By 1870, black Americans had been declared citizens with all the rights guaranteed to every citizen. But they were members of a conspicuous minority within a white society. Furthermore, most black Americans were uneducated, unskilled, and unprepared to provide for their own basic needs. With freedom, they found many new problems - legal, social, and economic.
After the Civil War, blacks began moving to the big cities in the North, and this trend continued in the twentieth century. In the North, blacks found greater freedom, but conditions were still difficult and opportunities limited. Discrimination in the sale and rental of housing forced blacks into poor, crowded, mostly black communities.
Blacks who remained in the South endured even worse conditions. Southern blacks were forced to obey state laws (called Jim Crow laws) that kept them segregated from whites. Blacks and whites went to different schools, drank from different water fountains, used different public bathrooms, ate in different restaurants, and were buried indifferent cemeteries. Blacks were required to sit in the back of buses, even when there were plenty of seats in the front. For southern blacks, there was no justice inthe courts of law. Once accused of a crime, blacks were almost certain to be found guilty by all - white juries.
Southern whites who wished to keep the power of the vote from the large black population of the South used the threat of violence to discourage blacks from registering to vote. When a black person did try to register, whites used many unfair ways to stop them-such as forcing blacks to pay a tax on the right to vote or to take a very difficult reading test.
Check your comprehension.
In what ways were blacks kept separate from whites in the South?
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