Segregation In The Gilded Age

“What, after all, am I? Am I an American or am I a Negro? Can I be both? Or is it my duty to cease to be a Negro as soon as possible and be an American?” W.E.B. Du Bois wrote this at the end of the 19th century, a time when a certain race was experiencing the worst conditions in America. Labeling this period of time the “Gilded Age”, Mark Twain was correct to point out that, while America seemed to have been displaying the greatest years of improvement and advancement, under that “shining gild”, middle and lower class people were suffering not only from periodic depressions, but also from inequality and corruption by employers. And while thousands of people were fighting for labor rights and progressive reform, one type of people was suffering

Segregation transcended into all parts of society, including transportation and education. This discriminatory action not only was meant to let African Americans know they were inferior in society, but also to discourage the mingling of white and black people, further widening the divide amongst the two races. And while it was very prominent in the south, segregation also occurred in the north. However, segregation was federally illegal under the 14th amendment and therefore practiced informally in the states. One of the most important cases fought in the Supreme Court that altered this reality in the 90s was Plessey v Ferguson. In the battle to decide the constitutionality of segregation, the Supreme Court famously ruled “separate but equal” was indeed legal (Hayes 1/31/18). This ruling allowed for further discrimination and racism to grow as a result: “It cemented the imposition of…segregation of public facilities, and political disfranchisement that was enforced with terror and violence” (Rosenzweig 145). This segregation spread all over the south and was only made illegal until half a century later. However this was not the worst thing that befell on African Americans during this horrible

This practice of punishment outside the law is commonly associated to the widespread lynching that took place against Black people. More than one hundred official African Americans lynchings took place every year in the last decade of the 19th Century (Rosenzweig 145). During this time, lynching became not only so widespread, but also it became a popular event to attend. In 1893, for example, a public lynching of Henry Smith, a black man accused of killing a policeman’s daughter, was announced in the newspaper and people from all over the country came to attend. Smiling in photographs, people were not even scared of being prosecuted, since even local officials were present. (Hayes 2/28/18). Furthermore, some lynching incidents were photographed and sent as postcards around the country. These actions were not only to scare and intimate African Americans, but also remind them the consequences of what happens when they transgress or go against their society’s rules. Lynching has forever been associated with this horrible time period that African Americans faced. Even though America never made into law any anti-lynching regulations, activists in the early to mid 20th century, including W.E.B. Du Bois and Martin Luther King Jr., fought to bring civil rights to the African American