AKS 37
New South
Changes for Georgia
AKS 37a
Evaluate the impact of each on Georgia between 1877 and 1918 including Bourbon Triumvirate, Henry Grady, International Cotton Exposition, Tom Watson and the Populists, Rebecca Latimer Felton, 1906 Atlanta Riot, Leo Frank Case, and the county unit system
Evaluate the impact of each on Georgia between 1877 and 1918 including Bourbon Triumvirate, Henry Grady, International Cotton Exposition, Tom Watson and the Populists, Rebecca Latimer Felton, 1906 Atlanta Riot, Leo Frank Case, and the county unit system
The Bourbon Triumvirate
Three Democrats--Joesph E. Brown, Alfred H. Colquitt, and John B. Gordon were called the Bourbon Triumvirate. All of these leaders wanted stronger economic ties with the industrial North in order to expand Georgia's economy. They also wanted to keep many old southern traditions including white supremacy. Brown, Colquitt, and Gordon were active in Georgia politics from 1872 to 1890, but their influence carried over well into the twentieth century.
Joseph E. Brown: Elected to the state senate in 1849 and served there until 1855, when he became a judge for the Blue Ridge Judicial Circuit. In 1857, Brown was elected Georgia's governor. He became a popular "states' rights" governor and was re-elected to two more terms. When Reconstruction began, Brown lost much of popularity by asking Georgians to go along with radical Reconstruction policies. He believed this would shorten Reconstruction. Brown remained in office until June 1865, when federal officials took over Reconstruction.
Alfred H. Colquitt: He was twenty-five when he entered Georgia politics, joining Joseph E. Brown in the state senate in 1849. The two developed a political bond that lasted for the next forty-four years. Before the Civil War, Colquitt served in congress and at Georgia's secession convention. During the war years, he was an able military leader and rose to the rank of major general. Colquitt was elected governor in 1876. Colquitt was re-elected and served until 1882. During his administration, the state's debt was reduced and, in 1877, a new state constitution was approved. The 1877 constitution was not rewritten until 1945.
John B. Gordon: In 1872, Gordon defeated Alexander Stephens to become Georgia's U.S. senator. In 1880, he resigned from the state and accepted a position with one of the railroads. in 1886, he began the first of his two terms as governor of Georgia. While governor, Gordon reduced the state's debt and brought new industry into the area.
The Bourbon Triumvirate and others helped carry Georgia through economic reconstruction as they lowered taxes, reduced the war debts, and expanded business and industry. However, they were criticized for accomplishing little to help the poor, improve education, reform factory working conditions, improve mental hospitals, or improve the lives of convicts. As a matter of fact, they profited personally from the use of prison labor.
Joseph E. Brown: Elected to the state senate in 1849 and served there until 1855, when he became a judge for the Blue Ridge Judicial Circuit. In 1857, Brown was elected Georgia's governor. He became a popular "states' rights" governor and was re-elected to two more terms. When Reconstruction began, Brown lost much of popularity by asking Georgians to go along with radical Reconstruction policies. He believed this would shorten Reconstruction. Brown remained in office until June 1865, when federal officials took over Reconstruction.
Alfred H. Colquitt: He was twenty-five when he entered Georgia politics, joining Joseph E. Brown in the state senate in 1849. The two developed a political bond that lasted for the next forty-four years. Before the Civil War, Colquitt served in congress and at Georgia's secession convention. During the war years, he was an able military leader and rose to the rank of major general. Colquitt was elected governor in 1876. Colquitt was re-elected and served until 1882. During his administration, the state's debt was reduced and, in 1877, a new state constitution was approved. The 1877 constitution was not rewritten until 1945.
John B. Gordon: In 1872, Gordon defeated Alexander Stephens to become Georgia's U.S. senator. In 1880, he resigned from the state and accepted a position with one of the railroads. in 1886, he began the first of his two terms as governor of Georgia. While governor, Gordon reduced the state's debt and brought new industry into the area.
The Bourbon Triumvirate and others helped carry Georgia through economic reconstruction as they lowered taxes, reduced the war debts, and expanded business and industry. However, they were criticized for accomplishing little to help the poor, improve education, reform factory working conditions, improve mental hospitals, or improve the lives of convicts. As a matter of fact, they profited personally from the use of prison labor.
