An Analysis Of Thomas Nash's Colored Rule In A Reconstructed State

“The Atlanta Compromise” is one of the most important speeches delivered in American History when it comes to relations between the African American and Southern White races. The speech was delivered by Booker T. Washington, a very famous, passionate orator for the Black community, who believed that the African American community should rise to equality with Whites gradually under the umbrella of segregation. Through this speech he embodied his beliefs of gradual equality, also known as gradualism. The speech gained praise from both races afterward and gave great reasoning used to help the issue of segregation both during Washington’s lifetime and after.

Negro leadership near the turn of the century was divided between these two tactics for racial equality, which may be termed the economic strategy and the political strategy. The most heated controversy in Negro leadership at this time raged between two remarkable black men—Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois. The major spokesman for the gradualist economic strategy was Washington. DuBois was the primary advocate of the gradualist political strategy.

This duality, this mixture of something wonderful and something equally terrible really captures for me the state of the country during the Reconstruction period. A lot of pulling and pushing. The african-americans had been freed but to what purpose? Even when granted the Fifteenth amendment allowing black males the right to vote, they were still disenfranchised through state laws which kept them from voting through legal loopholes and to top it off, none of this did much in the way of women's suffrage. Again, back to the pulling and pushing struggle. Sort of like "two steps forward but three steps back." When thinking of the Reconstruction era one must also remember the violence that lingered on. The formation of the Ku Klux Klan was birthed in that era and from that violence. Such a prolific group full of hate and detestable rhetoric that lingers on to this day. One good example of that violence is given in our text when it describes the events of Hamburg, South Carolina on July 4th, 1876. The violence of one-thousand armed white men obliterating one-hundred african amercan men. I would be remiss not to recall the freedmen bureau, the many charities towards education as well as the government

The African American population had acquired notable ranks prior to the revolt, such as mayors, firemen, City Hall janitors, positions on the Board of Aldermen, etc. Black and white neighbors resided amongst each other. This was considered normal in Wilmington unlike any other place in North Carolina up until the Republican Party won the election of 1894 . According to Robertson of Wilmington there was “40 negro magistrates in the count” and “the custom house officers are negroes” and also the Republican representative from New Hanover was African American. He nagged about the state that the eastern part of North Carolina was in. He did this so much

Alexander summarizes her interpretation of the period when a number of black individuals were elected into government offices with the phrase “black faces in high places.” By this she means that although black individuals were elected, this development actually obscured the problem rather than remedied it. Alexander writes that in 1974, 64 percent of new federal employees came from minority backgrounds. These changes helped a relatively small group of African American households, and left the rest behind. On account of these changes, the idea that hard work was the way blacks could overcome institutional challenges was born. By masking the government’s responsibility to help all African American households, colorblindness led the public to believe the country

This political cartoon is saying that if you vote for the democrats than you are a white man. There was slavery then if you vote for the republicans than you would be compared to a negro.

Representative Thaddeus Stevens, a Republican who represents Pennsylvania’s 8th district and then later the 9th district, was a great Congressman because of his powerful oratory skills, and his arduous efforts in abolition, black civil rights, and better opportunities for the common man. As an opponent of slavery and the discrimination of blacks, he opposed the fugitive slave law and the Compromise of 1850. His passionate verbal sparring and witty diatribe, in addition to his unwavering stance of the equality of African Americans, gained serious opposition among other Congressman. In 1850, when the pro-slavery senator, Solomon Downs, expressed that the slaves were “the gayest, happiest, the most contented, and the best-fed people in the world,”

In contrast to Douglass, Washington’s famous speech known as the “1865 Atlantic Compromise” was not a protest or challenge of the political system, nor did he speak about the lack of social equality. Instead he focused his efforts on what blacks could accomplish, how they could compromise. He believed the militant rhetoric of Douglass and others distracted blacks from the path of liberty, equality, and economic success. Washington’s speech emphasized that it was the dual responsibility of blacks and whites to make the blacks a more

In the previous time period, African Americans had just been freed from slavery and faced extreme racism and prejudice in both the north and south. However, with the beginning of the progressive era there was a rise in the number of people willing to speak up for African Americans as well. In the cartoon by John McCutcheon, it showed an evident disparity between the quality of the two train

The discriminating social stratification in 1950’s developed a set of servile behavior on the blacks. They were thought to be inferior to whites, and were treated accordingly. Moreover, different parts of the country had various ranges of sensitivities while dealing with the blacks. For example, in Mississippi things were particularly tense after the Parker lynch case. No black man would dare look into any white man’s eyes in fear of the repercussions. On the bus, a man warned Griffin to watch himself closely until he caught onto Mississippi’s ways. In an extreme case like this, it was vital to learn about their roles and behave accordingly.

While in congress black politicians fought for equality but struggled with their fellow white members.

The Afro-American Almanac located on Professor Tygiel’s “Sites of Interest to History Majors” have a copy of Booker T. Washington’s famous “Atlanta Compromise” speech that he delivered in 1895. Neither before, nor since, has one speech had such a profound effect upon the career of a politician and the people that he sought to represent. Indeed, Washington’s primacy was assured when he in dramatic fashion promised (eye witness accounts have him thrusting his hand forward to underline this point) the south that: “In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.” The south, indeed America quickly embraced

For a time immediately following the Civil War, the African-Americans and White Americans enjoyed a period of relative equally as every Confederate supporter was barred from running for any government post and civil jobs; an African-American could fill these jobs that mostly every White Southerner was barred from having, so some of the Southern States had African-American representatives to Congress. This didn’t last as the law that barred the “Southern Sympathizers” from holding those jobs was stricken down and all African-Americans that held such jobs were force out of office.

“It is absurd to say that two races so dissimilar as the whites and blacks, when their numbers are equal, can live in peace where they enjoy equal political privileges, where they sit on the same juries, serve in the same legislature and hold similar offices. It is an impossibility. One race or the other must be subordinate. So it has always been and so it will always be. Does anyone believe that the white people of Massachusetts or any Northern State would give the negroes the same political rights with the whites if they were equal or nearly equal in numbers? Where there are only a few negroes it makes but little difference, for then the white race will be the dominant and governing race. But it is not so in the Gulf States. If the negroes enjoy equal political privileges with the whites, one race or the other must leave the country”. Debow gives facts about the North and the South showing moral arguments. It will never be equal between races and Debow did a wonderful job explaining his thoughts. Another good thought that Debow made was when he questioned if the Northern manufacturers were giving up any of their profits. Here I will read what he said, “The Southern whites, as a general rule, are disposed to treat the blacks with kindness and liberality, and to protect them in the enjoyment of civil and personal rights.. Are any Northern manufacturers giving their

Dunning’s work popularized derogatory terms such as “carpetbagger” and “scalawag.” Soon, his academic view of Reconstruction became the widespread view held by everyone around the country as movies such as Birth of a Nation and Gone with the Wind became popular. These movies portrayed Reconstruction as an era of tragic exploitation of the South by the North. They depicted blacks as being ignorant and pathetic savages, upholding the picture that Dunning first painted. In short, Dunning’s theory had a massive impact on the way the average citizen viewed black people and offered an excuse to continue to deny them their rights for years to come.