African Americans in the Gilded Age evidence

Question 1

Evidence supporting political progress. 4 main points.

Answer 1

• 15th Amendment 1870 guaranteed African American men the right to vote.
• Approximately 2,000 AAs held public office during the Reconstruction period, including 16 in Congress.
• Blanche K Bruce became first African American to serve a full term in the US senate (1875 - 81)
• African American voters in the South comprised a significant political bloc, with registration rates exceeding 90% in some states during early reconstruction.

Question 2

Evidence supporting economic progress. 4 main points.

Answer 2

• Land ownership among AAs increased from virtually zero at emancipation to approximately 15 million acres by 1900.
• Number of African American owned businesses grew from few in 1865 to over 40,000 in 1900.
• Black economic institutions emerged, including the True Reformers Bank in Richmond (1888), the first black owned bank in the USA.
• New occupational opportunities opened, with the number of African American professionals increasing from about 1,000 in 1865 to over 20,000 in 1900.

Question 3

Evidence supporting social progress. 4 main points.

Answer 3

• Literacy rates among African Americans increased dramatically from approximately 20% in 1870 to nearly 55% by 1900.
• Educational institutions for African Americans expanded, with the establishment of numerous historically black colleges and universities (HSBCU).
• Growth of black churches as centres of community life and organisation.
• Formation of mutual aid societies and fraternal organisations like the Coloured Knights of Pythias.

Question 4

Evidence AGAINST political progression. 4 main points

Answer 4

• The Compromise of 1877 ended federal protection of African Americans rights in the south.
• Disenfranchisement through poll taxes, literacy tests and grandfather clauses reduced black voter registration in Louisiana from 130,000 in 1896 to 1,342 in 1904.
• Plessy v Ferguson legalised segregation.
• Approx 255 AAs were elected to congress between 1870-1901, but only 5 remained by the end of the period.

Question 5

Evidence AGAINST economic progress. 4 main points

Answer 5

• Sharecropping trapped approximately 80% of African American farmers in debt peonage.
• By 1900, over 90% of AAs remain in the South, predominantly in agricultural labour.
• Exclusion from unions, AFL explicitly excluded Black workers from membership.
• Economic violence: over 35 race riots between 1870-1900, often targeting prosperous black communities.

Question 6

Evidence AGAINST social progress. 4 main points

Answer 6

• Lynching epidemic, approx 1700 DOCUMENTED lynchings of AAs between 1882 and 1900.
• Jim Crow laws instituted formal segregation across the south.
• Educational inequality, public expenditure for Black schools in the south was 1/3 the amount for white schools.
• Rise of scientific and social Darwinism provided ‘justification’ for white supremacy.

Question 7

STATISTICAL evidence supporting progress. 3 main points.

Answer 7

• Black literacy rates increased from approximately 20% in 1870 to 55% by 1900.
• Number of black landowners increased from virtually none in 1865 to roughly 186,000 in 1900.
• Black college graduates grew from 400 in 1870 to over 2,000 by 1900.

Question 8

STATISTICAL evidence AGAINST progress. 3 main points.

Answer 8

• 1700 documented lynchings between 1882-1900.
• Voter suppression - Black voter turnout in most Southern states declined from over 60% to less than 10% by 1900.
• Income disparity, average black worker earned less than 40% of white workers.