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Another blow to the 14th Amendment came with the rise of Jim Crow segregation. Jim Crow
was a form of a dance that African Americans during the period of slavery developed to
skirt legal restrictions outlawing dance which was defined as crossing one’s feet. A white
character in blackface performed an exaggerated form of the dance during a popular form of
entertainment in the period known as a minstrel show. The term, "Jim Crow" came to signify
the rigid laws of segregation that took hold in the south by the end of the reconstruction
period that separated every aspect of life between black and white Americans literally
from the cradle to the grave. Blacks were born in separate hospitals (if they were born
in hospitals that all), buried in separate cemeteries, and every aspect of life in between
was subject to rigid segregation. Additionally the rise of the Ku Klux *** saw strict social
codes of white supremacy enforced by violence. African-American men enjoyed a brief moment
of unprecedented representation in civic life. With much of the south occupied by union troops,
African Americans were able to vote in the south for the first time, and with the disenfranchisement
of many ex confederates, Blacks were elected to local state and Federal offices in proportions
that would not be seen again until the 1960s. It is important to note, however, that the
franchise was extended only two black men. Women – black and white would not be able
to exercise the vote until the 19th amendment of 1920. It is also important to note that
while there was Federal protection in much of the south, Federal troops could not be
everywhere. The terrorism of the Ku Klux *** quickly came to disenfranchise African American
voters and was firmly entrenched by the time Federal troops were removed with the Compromise
of 1877. As a result of social terrorism and exploitative
measures such as the grandfather clause, literacy tests, and poll taxes that were selectively
applied, the brief period of African-American enfranchisement and representation came to
end and by the turn of the twentieth century. The last reconstruction era Black representative,
George H. White of North Carolina left office in 1901. It would take nearly three decades
before Oscar De Priest — a Black republican from Illinois – would be elected to Congress.
It would not be until the 1940s until two African Americans would serve in the Congress
at the same time. So, as we have seen the 13th Amendment of
the constitution forbade slavery, but slavery was simply replaced by other forms of involuntary
servitude such as sharecropping, domestic service, and the convict lease system. The
14th Amendment guaranteed citizenship and equal protection under the law, but Black
Codes and Jim Crow segregation relegated to blacks to second class citizenship at best.
The 15th Amendment barred disenfranchisement on account of race national origin or previous
condition of servitude, but because the vote could be denied for various other reasons
including illiteracy, poverty and felony conviction (which we are still dealing with at the present
time) many African Americans would be denied the vote until the end of the civil rights
era. That’s it for this episode. You can see
everything you’ve seen here as well as the entire archive of episodes at my website www.africanelements.org.
You can also join the discussion on our Facebook Group African Elements. I'm Darius Spearman.
Thank you for watching.