The "New South"

The "New South": AP US History Study Guide

Grab your time machine and get ready to visit the "New South" (not to be confused with the "Old South," which is basically the South's awkward teenage years). The Reconstruction era ended not with a bang, but with a series of whimpers, and the South had to figure out its new identity faster than a chameleon at a paint store. Spoiler alert: it wasn't so easy.

After the Civil War left the South looking like the aftermath of a frat party, some optimistic folks—like Henry Grady, the editor of the Atlanta Constitution—started promoting a vision of a "New South." This new version was supposed to be self-sufficient, powered by modern capitalist values, and fueled by industrial growth and improved transportation. 🚂 Big dreams, right?

Railroads were built, new factories sprang up, and there were even some new cities cropping up like mushrooms after a rainy day. Henry Grady’s editorials were like the TED Talks of the time, trying to persuade people that the South could rise again—not like a zombie, but like a phoenix.

However, while a few spots showed promising industrial activity, the South still largely held onto its agricultural roots like that one kid who refuses to let go of their blanket. It was also the poorest region in the country. Without industrial muscle and with a workforce that fell under the category of "needs more training," the economic upliftment was like trying to fix a car with duct tape.

Although slavery had been banished to the history books, sharecropping and tenant farming rose from the ashes. Picture this: former slaves working on the same land but under a different name. Sharecropping was a system where landowners provided resources and got a cut of the crop profits. Tenant farming, on the other hand, involved renting the land and paying the rent with a portion of the crops. Sounds fair? Kind of. In reality, it was like playing Monopoly but starting out deeply in debt—you were always behind.

Many African Americans found themselves in a cycle of dependency and poverty thanks to these practices, unable to own land and perpetually working on someone else's terms. The "New South" was starting to look a bit like the "Old South" in disguise.

The "New" South was still pretty "Old" when it came to the social ladder. If you were an African American, you were handed a one-way ticket to the bottom rung. Racial segregation was rampant, and the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was as active as ever, using violence to keep African Americans away from the polls and legislative offices. They were like the brutal hall monitors of segregation, using lynching, literacy tests, poll taxes, and grandfather clauses to suppress black voting rights.

The KKK wasn’t getting any "Best Neighbor" awards, that's for sure.

And then there's the Supreme Court. Oh boy. They were like the bouncers of civil rights, but unfortunately, not the good kind. In a series of decisions, including the Civil Rights Cases of 1883, the Court limited the scope of the Fourteenth Amendment by saying Congress couldn't legislate against private racial discrimination. It's like telling the kids they can't play ball in the house, but if they took it outside, who cares?

The most monumental of these decisions came in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case. 🚂 Homer Plessy, an African American man, refused to leave a whites-only railway car, leading to his arrest. He argued that segregation laws violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments’ guarantees of equal protection and freedom from discrimination. The Supreme Court, however, ruled that segregation was constitutional under the doctrine of “separate but equal.” This basically said, "Sure, you can have your own stuff, but it doesn’t have to be as good as ours." Thus ushered in the Jim Crow Era, where "separate but equal" was basically code for "separate and definitely not equal."

If it wasn’t bad enough, various political shenanigans were invented to keep African Americans out of the voting booths. Literacy tests were designed to be impossibly hard, just a tad easier than solving a Rubik's Cube blindfolded. Poll taxes required people to pay to vote, which was a luxury many African Americans couldn't afford. White primaries, where only white voters could participate, and grandfather clauses, which allowed voting only if your grandfather had done so before Reconstruction, were basically the final nails in the coffin of African American suffrage.

Despite all these challenges, many African Americans like Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, and Ida B. Wells debated the best paths forward and advocated tirelessly for civil rights. Think of them as the Avengers of the civil rights movement, each with their own unique powers and strategies.

1. Atlanta Constitution: Newspaper promoting the "New South".
2. Booker T. Washington: Advocate of vocational education for African Americans.
3. Civil Rights Cases of 1883: Supreme Court rulings limiting the scope of the Fourteenth Amendment.
4. Henry Grady: Journalist championing a diversified Southern economy.
5. Ida B. Wells: Anti-lynching crusader.
6. Plessy v. Ferguson: The case that justified “separate but equal”.
7. Sharecropping: Landowners providing resources in return for a share of crops.
8. Tenant Farming: Land rented in return for a portion of the crops.
9. Jim Crow Era: Enforced racial segregation.
10. Ku Klux Klan (KKK): White supremacist group.
11. Literacy Tests: Tests designed to keep African Americans from voting.
12. Poll Taxes: Fees required to vote.
13. Grandfather Clauses: Allowed voting rights only if the voter's grandfather had voted pre-Reconstruction.
14. Voter Suppression: Methods to prevent African Americans from voting, including literacy tests, poll taxes, and white primaries.

So gear up, students! Understanding the complexities, triumphs, and struggles of the "New South" will not just help you ace that APUSH exam but also give you a sharper sense of how the echoes of the past shape today. Time to hit those history books! 📚