Convict lease system
Henry Grady
Henry W. Grady, known as the voice of the South, the leading journalist of the time and a brilliant orator, was leading another movement that would bring much change to Georgia. In 1874, Grady, writing in the Atlanta Daily Herald, described the need for a New South, a South that would become much more like the industrialized North. The Athens native became the managing editor of another Atlanta newspaper, the Atlanta Constituion. During his brief but brilliant career, Grady made many speeches in Georgia and across the country especially in the northern states. He also published many articles that described a South that could compete economically with its northern neighbor. He wanted to improve race relations in the state and industrialize the state. He was a principal planner of the 1881 International Cotton Exposition, which was designed to show off the South's new industries.
International Cotton Exposition
In the years following the Civil War (1861-65), Atlanta's leaders hosted a series of three "cotton expositions" that were important to the city's recovery and economic development. These expositions helped Atlanta stake its claim as the center of the New South. The great promoter of the first two expositions was Henry Grady, the managing editor of the Atlanta Constitution and one of the framers of a new vision for the South and its economy.
1906 Atlanta Race Riot
Some thought the riot came about because men like Tom Watson spread racial fears (see below). Others believed that Hoke Smith had used racial fears to gain votes during the gubernatorial campaign of that year. Still others blamed Atlanta newpapers, which printed story after story of African American violence against whites. On the afternoon of Saturday, September 22, local newspaper headlines carried false reports of black assults. By 9 p.m., a crowd of over 5,000 white and African Americans had gathered on Decatur Street. Some accounts reported that thousands of whites brought guns and began to roam through the downtown area. Fears grew, and the attacks became real.
The riot lasted two days. Martial law was declared before the city once again became calm. At least eighteen African Americans and three whites were killed; hundreds of people were injured. The value of property destroyed was also high, but it could not be accurately estimated. The unrest led African Americans to look for new ways to achieve equality, including forming new organizations such as the NAACP and the National Urban League.
The riot lasted two days. Martial law was declared before the city once again became calm. At least eighteen African Americans and three whites were killed; hundreds of people were injured. The value of property destroyed was also high, but it could not be accurately estimated. The unrest led African Americans to look for new ways to achieve equality, including forming new organizations such as the NAACP and the National Urban League.
Tom Watson and the Populists
Tom Watson: In 1882, he was elected to the General Assembly. Even though he became wealthy, Watson was concerned about Georgia's poor and struggling farmers. Early in his career, he was the first native southern politician to be concerned about African American farmers, many of whom were tenant farmers or sharecroppers. He realized that agrarian reform was possible if the two races came together politically. With the backing of the Farmers' Alliance, Watson was elected to Congress in 1890 as a Democrat. Watson represented Georgia in the U.S. House of Representatives for only two years. However, he gained a place in congressional history by introducting the Rural Free Delivery (RFD) Bill, which required the U.S. postmaster general to find a way to deliver mail to rural homes free of charge.
Populist Party: The term populism refers to a political doctrine "that supports the rights and powers of the common people in their struggle with the priviledged elite." At the end of the Reconstruction period, two organizations formed to help famers- the Grange and the Farmers' Alliance. Members of labor organizations joined with the Alliance to form a new political party in 1891. They named it the People's Party, but it was usually called the Populist Party. The platform contained many "futuristic" reforms including an eight-hour workday, a graduated income tax, restrictions on immigration, and government ownership of railroads and telephone and telegraph services. The platform also called for the "free" or unlimited coinage of silver into dollars, the direct election of U.S. senators, a reduction of tariffs, and finally, the use of the Australian ballot.
Populist Party: The term populism refers to a political doctrine "that supports the rights and powers of the common people in their struggle with the priviledged elite." At the end of the Reconstruction period, two organizations formed to help famers- the Grange and the Farmers' Alliance. Members of labor organizations joined with the Alliance to form a new political party in 1891. They named it the People's Party, but it was usually called the Populist Party. The platform contained many "futuristic" reforms including an eight-hour workday, a graduated income tax, restrictions on immigration, and government ownership of railroads and telephone and telegraph services. The platform also called for the "free" or unlimited coinage of silver into dollars, the direct election of U.S. senators, a reduction of tariffs, and finally, the use of the Australian ballot.
Booker T. Washington
Booker T. Washington was born into slaver, and rose to national prominence. He was one of the outstanding civil rights leaders of the period. He was president of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama and had worked hard to establish the school. Washington believed that, for African Americans, economic independence was the only road to social and political equality.
