African-American votes through poll taxes and literacy tests. [6] Despite the amount of effort put into introducing and adopting equality acts by active black politicians and their supporters, white resistance made it almost impossible for them to enjoy these rights. [7] Eventually, all the racial tension amounted to the surfacing of race groups. African Americans were suddenly exercising rights that the white Americans didn't believe their slaves should ever have. The white supremacists reasoned that the only way to assert their power was through violence. The numbers of lynchings of African Americans and race riots in Post Reconstruction rose dramatically, resulting in thousands of black casualties. [8] It is evident through all the turmoils that the two races would never be able to coexist in the South peacefully.
[1] Foner, Eric. Give me liberty!: an American history. Seagull third ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012, 646.
[2]Wallenstein, Peter. "Reconstruction, Segregation, And Miscegenation: Interracial Marriage And The Law In The Lower South, 1865–1900." American Nineteenth Century History 6.1 (2005): 57-76. Print.
[3] Sharecropping . (2013). The History Channel website. Retrieved 5:11, September 25, 2013, from http://www.history.com/.
[4] "Convict Leasing." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 03 Oct. 2013. http://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/themes/convict-leasing/.
[5] ""When We Worked on Shares, We Couldn't Make Nothing": Henry Blake Talks About Sharecropping after the Civil War." History
Matters. History Matters, n.d. Web. 02 Oct. 2013. http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6377/.
[6] http://www.crf-usa.org/BLACK-HISTORY-MONTH/RACE-AND-VOTING-IN-THE-SEGREGATED-SOUTH
[7] http://www.humanities.uci.edu/history/ucihp/tah/UnderstandingAmericanCitizenship/The%20Enforcement%20of%20the%20Civil%20Rights%20of%201875%20John%20Hope%20Franklin-Prologue%20Article.pdf
[8]Zangrando, Robert L. "About Lynching." About Lynching. Houghton Mifflin Co., 1991. Web. 03 Oct. 2013 <http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/lynching/lynching.htm>.
[1] Foner, Eric. Give me liberty!: an American history. Seagull third ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012, 646.
[2]Wallenstein, Peter. "Reconstruction, Segregation, And Miscegenation: Interracial Marriage And The Law In The Lower South, 1865–1900." American Nineteenth Century History 6.1 (2005): 57-76. Print.
[3] Sharecropping . (2013). The History Channel website. Retrieved 5:11, September 25, 2013, from http://www.history.com/.
[4] "Convict Leasing." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 03 Oct. 2013. http://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/themes/convict-leasing/.
[5] ""When We Worked on Shares, We Couldn't Make Nothing": Henry Blake Talks About Sharecropping after the Civil War." History
Matters. History Matters, n.d. Web. 02 Oct. 2013. http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6377/.
[6] http://www.crf-usa.org/BLACK-HISTORY-MONTH/RACE-AND-VOTING-IN-THE-SEGREGATED-SOUTH
[7] http://www.humanities.uci.edu/history/ucihp/tah/UnderstandingAmericanCitizenship/The%20Enforcement%20of%20the%20Civil%20Rights%20of%201875%20John%20Hope%20Franklin-Prologue%20Article.pdf
[8]Zangrando, Robert L. "About Lynching." About Lynching. Houghton Mifflin Co., 1991. Web. 03 Oct. 2013 <http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/lynching/lynching.htm>.
