Transforming America - a Dream Deferred

Transforming America - a Dream Deferred

Transforming America - A Dream Deferred

Millions of immigrants, as well as thousands already in America, moved to the city in the decades following Reconstruction. Using the cities of New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, we examine the living and social conditions of the huddled masses during this era.

Learning Objectives

  1. Explain why African Americans faced discrimination in this era.
  2. Analyze the response of African Americans, particularly as expressed by recognized black leaders, to the conditions they faced.
  3. Analyze the conditions faced by women at this time and how they were attempting to change the status quo.
  4. Assess the legacy of this era of African American and women’s history.

As we have seen, coping with changes wrought by the spread of industrial capitalism in the late 19thcentury was difficult for most Americans. In addition, minorities faced their own set of challenges. American Indians and Mexican Americans were often pushed aside as development spread westward. Nativists targeted new immigrants for discrimination, and Chinese laborers were even singled out for exclusion from the country. Meanwhile, African Americans and women of all ethnic groups had to deal with special difficulties in their pursuit of happiness. Promises of freedom were often broken; dreams of equality were often deferred.

The end of the Civil War and the constitutional amendments adopted during Reconstruction seemed to assure a "new birth of freedom" for African Americans. Some were able to enjoy the fruits of their labor. However, the realities of persistent racism, terrorism, economic barriers, and political restrictions shattered the dreams of most. When the Supreme Court (1896) approved "separate but equal" facilities in the Plessy decision, it sanctioned a segregated society that was not equal.

Discrimination aimed at women had no ethnic or racial boundaries, but minority women endured a double dose of it. Women activists of the late nineteenth century were disappointed by the limited reach of the Civil War amendments and pursued gender equity and reforms on a number of fronts. They made some gains, but resistance was strong.

What can we learn from the experience of African Americans and women during this era?What is the legacy of their struggle?

Guided Questions

The following items will help you evaluate your understanding of this lesson. Choose the letter of the best answer.

  1. For African Americans, the "New South" _____.
  1. provided needed factory jobs for them
  2. appeared quite similar to the Old South
  3. enabled them to escape the hardships of sharecropping
  4. assured them of equal social opportunities
  1. In the video, Professor David Levering Lewis observes that Jim Crow laws _____.
  1. allowed whites to maintain power in the "New South"
  2. required equal funding for segregated schools
  3. protected blacks from white terrorism
  4. denied black males the right to vote
  1. In the late nineteenth century, the notion that black men were a threat to white women in the South contributed significantly to _____.
  1. the desertion of southern whites from the Democratic Party
  2. the increased participation of those women in politics
  3. the solidification of cross-racial political alliances
  4. an increase in lynching across the South
  1. One response by African Americans to the Jim Crow South was to _____.
  2. undertake mass migration back toAfrica
  3. attempt to amend the Fourteenth Amendment
  4. form local associations to gain more control over their lives
  5. engage in widespread counter-terrorism activities
  1. Ida B. Wells urged African Americans to take all of the following actions EXCEPT_____.
  1. publicize the horrors of lynching
  2. arm themselves
  3. migrate north
  4. accommodate oppression in the short term
  1. Denied the right to vote during the late nineteenth century, American women
  1. turned inward and refused to engage in the political process
  2. conceded that politics was "a man's game"
  3. affected the political process though reform movements
  4. took on a major role in presidential politics
  1. By 1900, the WCTU (Women's Christian Temperance Union) could claim credit for
  1. the emergence of an organized movement for woman suffrage
  2. providing a generation of women with experience in political action
  3. securing the right to vote for all women
  4. securing a constitutional amendment banning the sale and consumption of alcohol
  1. In 1869, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony formed the National American Woman SuffrageAssociation,which
  1. was the first women's group in America
  2. was the most conservative group of women in America
  3. would lobby for both voting rights and wage equalization
  4. demanded the vote for women
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