The
"nadir of American race relations" is a phrase referring to the period in
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
history from the end of Reconstruction to the beginning of the 20th Century, when
racismRacism is the belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. In the case of institutional racism, certain racial groups may be denied rights or benefits, or get preferential treatment...
was deemed to be worse than in any other post-bellum period. During this period,
African AmericanAfrican Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa. In the United States, the terms are generally used for Americans with at least partial Sub-Saharan African ancestry...
s lost many
civil rightsCivil and political rights are a class of rights and freedoms that protect individuals from unwarranted government action and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression....
gains made during Reconstruction. Anti-black violence, lynchings,
segregationRacial segregation is the separation of different racial groups in daily life, such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a washroom, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home. Segregation may be mandated by law or exist through social...
, legal racial
discriminationDiscrimination is a sociological term refering to treatment taken toward or against a person of a certain group that is taken in consideration based on class or category. The United Nations explains: "Discriminatory behaviours take many forms, but they all involve some form of exclusion or...
, and expressions of
white supremacyWhite supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to people of other racial backgrounds. The term is sometimes used specifically to describe a political ideology that advocates the social and political dominance of whites....
increased.
The phrase "the nadir" to describe this period was first used by historian
Rayford LoganRayford Whittingham Logan was an African American historian and Pan-African activist. He was best known for his study of post-Reconstruction America, a period he termed "the nadir of American race relations". In the late 1940s he was the chief advisor to the NAACP on international affairs.In...
in a 1954 book titled
The Negro in American Life and Thought: The Nadir, 1877-1901. It continues to be used, most notably in the books of
James LoewenJames W. Loewen is a sociologist, professor, and author whose best known work is Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong.-Early life and career:...
, but also by other scholars. Loewen argued that the post-Reconstruction period was actually one of widespread hope for racial equity, when civil rights were championed by idealistic northerners. The true nadir, accordingly, began only when northern Republicans ceased supporting southern black rights around 1890, and extended through 1940. This period followed the financial
Panic of 1873The Panic of 1873 was the start of the Long Depression, a severe nationwide economic depression in the United States that lasted until 1879. It was precipitated by the bankruptcy of the Philadelphia banking firm Jay Cooke & Company on September 18, 1873...
and continuing decline in agriculture, and coincided with American imperialist aspirations, the
Progressive EraThe Progressive Era in the United States was a period of reform which lasted from the 1890s to the 1920s.Responding to the changes brought about by industrialization,the Progressives advocated a wide range of economic, political, social, and moral reforms....
, and the
sundown townA sundown town is a town that is or was all white on purpose. The term is widely used in the United States and Canada in areas from Ohio to Oregon and well into the South. The term came from signs that were allegedly posted stating that people of color had to leave the town by sundown. They are...
phenomenon across the country.
Reconstruction
In the early part of the 20th century, southerners put forth the concept of Reconstruction as a tragic period, when Republicans motivated by revenge and profit, used troops to force
SouthernersThe Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, Down South, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive region in the southeastern and south-central United States...
to accept
corruptPolitical corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...
governments run by unscrupulous
NorthernersThe Northern United States is a large geographic region of the United States of America. Most Americans refer to the region simply as "the North". It is currently divided by the United States Census as the Midwest and Northeast, both of which have their own sub-regions...
and unqualified blacks. William Dunning, an influential historian at Columbia University, also believed that "black skin means membership in a race of men which has never of itself…created any civilization of any kind." The Dunning School's view of Reconstruction held sway for years. They were represented in D.W. Griffith's popular movie
The Birth of a NationThe Birth of a Nation is a 1915 silent film directed by D. W. Griffith. Set during and after the American Civil War, the film was based on Thomas Dixon's The Clansman, a novel and play...
(1915) and to some extent in
Margaret MitchellMargaret Munnerlyn Mitchell was an American author, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1937 for her novel Gone with the Wind. The novel is one of the most popular books of all time, selling more than 30 million copies...
's novel
Gone with the WindGone with the Wind is a romantic drama and the only novel written by Margaret Mitchell. It is set in Jonesboro and Atlanta, Georgia during the American Civil War and Reconstruction...
(1934). Historians have overwhelmingly revised that assessment.
