Reasons Behind
Describe the system of sharecropping.
African-Americans would lease farmland and be supplied with tools, seeds, clothing, and food by white landowners. The poor farmer couldn't pay for these items so they would pay back their debt to the landowner after their crops were harvested. Most sharecroppers could never pay back their debts and were tied to land because of their debts.
Groups similar to unions that attempted to use the power of group organizing to advocate for better conditions for farmers
Farmers'Alliances
Who was Jim Crow?
Jim Crow was a fictional character created to mock and spread false and negative stereotypes about African Americans. Many racist white Americans would black face and stage a "Jim Crow Act." There is also a song titled "Jump Jim Crow" which would normally go along with these acts. Jim Crow often refers to the segregation laws passed in United States from the 19th to 20th century.
Why were the Jim Crow laws created?
Jim Crow laws were created in order to separate white people from black people in almost every way possible.
Describe different types of Jim Crow laws in Louisiana.
State and local governments passed laws segregating trains, restaurants, nightclubs, streetcars, hotels, and even cemeteries. African-Americans and whites were outlawed from marrying or living together.
The situation when a sharecropper or small farmer could not escape a cycle of credit, debt, and increasing poverty
Debt peonage
How did the Jim Crow laws affect the freedoms of African Americans?
Jim Crow further separated whites and blacks and diminished the actual freedom of African Americans.
What led to even more Jim Crow laws being passed in Louisiana and other states in the south?
The Plessy v. Ferguson's case fueled the south to produce even more Jim Crow laws on the idea of "separate but equal"; however, these laws furthered divided the races causing even more racial segregation.
How did white Louisianans ensure racial oppression of African-Americans was not challenged?
Lynchings of African-Americans increased dramatically during the Jim Crow period. Lynchings and threat of lynchings ensured that African-Americans didn't protest Jim Crow laws in Louisiana.
What were Jim Crow Laws?
Laws enacted by southern legislators that restricted the freedom of African-Americans and required separate-but-equal public facilities for whites and for blacks
What was the primary aspect of the Jim Crow laws?
racial segregation; separate but equal
Why were the Italian immigrants discriminated against in Louisiana?
Italian immigrants in Louisiana were also
discriminated against. A group of Italian prisoners,
who were jailed under suspicion of shooting the
New Orleans police chief, became the victims of a
lynch mob.
1. This was a tax that had to be paid before a person could vote.
2. Belief in the rights, wisdom, or virtues of the common people
1. poll tax
2. populism
How did white Democrats disenfranchise African-Americans during the Jim Crow period?
White Louisianans passed laws that implemented poll taxes, literacy tests, as well as laws preventing African-Americans from registering to vote.
How did the 1898 Constitution disenfranchise African-Americans and poor whites?
The 1898 constitution disfranchised many African
Americans and poor whites by requiring that
voters know how to read and write, own property,
and pay an annual poll tax. An exception, known
as the grandfather clause, allowed some white
voters the franchise if their father or grandfather
voted prior to 1867.
What was the grandfather clause?
This was a law that gave a person the right to vote if he could demonstrate that his father or grandfather had been a voter before 1867.
What is the gist court case Plessy v. Ferguson?
Homer Plessy attempted to sit in the "Whites Only" car of a passenger train and was arrested for breaking the law.