WEBVTT

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- [Voiceover] So we've been
talking about the system

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of Jim Crow segregation

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and in the last video we left off in 1876.

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And in 1876 there was a
contested presidential election

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between a Republican candidate
named Rutherford B. Hayes

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and a Democratic candidate
named Samuel J. Tilden.

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And in this election there
was one of the rare cases

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where Tilden actually won the popular vote

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whereas Hayes won the electoral vote.

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So there's a standoff
in Congress for months

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over how this presidential
election is going to end

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and eventually they make
kind of a backroom deal

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known as the Compromise of 1877.

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And in this compromise the
Democrats and the Republicans

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agree that Hayes, a Republican,

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will get to be President
of the United States.

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In exchange the military forces

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that have been occupying the South,

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especially the last two states

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of Louisiana and South Carolina

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and have been enforcing the 14th Amendment

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or the equal citizenship of
African Americans in the South

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they're going to leave,

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they're going to go back to their barracks

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and will no longer interfere

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in the political system of the South.

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So with the Compromise of 1877

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the Republican Party which
has been standing behind

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the rights of African Americans,

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remember the Republicans were
the Party of Abraham Lincoln,

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pretty much gives up as a
Party on trying to ensure

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the racial equality of African Americans.

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Now why did they do this?

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Well, I think mainly this
was a question of weariness

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and giving up on their part.

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Remember that the Civil War ended in 1865,

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now it's 12 years later in 1877

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and there are still Federal
troops in the South.

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So imagine if you were a
parent in Massachusetts

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and you thought that your son

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who was enlisted in the Union
Army was going to come home

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in 1865 and now it's 1877 and
he's still in South Carolina

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it seems like a long time to fight a war.

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So that's one part of it.

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The other part of it is that in 1873

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there is an economic panic,
this is an early Depression.

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You know we often think
of the Great Depression

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as the only time the
United States was stricken

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with an economic downturn
but before the Depression

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there were about 20 year
cycles of boom and bust.

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So in 1873 there was an
economic bust that meant

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that people had less money
to throw at the problem

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of reconstruction in the South.

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And I would say the last
part of this is a combination

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of racism and the new labor
movement in the North.

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So as whites in the North
got farther and farther away

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from the Civil War the animating spirit

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of abolition started to
fade among many Northerners.

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The late 19th century was an
era of increasing racialization

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especially as new ethnic classes
came into the United States

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from Southern and Eastern Europe

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and so there was a new
interpretation of race

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that really came to the
foreground in this time period

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which we call Social Darwinism

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and we'll talk more about
that in other videos.

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But the interpretation
of racial difference

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and hierarchy among the races
became more broadly accepted

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throughout the United States
not just in the South.

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So in 1877 the Federal
troops in the South,

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that are remaining, pack
their bags and go home

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meaning that African
Americans in the South

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have no one to protect them
from the Southern governments

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and so within months many of
these governments pass the laws

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which we now call Jim Crow laws.

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And these are the laws

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which prevent African
Americans from voting,

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prevent intermarriage
between whites and blacks,

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and also enact all of these separations

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of public accommodations

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that we now associate with Jim Crow,

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sitting in the back of the bus,

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using a separate water fountain.

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Now if it sounds like these sorts of laws

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are directly in contradiction
with the 14th Amendment

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which says that laws cannot
target a specific race,

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that there's equal
protection under the law

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for everyone born in the United States

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you're right that's exactly
what these laws are.

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They are a contradiction
of the 14th Amendment.

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And in 1896 a man named
Homer Plessy was arrested

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for sitting in a white train compartment.

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You thought Rosa Parks was the first

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but in fact it's Homer Plessy

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who tries to desegregate trains.

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In fact he's trying to
test the constitutionality

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of having segregated
train compartments in 1896

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and his case goes all the
way to the Supreme Court

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which rules that it is
fine to separate the races

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as long as separate
accommodations are equal.

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So this is the place where
separate but equal comes in.

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Now in theory, separate
accommodations for whites and blacks

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were supposed to be equal,

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in reality they almost never
were and in fact it was the

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very separation itself
that implied the inequality

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and that is what the
NAACP is going to argue

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in the Brown versus Board
of Education case in 1954

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which overturns this doctrine
of separate but equal.

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But in-between this
period of 1877 and 1954

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Jim Crow laws were on the books

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in all of the Southern states.

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But I don't want you to come away thinking

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that things were terrible in the South

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and that the North was a racial utopia

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even though segregation laws
and violence such as lynching

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to enforce segregation laws
existed mainly in the South,

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de facto segregation and
widespread racial prejudice

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also existed in the North
particularly in housing

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and job discrimination.

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And of course, 1954,

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the Brown versus Board
of Education decision

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didn't end segregation
or end racial prejudice

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in the United States, it's
enforcing the end of segregation

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and enforcing the end of
some of these de facto forms

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of segregation and racial
prejudice in the North

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that will be the real focus
of the Civil Rights Movement.

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So I think the real
tragedy of the Jim Crow era

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was that it didn't have
to be this way, in fact,

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it was just in this
presidential election of 1876

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that the Federal government
more or less gave up

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on protecting the rights
of African Americans.

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It's interesting to imagine
what life in the South

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might have been like

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had the Federal government not given up.

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Perhaps it would be very
different, perhaps it would not

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but it's hard not to mourn

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the lost opportunity of
reconstruction, this 12 year period

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where African Americans had voting rights

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and often served in public office.

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Instead, the United States
doomed African American citizens

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in the South to another almost 100 years

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of second class status in our society.