Second Reconstruction Unit Reading



Second Reconstruction Unit Reading Name: Period:

Textbook Outline: provide a brief outline with specifics of the pages focused on Johnson’s Impeachment, Plessy v Ferguson , Booker T. Washington, and W.E.B. DuBois – you will need to use your textbook’s index to find these topics, remember less can be more, but a proper outline has the needed information to study from, this is not busy work. You will need these outlines for the upcoming Blue Books =) - - - MAKE SURE YOU USE THE TEXTBOOK, to receive any credit for this, must include page numbers or no credit

Primary document analysis: Make sure you read and highlight / annotate all the readings and answer all the needed questions, please make sure all your answers are complete sentences unless otherwise noted

The Atlantic Monthly – 1899

Booker T. Washington

“The Case of the Negro”

. . . We must therefore find some basis of settlement that will be constitutional, just, manly; that will be fair to both races in the South and to the whole country. This cannot be done in a day, a year, or any short period of time. We can, however, with the present light, decide upon a reasonably safe method of solving the problem, and turn our strength and effort in that direction. In doing this, I would not have the Negro deprived of any privilege guaranteed to him by the Constitution of the United States. It is not best for the Negro that he relinquish any of his constitutional rights; it is not best for the Southern white man that he should, as I shall attempt to show in this article.  In order that we may concentrate our forces upon a wise object, without loss of time or effort, I want to suggest what seems to me and many others the wisest policy to be pursued. I have reached these conclusions not only by reason of my own observations and experience, but after eighteen years of direct contact with leading and influential colored and white men in most parts of our country. But I wish first to mention some elements of danger in the present situation, which all who desire the permanent welfare of both races in the South should carefully take into account.  First. There is danger that a certain class of impatient extremists among the Negroes in the North, who have little knowledge of the actual conditions in the South, may do the entire race injury by attempting to advise their brethren in the South to resort to armed resistance or the use of the torch, in order to secure justice. All intelligent and well-considered discussion of any important question, or condemnation of any wrong, whether in the North or the South, from the public platform and through the press, is to be commended and encouraged; but ill-considered and incendiary utterances from black men in the North will tend to add to the burdens of our people in the South rather than to relieve them. We must not fall into the temptation of believing that we can raise ourselves by abusing some one else.  . . . The education and preparation for citizenship of nearly eight millions of people is a tremendous task, and every lover of humanity should count it a privilege to help in the solution of a problem for which our whole country is responsible. . .

1. Mental Imagery: Sketch a moment from the document

2. What do you believe prompted Booker T. Washington to write this? Connection to his school?

Collection of: Georgia State Archives

Created by the Maryland Historical Society modified 12/29/05

Ida B. Wells-Barnett

This pamphlet is circulated by Chicago Colored Citizens ..., [1899]

Summary: Lynch law in Georgia / by Ida B. Wells-Barnett ; a six-weeks' record in the center of southern civilization, as faithfully chronicled by the "Atlanta journal" and the "Atlanta constitution" ; also the full report of Louis P. Le Vin, the Chicago detective sent to investigate the burning of Samuel Hose, the torture and hanging of Elijah Strickland, the colored preacher, and the lynching of nine men for alleged arson.

“The Lynching of Nine Men”

In dealing with all vexed questions, the chief aim of every honest inquirer should be to ascertain the facts. No good purpose is subserved either by concealment on the one hand or exaggeration on the other. "The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth," is the only sure foundation for just judgment.

The purpose of this pamphlet is to give the public the facts, in the belief that there is still a sense of justice in the American people, and that it will yet assert itself in condemnation of outlawry and in defense of oppressed and persecuted humanity. In this firm belief the following pages will describe the lynching of nine colored men, who were arrested near Palmetto, Georgia, about the middle of March, upon suspicion that they were implicated in the burning of the three houses in February preceding.

The nine suspects were not criminals, they were hard-working, law-abiding citizens, men of families. They had assaulted no woman, and, after the lapse of nearly a month, it could not be claimed that the fury of an insane mob made their butchery excusable. They were in the custody of law, unarmed, chained together and helpless, awaiting their trial. They had no money to employ learned counsel to invoke the aid of technicalities to defeat justice. They were in custody of a white Sheriff, to be prosecuted by a white State's Attorney, to be tried before a white judge, and by a white jury. Surely the guilty had no chance to escape.

