Race Relations Between African Americans and Whites...

Following what was arguably the most turbulent time in American history; Reconstruction had far-reaching effects on a number of areas of life in the United States. In the Deep South, one of the clearest impacts could be seen on racial relations, specifically between whites and newly-freed African Americans. Legally, dramatic changes had been made at the federal level, providing African Americans with a host of rights that had never been offered them before. It was no wonder, then, that former slave owners in the South rejected these changes and rights, taking whatever steps necessary to keep African Americans down. The dramatic changes that took place in terms of race relations between African Americans and whites following Reconstruction†¦show more content†¦Legally, the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment just a few years after the close of the Civil War, African American men had the right to vote according to the United States Constitution. However, racial relations in the south had deteriorated so greatly that even such constitutionally-protected elements of their lives were unable to survive. Whites passed a number of laws designed to disenfranchise African American men, knowing that without the right to vote, the voices of newly-freed slaves would not be heard. These laws included such measures as literacy tests, poll taxes, property qualifications, and so-called â€Å"grandfather† clauses that denied an individual the right to vote if their grandfather did not vote himself. Race relations in the south had deteriorated so rapidly that even something as basic as voting, something that was to be provided to African American men according to the United States Constitution, was denied them (â€Å"The state†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , 2011). As individuals living in the north became increasingly disinterested with the plight of African Americans in the south, a political change was made, one that would alter the racial relations between whites and blacks f or generations. In 1896, the United States Supreme Court issued a ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson that would set the stage for continued segregation in the American south with three simple words: separate but equal. When the Supreme Court ruled that separate facilities for whites andShow MoreRelatedEssay on The Strange Career of Jim Crow1336 Words   |  6 Pageswhich shaped our views of the history of the Civil Rights Movement and of the American South. 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The majority of the South remained set in racist behavior, finding post-Civil War legal loopholes to diminish African American rights (Tindall amp; Shi, 2010, pp. 757-758). Southerners continued to marginalize Blacks in their behavior toward ex-slaves and the later African AmericanRead More The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B Dubois Essay3329 Words   |  14 Pagesinfluential work in African American liter ature and is an American classic. In this book Dubois proposes that the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line. His concepts of life behind the veil of race and the resulting double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at ones self through the eyes of others, have become touchstones for thinking about race in America. 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