Algoritmos utilizados en los métodos

Following the Civil War, the two biggest tasks facing the United States was firstly, how to deal with the wounds of the war and readmit the southern states to the Union and secondly, how to help the newly freed blacks enjoy their freedom. These two issues became the focus of attention during the period 1865-1877. For this reason, the period is referred to as the Reconstruction period.

President Lincoln's plan for Reconstruction was a moderate one. Lincoln did not see the South as conquered peoples but rather as citizens of the Unites States who were misled by bad leadership. His attitude toward the South is evident in the last paragraph of his second inaugural address"

Based on the belief expressed above, the Lincoln Plan demanded the seceding states to do two things before they would be readmitted to the Union.

1. Ten percent of the voters in each state must expressed their loyalty to the United States.

2. These states must accept the Thirteenth Amendment which abolished slavery.

Unfortunately, Lincoln was not able to see his plan come through as in April, 1865, he was assassinated. The task of Reconstruction was taken up by his Vice-President, Andrew Johnson.

THE RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD (1865- 1877)

Andrew Johnson carried out Lincoln's Reconstruction Plans with minor changes. In addition to Lincoln's demands, Johnson wanted to deny a few Confederate leaders the right to vote while giving all other white men such right. Note that Johnson did not wish to extend the franchise to the newly freed blacks. Instead, he advised the governor of Mississippi to allow African-American men to vote only if they could pass some kind of literacy test.

The Radical Republicans' Plan

During and after the Civil war, the Radical Republicans became extremely powerful in Congress. They opposed the reconstruction plans of both Lincoln and Johnson as being too lenient. They wanted to deal more harshly with the South. They clashed frequently with the President Johnson over policies.

The Radical Republicans made a number of demands:

1. They wanted to ban all former Confederate leaders from ever holding office again.

2. They wanted to to take lands from the former slave owners and give it to the newly freed slaves.

3. They wanted African-Americans to be granted full citizenship and the right to vote.

Despite conflicts with President Johnson, the Radical Republicans were able to pass three important amendments to the Constitution which were of great benefits to African Americans.

The Thirteenth Amendment (1865)- This Amendment declared that slavery was illegal anywhere in the United States.

The Fourteenth Amendment (1868) - This Amendment made all persons born in the US citizens of the United States as well as the states in which they live. Thus, African Americans now became citizens of the US. This Amendment, in effect, abolished the Dred Scott ruling which said that Blacks were not citizens of the United states. (see the Dred Scott case.)

The Fifteen Amendment (1870) - This Amendment gave African Americans the right to vote.

The continuing conflict over reconstruction policies eventually led to the impeachment of Andrew Johnson.

SEGREGATION IN THE SOUTH

JIM CROW LAWS

Following the Civil War and the end of slavery, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were passed to help African Americans enjoy their freedoms. However, Southern whites would have none of this and found ways to prevent Blacks from enjoying the benefits of these Amendments. Segregation, or the separation of the races, became the new way of life. After so many years of slavery during which blacks were seen as inferior, whites could not bear the thought of seeing a black person having the same rights as a white person. Throughout the South, state after state, passed a series of laws came to be known as Jim Crow laws, to keep blacks in their place. For the newly freed slaves, these "Black Codes" meant slavery all over again, but with a different name.

The idea that the white and black races should be kept apart was forcefully argued by the editor of the Richmond Times:

"It is necessary that this principle be applied in every relation of Southern life. God Almighty drew the color line and it cannot be obliterated. The negro must stay on his side and the white man must stay on his side, and the sooner both races recognize this fact and accept it, the better it will be for both."

Segregation touched every aspect of life in the South as is evident in the sampling of laws below from several states.

Whether in prison, in life or death, Jim crow became a way of life for African Americans. So terrible was the situation that Thaddeus Stevens, a Radical Republican, requested upon his death he be buried in an African cemetery. The following inscription is found on his tombstone:

"I repose in this quiet and secluded spot, not from any natural preference for solitude; but finding other cemeteries limited as to race, by charter rules, I have chosen this that I might illustrate in my death the principles which I advocated through a long life, equality of man before the Creator."

SEGREGATION IN THE SOUTH

A SAMPLING OF JIM CROW LAWS IN SOUTHERN STATES

1. Nurses : No person or corporation shall require any white female nurse to nurse in wards or rooms in hospitals, either public or private, in which Negro men are placed. (Alabama 2. Buses : All passenger stations in this state operated by any motor transportation company shall have separate waiting rooms or space and separate ticket windows for the white and colored races. (Alabama)

3. Railroads :The conductor of each passenger train is authorized and required to assign each passenger to the car or the division of the car, when it is divided by a partition, designated for the race to which such passenger belongs. (Alabama)

4. Restaurants : It shall be unlawful to conduct a restaurant or other place for the serving of food in the city, at which white and colored people are served in the same room, unless such white and colored persons are effectually separated by a solid partition extending from the floor upward to a distance of seven feet or higher, and unless a separate entrance from the street is provided for each compartment. (Alabama)

