Thesis
The Red Summer
Turning Points in History
National History Day 2024
Image Courtesy of the Library of Congress
During the early 1900s, racial tension skyrocketed across the Southern United States.
"Thus it is that in America, if you are yellow, brown, or black, you can never travel anywhere without being reminded of your color, and oft-times suffering great inconveniences."
~ Langston Hughes, African-American poet and social activist
From the 1860s to the 1900s, various American states imposed segregation through the Jim Crow Laws. Several states such as Alabama or Georgia could enforce legal punishments on people for associating with other races.
It shall be unlawful for colored people to frequent any park owned or maintained by the city for the benefit, use and enjoyment of white persons...and unlawful for any white person to frequent any park owned or maintained by the city for the use and benefit of colored persons. Georgia
"Jim Crow Laws" in Georgia, Courtesy of The Jim Crow Museum
It shall be unlawful to conduct a restaurant or other place for the serving of food in the city, at which white and colored people are served in the same room, unless such white and colored persons are effectually separated by a solid partition extending from the floor upward to a distance of seven feet or higher, and unless a separate entrance from the street is provided for each compartment. Alabama
"Jim Crow Laws" in Alabama, Courtesy of The Jim Crow Museum
Wants 'Jim Crow' Law All Over the United States, 1915, Courtesy of The Washington Times
Ludicrous Effect of "Jim Crow" Car Law, 1900, Courtesy of The Richmond Planet
"No Dogs, Negroes, Mexicans", Courtesy of the Black History Collection
The Jim Crow Laws were a climax of racial tension across the southern United States in the early 1900s.
NAACP Flag, Courtesy of the NAACP
"One ever feels his twoness, — an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, who dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.”
~ W.E.B. Du Bois, cofounder of the NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), founded in 1909, focused on advocating for African-American rights.
NAACP Protest, Courtesy of the NAACP
NAACP Officials at the Annual Session, Courtesy of the NAACP
NAACP Advertisement, Courtesy of The Monitor
Lynching is the public execution of an individual without integrity. These killings performed by riotous mobs were prevalent throughout the history of racism.
"The Shame of America", Courtesy of the Evening Star
Lynchings By Year and Race Statistic, Courtesy of the Archives at Tuskegee Institute
"Our country's national crime is lynching. It is not the creature of an hour, the sudden outburst of uncontrolled fury, or the unspeakable brutality of an insane mob. It represents the cool, calculating deliberation of intelligent people."
~ Ida B. Wells, an African-American activist and member of the NAACP