Today's consensus regards Reconstruction as a time of idealism and hope, with some practical achievements. The Radical Republicans who passed the
14thThe Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, along with the Thirteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, was adopted after the Civil War as one of the Reconstruction Amendments. It was adopted on July 9, 1868....
and
15th AmendmentsThe Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits each government in the United States from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude"...
were, for the most part, motivated by a desire to help freedmen. This view was put forward by African-American historian W. E. B. Du Bois in 1910, and later expanded by Kenneth Stampp and
Eric FonerEric Foner is an American historian. He has been a faculty member in the department of history at Columbia University since 1982 and writes extensively on political history, the history of freedom, the early history of the Republican Party, African American biography, Reconstruction, and...
. The Republican Reconstruction governments had their share of corruption, but it was one that benefited many whites —and they were no more corrupt than Democratic governments, or, indeed, than Northern Republican governments.
Furthermore, the Reconstruction governments established public education and social welfare institutions for the first time, improving education for both blacks and whites, and trying to improve social conditions for the many left in poverty after the long war. No Reconstruction state government was dominated by blacks; in fact, blacks did not attain a level of representation equal to their population in any state. When blacks did serve in public office, they often did so with distinction.
Reconstruction's failure
Many former Confederates resisted Reconstruction with violence and intimidation.
James LoewenJames W. Loewen is a sociologist, professor, and author whose best known work is Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong.-Early life and career:...
notes between 1865 and 1867, when white Democrats controlled the government, an average of one black person was murdered by whites every day in
Hinds County, MississippiHinds County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. It is part of the Jackson, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of 2000, the population was 250,800. Its county seats are Jackson and Raymond. Hinds County is named for U.S. Congressman Thomas Hinds.-Geography:According...
. Black schools were an especial target; school buildings were frequently burned, and teachers were flogged and occasionally murdered. This was the period when the secret vigilante group of the
Ku Klux KlanKu Klux Klan , informally known as The Klan, is the name of several past and present hate group organizations in the United States whose avowed purpose was to protect the rights of and further the interests of white Americans by violence and intimidation. The first such organizations originated in...
(KKK) first arose, attacking freedmen and their white allies.
Nonetheless, blacks continued to vote and attend schools. Literacy soared, and many African-Americans were elected to local and statewide offices—several served in Congress. There were limits to Republican efforts on behalf of blacks—for example, a promise of
land reformLand reforms is an often-controversial alteration in the societal arrangements whereby government administers possession and use of land...
made by the Freedman's Bureau, would have granted blacks plots on the plantation land they worked, never came to pass. However, for several years, the federal government, pushed by Northern opinion, showed itself willing to intervene to protect the rights of black Americans. The Force Acts and state action reduced the power of the KKK by the early 1870s. Because of the black community's commitment to education, by 1900 the majority of blacks were literate.
Continued violence in the South, especially heated around electoral campaigns, sapped northern intentions. More significantly, after the long years and losses of the Civil War, northerners had lost heart for the massive commitment of money and arms that would have been required to stifle the white insurgency. The
financial panic of 1873The Panic of 1873 was the start of the Long Depression, a severe nationwide economic depression in the United States that lasted until 1879. It was precipitated by the bankruptcy of the Philadelphia banking firm Jay Cooke & Company on September 18, 1873...
disrupted the economy nationwide, causing more difficulties. The white insurgency took on new life 10 years after the war. Conservative white Democrats waged an increasingly violent war, with the
Colfax MassacreThe Colfax Massacre or Colfax Riot occurred on Easter Sunday, April 13, 1873, in Colfax, Louisiana, the seat of Grant Parish....
and
Coushatta MassacreThe Coushatta Massacre was the result of an attack by the White League, a paramilitary organization organized by white Southern Democrats, on Republican officeholders and freedmen in Coushatta, the parish seat of Red River Parish, Louisiana...
in Louisiana in 1873 as signs. The next year saw the formation of paramilitary groups, such as the
White LeagueThe White League was a white paramilitary group which was established in 1874 in Louisiana and operated during Reconstruction. It was described as "the military arm of the Democratic Party" and contributed to its taking over control of the Louisiana Legislature...
in Louisiana (1874) and Red Shirts in Mississippi and the Carolinas, that worked openly to turn Republicans out of office, disrupt black organizing, and intimidate and suppress black voting. They invited press coverage. One historian described them as "the military arm of the Democratic Party."