5. Restaurants : All persons licensed to conduct a restaurant, shall serve either white people exclusively or colored people exclusively and shall not sell to the two races within the same room or serve the two races anywhere under the same license. Georgia

6. Toilet Facilities, Male : Every employer of white or Negro males shall provide for such white or Negro males reasonably accessible and separate toilet facilities. (Alabama) 7. Intermarriage :The marriage of a person of Caucasian blood with a Negro, Mongolian, Malay, or Hindu shall be null and void. (Arizona)

8. Cohabitation : Any Negro man and white woman, or any white man and Negro woman, who are not married to each other, who shall habitually live in and occupy in the nighttime the same room shall each be punished by imprisonment not exceeding twelve (12) months, or by fine not exceeding five hundred ($500.00) dollars. (Florida)

9. Education: The schools for white children and the schools for Negro children shall be conducted separately. (Florida)

10. Textbooks Books: Textbooks shall not be interchangeable between the white and colored schools, but shall continue to be used by the race first using them. North Carolina

11. Libraries :The state librarian is directed to fit up and maintain a separate place for the use of the colored people who may come to the library for the purpose of reading books or periodicals. North Carolina

12. Mental Hospitals :The Board of Control shall see that proper and distinct apartments are arranged for said patients, so that in no case shall Negroes and white persons be together.

(Georgia)

13. Barbers :No colored barber shall serve as a barber [to] white women or girls. (Georgia)

14. Burial :The officer in charge shall not bury, or allow to be buried, any colored persons upon ground set apart or used for the burial of white persons. Georgia

15. The Blind: The board of trustees shall...maintain a separate building...on separate ground for the admission, care, instruction, and support of all blind persons of the colored or black race. Louisiana

16. Hospital Entrances :There shall be maintained by the governing authorities of every hospital maintained by the state for treatment of white and colored patients separate

entrances for white and colored patients and visitors, and such entrances shall be used by the race only for which they are prepared. Mississippi

17. Prisons : The warden shall see that the white convicts shall have separate apartments for both eating and sleeping from the negro convicts. Mississippi

18. Lunch Counters : No persons, firms, or corporations, who or which furnish meals to passengers at station restaurants or station eating houses, in times limited by common carriers of said passengers, shall furnish said meals to white and colored passengers in the same room, or at the same table, or at the same counter. South Carolina

19. Theaters :Every person...operating...any public hall, theatre, opera house, motion picture show or any place of public entertainment or public assemblage which is attended by both white and colored persons, shall separate the white race and the colored race and shall set apart and designate...certain seats therein to be occupied by white persons and a portion thereof , or certain seats therein, to be occupied by colored persons. Virginia

DISENFRANCHISING AFRICAN AMERICANS

The Fifteen Amendment (1870) gave the franchise (the right to vote) to African Americans. However, Southern whites devised all kinds of schemes to prevent Blacks from exercising this right. These include poll tax, literacy tests, grandfather clauses and the use of terror by the Ku Klux Klan.

Poll Tax: Southern states imposed a poll tax on citizens before they were allowed to vote.

Obviously, this was very discriminatory to African Americans. The 24th Amendment eventually abolished the poll tax as a requirement for voting in Federal elections.

Literacy tests: During slavery, blacks were never taught to read and write. Yet, in order to exercise their right to vote they had to prove they could read and write by passing a literacy list. Some of these tests were extremely difficult and usually involving reading and

"interpreting" sections of the Federal or state constitution. Obviously, this was just another technique to disenfranchise African Americans.

Grandfather clause: Poll tax and literacy tests had unintended effects on some white voters. There were many white voters who could not afford to pay poll tax and who could neither read nor write. To allow them to vote, southern states added a "grandfather clause" to their constitutions. According to this clause, any one who was qualified to vote before 1867, or whose father or grandfather was qualified to vote at the time, could now vote without

having to pay a poll tax or pass a literacy test. Again, only whites would benefit such a clause.

SEGREGATION IN THE SOUTH

PLESSY V FERGUSON (1896)

Louisiana, like several other Southern states, passed various Jim Crow laws after the Civil war to prevent African Americans from enjoying their freedoms. Public transportation was segregated: blacks had to sit in the rear of the bus or railroad car. Homer Plessy sued the East Louisiana Railroad for preventing him from riding in a car set aside for whites only. Plessy was seven-eights whites and one- eight black, but was still considered black under Louisiana laws. He argued that his Fourteenth Amendment right which granted him equal protection as a citizen was violated.

Supreme Court's Decision

The US Supreme Court ruled in favor of the railroad company. The court said Plessy's Fourteenth Amendment right was not violated because the railroad company had provided separate and equal facilities for both black and white passengers. As a result of this ruling, the new doctrine of "separate but equal" came into being. Under this doctrine, public and private facilities could be separated as long as such facilities were equal in nature.

By providing the constitutional basis for segregation, the Supreme Court gave southern states the legal basis on which to keep African Americans in an inferior position. The problem, of course, with the "separate but equal" doctrine, was that the facilities were indeed separate, but were never equal. For example, black schools never had facilities equal to those of white schools.