Chapter 7-Issues of The Gilded Age

Section 1: Segregation and Social TensionSection 2: Political and Economic Challenges

Section 3:Farmer’s and Populism

Standards: 2.1, 2.3, 2.9. 2.12, 9.4

• African Americans Lose Freedoms• States’ Governments Limit Voting Rights

• Poll tax: people had to pay to register to vote (Georgia $1-2)• Literacy tests: “Understanding” Tests• Had to own property• Grandfather clause: In Louisiana this clause allowed any man to vote if

he had an ancestor on the voting rolls in 1867, which made former slaves, and their decendants ineligible to vote

• 1894: 130,000 Black Registered Voters in Louisiana• 1904: 1,300 Black Registered Voters

• Legalizing Segregation• Segregation: separation of the races• Jim Crow laws: statutes that enforced segregation• Supreme Court overturns the Civil Rights Act of 1875

– No longer a violation to keep people out based solely on color– Plessy v. Ferguson: Court case that upheld “Separate but Equal”

– Racial Violence• Lynching: executions without proper court hearings

– 80% in the South– 70% of the victims were African Americans

Jim Crow and Limited Opportunity

Section 1: The Rise of Segregation• Resistance and Repression

• Sharecroppers: landless farmers who paid in the form of crops to a landlord for supplies, rent, seed, tools and other supplies; were always in debt

– Exodus to Kansas• Exodusters: migrants of African Americans from the rural South to

Kansas

– Forming a Separate Alliance• Colored Farmers’ National Alliance: helped African Americans

economically by setting up cooperatives – Cooperatives: a store where farmers bought products from each other; an

organization that is owned and run by the people who use the services

– Crushing the Populist Revolt• An appeal to racism

• “Black Republicanism” a step back to Reconstruction

Exodusters

African Americans Oppose InjusticesIda B. Wells:

– Memphis Free Speech– Anti-lynching

» Said it was greed not just racial prejudice that led to the brutal acts and violence

– Mob destroyed printing press of Memphis Free Speech and drove Ida from town

– A Call for Compromise• Booker T. Washington: proposed that African Americans

concentrate on education and economic gains rather than deal with politics

• Atlanta Compromise: Booker T. Washington wanted the African American population to postpone the fight for Civil Rights until they were prepared to full equality.

– A Voice of the Future• W.E.B. Du Bois

– The Souls of Black Folk– Promoting and protecting the voting rights of African Americans was

the only way to reach equality.

Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Dubois, Ida B. Wells

Chinese Immigrants Face Discrimination

• 1882: Chinese Exclusion Act: Chinese Immigrants Banned for 10 Years

• Wong Kim Ark v. United States: Supreme Court Upheld 14th Amendment

Mexicans Americans Struggle in the West

• Abuse and Discrimination Undermine Rights

• Courts backed white Americans land claims most of the time

• Las Gorras Blancas: Extremist group who targeted large ranch owners with terror tactics

• Alianza Hispano-Americana: Organization formed to protect Mexican-American Culture

Women Make Gains and Suffer Setbacks

• Susan B. Anthony: Felt betrayed when 14th/15th Amendments did not include women- 1872: Broke law by voting illegally in New York

• Elizabeth Cady Stanton: National Women’s Suffrage Association

• Women’s Christian Temperance Movement: Fought for women’s rights but also wanted to prohibit sale of alcohol (18th Amendment)

U.S. History I

Chapter 7 Section 2

“Political and Economic Challenges”

2.5, 9.1, 9.3, 9.4

Section 2: Balance of Power Creates Stalemate

• 1877-1897: Presidents win by narrow margins and presidents are weak or corrupt. – Benjamin Harrison: Second President to lose Popular vote but win

Electoral College– Chester Arthur: Took over after James Garfield was assassinated:

Disliked by OWN Republican Party– *Grover Cleveland: Known for his Integrity: 1884 Won: 1888

Lost to Harrison (Electoral College) 1892: Won again (Only one counted TWICE)

• Corruption Plagues National Politics• Joseph Keppler: Political Cartoonist: “The Bosses of the

Senate” Next Slide• Patronage: government jobs go to the supporters of the winning party

in an election. “Spoils System”– The Pendleton Act: Allowed the president to decide which federal

jobs would be filled according to the rules of the Civil Service Commission: All had to take exam to qualify for job.

• Under Pres. Arthur, 14,000 jobs were placed under this program

• Economic Issues Challenge Nation– Tariff: Tax on Imports– Republicans: Wanted

High Tariffs– Democrats: Wanted

Low Tariffs

• Silver or Gold• Greenbacks retired

after Civil War• Goldbugs: Wanted all

coins made of gold• Silverites: Wanted all

coins made of silver

Section 3: Farmers and Populism• Unrest in Rural America

• Populism: a political movement founded in the 1890s that mainly represented farmers, favored free coinage of silver, and favored government control of railroads and other big industries

– Falling Prices and Rising Debt

• Greenbacks: U.S. paper money

• Inflation: money loses value, higher prices

• Deflation: lower prices, higher buying power

– Deflation Hurts Farmers• The Crime of ’73: The

decision of the government to stop the minting of silver

– The Grange Takes Action: Oliver H. Kelley: 1867• Cooperatives: marketing organizations that worked to benefit their members

– The Grange Fails• Didn’t change economic problems of farmers• Railroads fought back by cutting services and refusing to lay more track• Wabash v. Illinois: limited a state’s ability to regulate the railroads, states could

not regulate interstate commerce

• The Farmers’ Alliance• Lampasas County, Texas 1877• Charles Macune

– The Alliance Grows• Kansas• Nebraska• North Dakota• South Dakota• South and Great Plains

– The People’s Party: Populists– The Subtreasury Plan: called for the government to set up warehouses where

farmers could store crops for low-interest loans until prices increased.

• The Populist Party Demands Reforms• Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890: authorized the U.S.

Treasury to buy 4.5 million ounces of silver a month, put more money into circulation in an attempt to help farmers

– The South Turns to Populism• Many Southern Democrats move to Populist Party

– A Populist for President• James B. Weaver

– Graduated income tax: taxation of higher earnings more heavily

– Government ownership of railroads

– The Panic of 1893: Economic Crisis• Stock Market on Wall Street Crash

• Banks closed

• Economic Depression

• The Election of 1896• William Jennings Bryan

– Supported the minting of silver

– *Also known as prosecutor in the “Scopes Monkey Trial”

– Bryan’s Campaign• 600 speeches in 14 weeks

• Republicans nominate William McKinley as the man who could beat Bryan

– The Front Porch Campaign• William McKinley spoke only at his Canton, Ohio home. Delegates

came to see him at his home.

• Full Dinner Pan

• Unemployment would rise, wages would be cut

– Populism Declines • Depression ends

• Gold in Canada, Alaska, and South Africa increase money supply