Essential Question: How did slavery become the significant issue in American politics?
During this time period, African Americans were still largely discriminated against. Howevever, in the northern states slavery had mostly ended but still remained in the southern states. Most slaves were still located in the southern states so conflict arose between northerners and southerners. The hostility between the two groups continued to grow, which led to slavery becoming a significant issue in American politics and the road to end it.
Woman: Ida B. Wells
Ida B. Wells was an African American woman who was a leader in the civil rights movement. She was one of the founding members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. She was born a slave in Holly Springs, Mississippi on July 16,1862. After her parents passed away from yellow fever, she was forced to raise her siblings. She was hired as a teacher so that she could provide for her siblings. On a train ride from Memphis to Nashville in 1884, after purchasing a first-class ticket, Ida became angry when she was told to move to the train car reserved for African Americans. When she refused, she was forcibly removed by an officer. She bit the man on his hand and eventually sued the railroad and won a $500 settlement. This incident fueled her desire to become a journalist and write about the injustices and poor conditions faced by blacks. She established several civil rights organizations, including the National Association of Colored Women. She fought long and hard for equal rights for women and better lives for blacks. On March 25, 1931 Ida B Wells died of kidney disease in Chicago, IL.
Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_B._Wells
Minority: African Americans
African Americans continued to be the minority throughout this time period. The Union decided in 1863 to allow African Americans to join the army and fight alongside white soldiers in the North. The eventually comprised 10% of the Union Army. Approximately 20% of all African Americans lost their lives in the Civil War. African Americans also faced segregation during this period. People believed that black people and white people were not capable of coexisting so they were separated. This involved separate housing, education, and other services. Through the Jim Crow laws, legislators separated blacks from whites in school, housing, public parks, pools, theaters, jails, and even cemeteries.
Event: Reconstruction
The era of Reconstruction consisted of the government attempting to return the 11 southern states to the Union, rebuild the economy in the south, and improve the lives of former slaves who still lacked full citizenship and sufficient means to make a living. President Lincoln came up with the Ten Percent Plan. Lincoln stated that a southern state could be readmitted to the Union once 10% of it’s voters swore an allegiance to the Union. Once they had done this, the new state could then set up its own government. If the state’s constitution ended slavery and provided an education for African Americans, then the state could regain representation in Congress. However, Andrew Johnson had a different idea. His plan involved giving the south the choice on how to transition from slavery to freedom and gave no political rights to blacks in the south. Johnson’s ultimate goal was to shift power from the wealthy to the small farmers.
Presidential/political figure: Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States. . He preserved the Union during the U.S. Civil War and brought about the emancipation of slaves. In 1834, Lincoln began his political career and was elected to the Illinois state legislature as a member of the Whig Party. It was around this time that he decided to become a lawyer, teaching himself the law by reading William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England. After being admitted to the bar in 1837, he moved to Springfield, Illinois, and began to practice in the John T. Stuart law firm. Lincoln served a single term in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1847 to 1849. His foray into national politics seemed to be as unremarkable as it was brief. He was the lone Whig from the state of Illinois, showing party loyalty, but finding few political allies. Lincoln used his term in office to speak out against the Mexican-American War and supported Zachary Taylor for president in 1848. His criticism of the war made him unpopular back home and he decided not to run for second term, but instead returned to Springfield to practice law. By the 1850s, the railroad industry was moving west and Illinois found itself becoming a major hub for various companies. Lincoln served as a lobbyist for the Illinois Central Railroad as its company attorney. Success in several court cases brought other business clients as well — banks, insurance companies and manufacturing firms. Lincoln also worked in some criminal trials.
Economic/military figure : Booker T. Washington
Washington was from the last generation of black American leaders born into slavery and became the leading voice of the former slaves and their descendants. They were newly oppressed in the South by disenfranchisement and the Jim Crow discriminatory laws enacted in the post-Reconstruction Southern states in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Washington was a key proponent of African-American businesses and one of the founders of the National Negro Business League. His base was the Tuskegee Institute, a historically black college in Tuskegee, Alabama. As lynchings in the South reached a peak in 1895, Washington gave a speech, known as the "Atlanta compromise", which brought him national fame. He called for black progress through education and entrepreneurship, rather than trying to challenge directly the Jim Crow segregation and the disenfranchisement of black voters in the South. Washington mobilized a nationwide coalition of middle-class blacks, church leaders, and white philanthropists and politicians, with a long-term goal of building the community's economic strength and pride by a focus on self-help and schooling. But, secretly, he also supported court challenges to segregation and restrictions on voter registration. Black militants in the North, led by W. E. B. Du Bois, at first supported the Atlanta compromise, but later disagreed and opted to set up the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to work for political change. They tried with limited success to challenge Washington's political machine for leadership in the black community, but built wider networks among white allies in the North. Decades after Washington's death in 1915, the civil rights movement of the 1950s took a more active and militant approach, which was also based on new grassroots organizations based in the South, such as Congress of Racial Equality the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
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