Still they were lynched. That the awful story of their slaughter may not be considered overdrawn, the following description is taken from the columns of the Atlanta Journal, as it was written by Royal Daniel, a staff correspondent. The story of the lynching thus told is as follows:

Palmetto. Ga., March 16.--A mob of more than 100 desperate men, armed with Winchesters and shotguns and pistols and wearing masks, rode into Palmetto at 1 o'clock this morning and shot to death four Negro prisoners, desperately wounded another and with deliberate aim fired at four others, wounding two, believing the entire nine had been killed.

The burning of Samuel Hose, or, to give his right name, Samuel Wilkes, gave to the United States the distinction of having burned alive seven human beings during the past ten years. The details of this deed of unspeakable barbarism have shocked the civilized world, for it is conceded universally that no other nation on earth, civilized or savage, has put to death any human being with such atrocious cruelty as that inflicted upon Samuel Hose by the Christian white people of Georgia.

The charge is generally made that lynch law is condemned by the best white people of the South, and that lynching is the work of the lowest and lawless class. Those who seek the truth know the fact to be, that all classes are equally guilty, for what the one class does the other encourages, excuses and condones.

“Tortured and Burned Alive”

This was clearly shown in the burning of Hose. This awful deed was suggested, encouraged and made possible by the daily press of Atlanta, Georgia, until the burning actually occurred, and then it immediately condoned the burning by a hysterical plea to "consider the facts."

Samuel Hose killed Alfred Cranford Wednesday afternoon, April 12, 1899, in a dispute over the wages due Hose. The dispatch which announced the killing of Cranford stated that Hose had assaulted Mrs. Cranford and that bloodhounds had been put on his track.

The next day the Atlanta Constitution, in glaring double headlines, predicted a lynching and suggested burning at the stake. This it repeated in the body of the dispatch in the following language:

"When Hose is caught he will either be lynched and his body riddled with bullets or he will be burned at the stake." And further in the same issue the Constitution suggests torture in these words: "There have been whisperings of burning at the stake and of torturing the fellow

Using the document, complete the following web below: Write the main theme in the circle and list six supporting ideas

3. In your opinion (remember do not use personal pronouns) why do you believe these men were lynched if innocent?

4. Why didn’t these men receive a fair trial?

Collection of: Illinois State Archives

Created by the Maryland Historical Society modified 12/29/05

W.E. Burghardt Du Bois

(W.E.B. Du Bois)

The Souls of Black Folk, published in 1903

Summary: Du Bois proposes that "the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line." His concepts of life behind the veil of race and the resulting "double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others," have become touchstones for thinking about race in America. Souls offers an assessment of the progress of the race, the obstacles to that progress, and the possibilities for future progress as the nation entered the twentieth century.

The Forethought: The Souls of Black Folk

        HEREIN lie buried many things which if read with patience may show the strange meaning of being black here at the dawning of the Twentieth Century. This meaning is not without interest to you, Gentle Reader; for the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line. . . .

5. What did DuBois mean by “for the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line”? Before answering go back and look at the dates of the previous two articles by Washington and Wells and think what were African Americans experiencing post Reconstruction, what were African Americans experiencing as America entered the 20th Century the, the 1900’s ?

6. If you were a politician in 1903 and read DuBois’ book or read Wells’ account how would you react, would allow the norm to continue or would you take action?

7. Is Race / Ethnicity a problem today? Has America moved forward from its years of politically enforced segregation?

The Union: An Ohio Newspaper - Volume: 17 Issue Number: 29 Page Number: 01 Date: 08/26/1922

8. Was this a preconceived notion or do you think this was a factual observation, do you think the journalist had a real idea of what the “Negroes” lives were like or just going on what he thought he knew or heard (i.e. preconceived notions)?

9. What might be someone’s motive to write this article?

10. Who was their potential audience?

11. What five facts stood out to you? You may bullet

12. Construct one six facet question and answer – content of question should be about the readings

13. What word would you use to explain this Unit Reading? Why?

14. In comparing this Unit Reading to the first Reconstruction Unit Reading, what similarities and differences are there?

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