What did... African-American life look like in the Progressive Era?

After the civil war, many African Americans still struggled to find good opportunities or live like a true citizen in this country. Although as time went on, they were slowly accepted by some, but not the majority. Let's explore what life as an African-American individual looked like during the Progressive Era.


As mentioned before, African-Americans still did not feel like citizens because they lacked rights, like voting. According to American Yawp Chapter 20, "In the South, electoral politics remained a parade of electoral fraud, voter intimidation, and race-baiting." Although, African-Americans could vote, their vote meant nothing because Whites manipulated the voting system in favor of themselves. These initial signs of discrimination only got worse from here. Eventually, Africans-Americans had to fulfill special requirements to be able to vote. This included poll taxes, a crime-free background, literacy tests and more. 

Segregation continued to expand as cities grew. An example of this is seen with railroads, but more specifically with the U.S. Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896. This case surrounded the idea of "separate but equal" in railroad cars. It began when Plessy, who was mixed race with white and black, sat in a "whites-only" railroad car. He then got arrested and put into prison because he was considered Black by state law, according to Ana Price in her post titled "The Posthumous Pardon of Homer Plessy". Once the case got to the Supreme Court, it was ruled that "separate but equal" did not label any race as inferior.

While most African-Americans lived under the limitations of the laws and perceptions of this time, some inspiring individuals, like Booker Taliaferro Washington, broke through these barriers. Washington was able to go to college, start his own educational institution, and become a prominent speaker for equality.

These are just a couple of the many stories that explain how African-American life was like during the progressive era. 



An African American man drinking at a water cooler for “colored” people at a streetcar terminal in Oklahoma City in 1939. Russell Lee, FSA, OWI/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-fsa-8a26761)


A sign at a bus station in Rome, Georgia, in 1943, indicating a separate waiting area for Black people under Jim Crow law. Esther Bubley/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (file no. LC-USW3-037939-E)


McCutcheon, John. 1904 caricature of “White” and “Jim Crow” rail cars by John T. McCutcheon. n.d. Plessy v. Ferguson. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JimCrowCar2.jpg#/media/File:JimCrowCar2.jpg. 


The strategies of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois differed, but their desire remained the same: better lives for African Americans. Harris & Ewing, “WASHINGTON BOOKER T,” between 1905 and 1915. Library of Congress.




Bibliography

  • Andrew C. Baker et al., “The Progressive Era,” Mary Anne Henderson, ed., in The American Yawp, eds. Joseph Locke and Ben Wright (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2018)
  • Price, Ana. “The Posthumous Pardon of Homer Plessy.” Web log. Library of Congress Blogs (blog), January 19, 2022. https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2022/01/the-posthumous-pardon-of-homer-plessy/. 
  • An African American man drinking at a water cooler for “colored” people at a streetcar terminal in Oklahoma City in 1939. Russell Lee, FSA, OWI/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-fsa-8a26761)
  • A sign at a bus station in Rome, Georgia, in 1943, indicating a separate waiting area for Black people under Jim Crow law. Esther Bubley/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (file no. LC-USW3-037939-E)
  • McCutcheon, John. 1904 caricature of “White” and “Jim Crow” rail cars by John T. McCutcheon. n.d. Plessy v. Ferguson. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JimCrowCar2.jpg#/media/File:JimCrowCar2.jpg. 
  • The strategies of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois differed, but their desire remained the same: better lives for African Americans. Harris & Ewing, “WASHINGTON BOOKER T,” between 1905 and 1915. Library of Congress.







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