Jim Crow laws, Plessy v. Ferguson and those who fought back

Grade 11 Social Studies Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Use this

   Keeping people from voting, 1889 to 1908. Card A: "Ways of keeping people from voting, in brief". Who made it: historians and textbooks writing today. When: today. Where: the United States. For whom: readers today. Why: to sum up what is known. Summary in our words, not a quotation: Between 1889 and 1908, southern states wrote new voting rules into their constitutions. A poll tax was a fee a person had to pay to vote. A literacy test made a person show they could read, and sometimes explain, a section of a law before registering; the official who gave it decided who passed. A grandfather clause let a man register if his father or grandfather had been able to vote before a set date, such as 1867 in Louisiana. A white primary was a party election to choose candidates that only white voters could join. Most of these rules did not mention race, but they fell hardest on Black voters. The Fifteenth Amendment (1870) already said that a state may not deny the vote because of race. Card B: "Louisiana's 1898 rules and who could meet them, in brief". Who made it: historians and textbooks writing today. When: today. Where: the United States. For whom: readers today. Why: to sum up what is known. Summary in our words, not a quotation: The 1898 constitution gave a literacy test to a local official, who decided who passed. Its grandfather clause counted men whose father or grandfather had been on the voter rolls in 1867. Its property rule counted men who owned $300 of taxable property. Louisiana did not allow Black men to vote in 1867. The Fifteenth Amendment barred denying the vote because of race, so the rules named no race.

2. 1.

   Card A says most of these voting rules did not mention race. What does that detail help Ari explain?

   • Why the rules could avoid the Fifteenth Amendment's ban on denying the vote for race.
   • Why the rules hit poor white voters as much as Black voters, since they named no race.
   • Why the Fifteenth Amendment stopped the rules from being applied, since they named no race.
   • Why Black voters lost the vote by 1889, before the rules were written into state constitutions.
3. 2.

   The card says the official who gave the literacy test decided who passed. What problem does Bo see in that rule?

   • The test was written in neutral words, so it treated applicants equally in practice.
   • The test was a way to show property, like the $300 rule, so poor people failed it.
   • The official decided who passed, so the test could be applied unevenly depending on who was asking.
   • Many voters could not read well, so the test excluded people by schooling, not by race.
4. 3.

   Card A says a grandfather clause used a date such as 1867 in Louisiana. What did that date do, Esme asks?

   • It named Black men as barred from registering, since the clause lists the race of the men.
   • It protected the votes of men who had voted before the Civil War, as the date shows.
   • It tied registering to a time when Black men in Louisiana could not vote, so few qualified.
   • It tied the right to register to the Fifteenth Amendment, which was ratified in 1867 as a response.

5. Use this

   Card A: "Plessy v. Ferguson, in brief". Who made it: historians and textbooks writing today. When: today. Where: the United States. For whom: readers today. Why: to sum up what is known. Summary in our words, not a quotation: In 1890 Louisiana passed a law that told railroads to give white and Black passengers equal but separate cars. In 1892 Homer Plessy, a New Orleans man the law counted as Black, sat in a white car on purpose. A Black citizens' committee had planned the test case. He was arrested and tried before Judge John H. Ferguson. The Supreme Court decided the case in 1896. Justice Henry Brown wrote the opinion, and the Court let the Louisiana law stand. Justice John Marshall Harlan was the only justice who disagreed. Who gained: states that wanted segregation by law. Who lost: Plessy and other Black passengers, who were kept to separate cars.

6. 4.

   Card A says a Black citizens' committee planned the test case. What does that tell Jun about Plessy's sitting in the white car?

   • It was a planned challenge to the law, not an accident, so it was meant to reach the courts.
   • It was ordered by the railroad, which wanted the law tested in court as soon as possible.
   • It was planned by lawyers for the state, to test whether the 1890 law could be enforced.
   • It was a spontaneous protest, since Plessy acted alone and the committee just joined afterward.

7. Use this

   Card A: "Plessy v. Ferguson, in brief". Who made it: historians and textbooks writing today. When: today. Where: the United States. For whom: readers today. Why: to sum up what is known. Summary in our words, not a quotation: In 1890 Louisiana passed a law that told railroads to give white and Black passengers equal but separate cars. In 1892 Homer Plessy, a New Orleans man the law counted as Black, sat in a white car on purpose. A Black citizens' committee had planned the test case. He was arrested and tried before Judge John H. Ferguson. The Supreme Court decided the case in 1896. Justice Henry Brown wrote the opinion, and the Court let the Louisiana law stand. Justice John Marshall Harlan was the only justice who disagreed. Who gained: states that wanted segregation by law. Who lost: Plessy and other Black passengers, who were kept to separate cars. Card B: "After Plessy, in brief". Who made it: historians and textbooks writing today. When: today. Where: the United States. For whom: readers today. Why: to sum up what is known. Summary in our words, not a quotation: The 1896 decision said that separate public places could be equal in law. After it, states wrote more segregation laws, and the national government rarely stepped in when the places were not equal. Laws that separated schools were the most common, and segregation spread to most public places. These laws were called Jim Crow laws. Justice Harlan's dissent said such laws put Black citizens in a position of legal inferiority. Who gained: states that wanted segregation by law. Who lost: Black citizens, who lost access to equal public places.

8. 5.

   Card B says states wrote more segregation laws after the 1896 decision. Does card A show the decision caused that, Kira asks?