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W.E.B. DuBois
Atlanta University Professor William Edward Burghardt DuBois did not agree with Booker T. Washington. In Atlanta, Dr. DuBois taught economics and political science. At first, he thought truth and knowledge would help different races understand and accept each other. DuBois wanted social and political integration, as well as higher education for 10 percent-what he called a "Talented Tenth"-of the African American population. He believed this group could become leaders for all other African Americans. However, the late 1800s were a time of extreme racial unrest. He decided that knowledge and truth alone were not enough. There must also be action if African Americans and white were to understand and accept each other. DuBois wanted equality NOW, he did not feel it need to be earned, but was simply a fact of human nature.
Alonzo Herndon
Another business giant of the Progressive Era. In 1858, Herndon was born a slave on a Walton County plantation. He moved to Atlanta; opened a barber shop and began buying buildings. In 1905, Herndon bought a small insurance company for $140.00. He knew little about insurance, so he hired African American college graduates to run the Atlanta Mutual Insurance Company. Herndon was still president of his insurance company when he died in 1927. His son Norris took the company over. That company is now the Atlanta Life Insurance Company. One of the largest African American-owned businesses in the United States, Atlanta Life has a net worth of over $200 million and operations in seventeen states. Perhaps the secret of Herndon's success in business was best explained when he said, "Some of us sit and wait for opportunity when it is already with us."
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The Leo Frank Case
On August 17, 1915, Leo M. Frank (a Jewish man) was lynched in Marietta. The 29 year old Frank was from Brooklyn, N.Y. and had been the superintendent of the National Pencil Company factory in Atlanta for five years. On April 26, 1913, he was charged with the murder of Mary Phagan, a 14 year old employee. The trial that followed was one of the most debated in Georgia's history. Although there was little evidence, Frank was convicted and sentenced to death, largely because of the testimony of Jim Conley, the factory's African American janitor. Because Conley was also a suspect, his testimony would normally not have been heard. Frank's lawyers appealed the case to the state supreme court. Georgia's governor John Slaton was under pressure to pardon Frank. The day before his term of office ended in June 1915, Slaton changed Frank's sentence from death to life imprisonment. Two months after the sentence change, twenty-five armed men walked into the state penitentiary in Milledgeville and took Frank from his prison cell. They drove to Marietta, the home of Mary Phagan, and hanged Frank from a tree. Result: resulted in the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan. In July 1915, amid the anti-Jewish (antisemitism) feelings and continuing racial unrest of the Leo Frank case, the KKK received a charter from the Fulton County Superior Court. This court highlights both the racial and religious intolerance of the time period.
Jim Crow
Jim Crow Law were passed to establish "separate-but-equal" facilities for white and for blacks. The laws resulted in separate restrooms, water fountains, railroad cars, waiting rooms, lodging facilities, dining areas, and schools. In 1889, the Georgia General Assembly segregated a number of public facilities including theatre, prison camps, water fountains, and restrooms. Although facilities for African Americans were separate, they were rarely equal to those set aside for white.
A Loss of Voting Rights: In 1908, Georgia followed other southern states and enacted a grandfather clause. The clause states that only those men whose fathers or grandfathers had been eligible to vote. Because few African Americans were able to vote in 1867, the grandfather clause kept most of Georgia's African Americans from voting. The state and local areas passed a series of additional qualifications for voting. Voters had to own property, pay a poll tax and pass literacy tests. Southern politicians also used gerrymandering (drawing districts to benefit certain people) to prevent African Americans from voting.
A Loss of Voting Rights: In 1908, Georgia followed other southern states and enacted a grandfather clause. The clause states that only those men whose fathers or grandfathers had been eligible to vote. Because few African Americans were able to vote in 1867, the grandfather clause kept most of Georgia's African Americans from voting. The state and local areas passed a series of additional qualifications for voting. Voters had to own property, pay a poll tax and pass literacy tests. Southern politicians also used gerrymandering (drawing districts to benefit certain people) to prevent African Americans from voting.
Plessy V. Ferguson
A U.S. Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson opened the door for even more Jim Crow laws. In actual practice, the decision in Plessy v. Ferguson made segregation the law of the land until 1954. In 1892, Homer Plessy bought a train ticket from New Orleans to Covington, Louisiana. Because he was seven-eighths white and one-eight black, he took a seat in the "whites only" car. When he refused to move, he was arrested under the "Jim Crow Car Act of 1890," which required separate-but-equal accommodations for whites and blacks on railroad cars. In 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court heard the case and, by a 7-1 vote, upheld the law. Plessy v. Ferguson gave states the right to control social discrimination and to promote segregation of the races. Throughout the South, numerous laws forced blacks to use separate facilities such as parks and public transportation. Schools soon followed.