Social Injustices In The New South Era

During the new south period many groups gained new freedoms. African Americans in particular gained the right to vote, and citizenship, but that wasn't the end of the racial injustices they faced. Jim Crow laws prevented them from interracial marriage, using white only utilities, and many other things. Furthermore, Anti-Semitism troubled the Jewish population. Finally riots broke out between whites, and blacks such as the riot of 1906. While many reforms happened during the new south period, many people were still struggling against social injustice.

One of the best examples of social injustices in the south were the Jim crow laws. Specifically, the fact that the supreme court ruled that blacks were given political rights, but not social rights. Thus, many governments passed a series of laws called the Jim Crow Laws that unfairly stopped blacks from doing many things such as using white only utilities. To make matters worse, the legislators at that time believed in white supremacy. One, John Gordon, was the leader of the Klu Klux Klan. These laws, and intimidation groups made it harder for blacks to exercise their rights.

One Day Mary Phagan was found dead in the cellar of a pencil factory strangled to death. There were two suspects, the janitor Jim Conley who was seen washing out a bloody shirt a few days after the crime, and the last person to admit seeing Mary alive, Leo Frank. In the case, the evidence, letter found written to Mary Phagan, didn't add up to it to the murderer being Leo Frank. However, he was still prosecuted without proper evidence, and sentenced to death. Then, Frank contacted the governor, who on his last day, changed his sentence from death to life imprisonment. But, Frank never made it to the prison. He was taken in the middle of the night and hung at Mary Phagans