   • No, since Louisiana's law came in 1890, six years before, so later laws were unrelated to it.
   • It shows the laws came after the decision; the cards do not show the decision alone caused them.
   • Yes, since Plessy lost and the Court let the law stand, so no state needed any other reason to act.
   • Yes, since card B names Harlan's dissent as the reason states wrote the laws they passed.

9. Use this

   Booker T. Washington at Atlanta, 1895. Card A: "Washington at the Atlanta Exposition". Who made it: Booker T. Washington. When: September 18, 1895. Where: Atlanta, Georgia. For whom: the Exposition's directors, visitors and the press. Why: to urge cooperation between the races in the South. Excerpt (Atlanta Exposition address; Up from Slavery, 1901, pp. 221-222): "In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress." Card B: "Booker T. Washington, in brief". Who made it: historians and textbooks writing today. When: today. Where: the United States. For whom: readers today. Why: to sum up what is known. Summary in our words, not a quotation: Booker T. Washington was born into slavery in Virginia in 1856. He went to Hampton Institute and, in 1881, began leading a new school in Tuskegee, Alabama. On September 18, 1895, he spoke at the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta. W. E. B. Du Bois later called that speech the Atlanta Compromise.

10. 6.

    Washington said: "we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand." What picture does Milo take that to draw?

    • Joined in social life, but separate in work, since the hand is made of fingers.
    • Equal in law but separate in custom, since the fingers differ yet share one hand.
    • Separate in social life and in politics, joined just in the work that benefits white employers.
    • Separate in social life, but joined in shared progress such as work and trade.
11. 7.

    Washington spoke to the Exposition's directors, visitors and the press. What does that audience let Noah infer about the wording?

    • The speech is unreliable, since a speaker who wants cooperation cannot say what is true.
    • The wording shows the full view, since a public speech is the most honest kind of statement.
    • The audience was made up of Black citizens, so the wording shows what they wanted to hear.
    • The wording may aim to win that audience's cooperation, so it may not be the full view.
12. 8.

    Card B says Du Bois later called the 1895 speech the Atlanta Compromise. What does that name tell Pia?

    • That the speech was a failure, since a compromise gives up something of value to the other side.
    • That Washington himself gave the speech that name, as the card says.
    • That Du Bois saw the speech as a bargain, which is his judgment and not a fact in the speech.
    • That the speech set out terms agreed to by both races, since a compromise needs two sides.

13. Use this

    Card A: "A made-up town". Who made it: us, for this sheet. When: written today. Where: a made-up town. For whom: students. Why: to give an example. Made-up example, not a real town and not a quotation: No law in this town says where families may live. Even so, nearly all Black families live in one neighborhood and nearly all white families live in another. Card B: "Two terms, in brief". Who made it: historians and textbooks writing today. When: today. Where: the United States. For whom: readers today. Why: to sum up what is known. Summary in our words, not a quotation: De jure means "by law." Segregation was de jure when a law required it, as Louisiana's 1890 railroad law did. De facto means "in fact." Segregation was de facto when it happened without a law that required it. Card C: "Plessy v. Ferguson, in brief". Who made it: historians and textbooks writing today. When: today. Where: the United States. For whom: readers today. Why: to sum up what is known. Summary in our words, not a quotation: In 1890 Louisiana passed a law that told railroads to give white and Black passengers equal but separate cars. In 1892 Homer Plessy, a New Orleans man the law counted as Black, sat in a white car on purpose. A Black citizens' committee had planned the test case. He was arrested and tried before Judge John H. Ferguson. The Supreme Court decided the case in 1896. Justice Henry Brown wrote the opinion, and the Court let the Louisiana law stand. Justice John Marshall Harlan was the only justice who disagreed. Who gained: states that wanted segregation by law. Who lost: Plessy and other Black passengers, who were kept to separate cars.

14. 9.

    A made-up town has no law on where families live, yet neighborhoods are separated. Which label fits, and why does it matter to Ren?

    • De jure, since the Fifteenth Amendment makes separate neighborhoods lawful by default.
    • De facto, since no law requires it, so there is no law to challenge in court.
    • De facto, since the court in Plessy found the same separation lawful in Louisiana.
    • De jure, since the neighborhoods are separated in fact and so the law must have required it.

15. Use this

    Card A: "Plessy v. Ferguson, in brief". Who made it: historians and textbooks writing today. When: today. Where: the United States. For whom: readers today. Why: to sum up what is known. Summary in our words, not a quotation: In 1890 Louisiana passed a law that told railroads to give white and Black passengers equal but separate cars. In 1892 Homer Plessy, a New Orleans man the law counted as Black, sat in a white car on purpose. A Black citizens' committee had planned the test case. He was arrested and tried before Judge John H. Ferguson. The Supreme Court decided the case in 1896. Justice Henry Brown wrote the opinion, and the Court let the Louisiana law stand. Justice John Marshall Harlan was the only justice who disagreed. Who gained: states that wanted segregation by law. Who lost: Plessy and other Black passengers, who were kept to separate cars.

16. 10.

    The law passed in 1890, Plessy sat in the white car in 1892 and the Court decided in 1896. What does the span show Zee?

    • The law was in force just four years before the Court ruled, counted from the arrest.
    • A challenge took years to reach the Court, so a law could operate years before a ruling.
    • The Court needed six years because it heard the case after the lower courts had ruled.
    • The Court acted quickly, since it decided the case in the same decade as the arrest.