Separate & Unequal
What is Plessy v. Ferguson?
In 1896, the federal government read the 14th Amendment to permit "separate but equal" facilities in this landmark Supreme Court case.
What is land ownership?
This was a common reason why African Americans who moved West under the Homestead Act were often more successful than those who stayed in the South.
What are disenfranchisement tactics
This was the primary reason African Americans in the South could not simply vote to overturn discriminatory systems like Jim Crow.
Who are Exodusters?
This term was given to the thousands of African Americans who migrated from states along the Mississippi River to Kansas in the late 19th century to claim land.
What is sharecropping?
This economic system kept many African Americans in a "cycle of poverty" by forcing them to work land they didn't own and pay the owner with a large portion of their crops.
What is the Homestead Act?
In addition to farming, many African Americans chose to move West to take advantage of these types of jobs, which were often less restrictive than those in the Jim Crow South.
What is "Separate but Equal"?
This was the primary reason Booker T. Washington believed African Americans should focus on "tilling a field" and economic independence before pushing for social equality.
What is a push factor?
In the context of the "push-pull" theory, the violence and lack of rights in the Jim Crow South would be classified as this.
What is a literacy test?
To prevent African Americans from voting, many Southern states implemented this requirement, which forced a person to prove they could read or understand a difficult constitutional passage.
What is Kansas?
This state was the most popular destination for the "Exodusters" because of its reputation as a "Free State"