In 1874, in a continuation of the disputed gubernatorial election of 1872, thousands of White League militia fought against New Orleans police and state militia and won, turning out the Republican governor and installing the Democrat McEnery, taking over the capitol, state house and armory for a few days, then retreating in the face of Federal troops. This was known as the "Battle of Liberty Place". Northerners waffled and finally capitulated to the South, giving up on being able to control election violence. Abolitionist leaders like
Horace GreeleyHorace Greeley was an American editor of a leading newspaper, a founder of the Liberal Republican Party, a reformer, and a politician...
began to ally themselves with Democrats in attacking Reconstruction governments. By 1874 there was a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives.
Ulysses S. GrantUlysses S. Grant was general-in-chief of the Union Army from 1864 to 1869 during the American Civil War and the 18th President of the United States from 1869 to 1877....
, who as General led the victorious Union campaign, as President initially refused to send troops when asked by the governor of Mississippi in 1875. Violence surrounded the election of 1876 in many areas. This was a beginning of a trend. After Grant, it would be many years before any President would do anything to extend the protection of the law to black people.
South
As noted above, white paramilitary forces contributed to whites' taking over power in the late 1870s. A brief coalition of populists took over in some states, but conservative Democrats had returned to power after the 1880s. From 1890-1908 they proceeded to pass legislation and constitutional amendments to disfranchise most blacks and many poor whites. They used a combination of restrictions on voter registration and voting methods, such as poll taxes, literacy and residency requirements, and ballot box changes. The main push came from elite Democrats in the black belt, where blacks were a majority of voters. The elite Democrats also acted to disfranchise poor whites.
South CarolinaSouth Carolina is a U.S. state that borders Georgia to the south and North Carolina to the north. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence from the British Crown during the American Revolution. The colony was...
Senator Ben Tillman proudly proclaimed in 1900, "We have done our level best [to prevent blacks from voting]...we have scratched our heads to find out how we could eliminate the last one of them. We stuffed ballot boxes. We shot them. We are not ashamed of it." African Americans were an absolute majority of the population in Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina. They represented more than 40% of the population in four other former Confederate states. Accordingly, many whites perceived African Americans as a major political threat, because in free and fair elections, they would hold the balance of power in a majority of the South.
Conservative white Democratic governments passed
Jim CrowThe Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans...
legislation, creating a system of legal racial segregation in public and private facilities. Blacks were separated in schools and the few hospitals, were restricted in seating on trains, had to use separate sections in some restaurants and public transportation systems. They were often barred from some stores, or forbidden to use lunchrooms, restrooms and fitting rooms. Because they could not vote, they could not serve on juries, which meant they had little if any
legal recourseA legal recourse is an action that can be taken by an individual or a corporation to attempt to remedy a legal difficulty.* A lawsuit if the issue is a matter of civil law* Many contracts require mediation or arbitration before a dispute can go to court...
in the system. Indeed, between 1889 and 1922, as political disfranchisement and segregation were being established, the NAACP calculates lynchings reached their worst level in history, almost 3,500 people, almost all of them black men.
Historian
James LoewenJames W. Loewen is a sociologist, professor, and author whose best known work is Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong.-Early life and career:...
notes lynching emphasized the helplessness of Blacks, "the defining characteristic of a lynching is that the murder takes place in public, so everyone knows who did it, yet the crime goes unpunished." Ostensibly prompted by black attacks or threats to white women, in fact scholars and journalists have shown that lynchings arose out of economic competition and desire by competing whites for social control. African American civil rights activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett conducted one of the first systematic studies of the subject. She found blacks were "lynched for anything or nothing" - for wife-beating, stealing hogs, being "saucy to white people", sleeping with a consenting white woman - for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was a system of social terrorism.
Blacks who were economically successful faced reprisals or sanctions. When Richard Wright tried to train to become an optometrist and lens-grinder, the other men in the shop threatened him until he was forced to leave. In 1911 blacks were barred from participating in the
Kentucky DerbyThe Kentucky Derby is a Grade I stakes race for three year-old Thoroughbred horses, held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The race is one and a quarter miles at Churchill Downs. Colts and geldings carry 126 pounds ...
because African Americans won more than half of the first twenty-eight races. Through violence and legal restrictions, whites often prevented blacks from working as common laborers, much less as skilled artisans or in the professions. Under such conditions, even the most ambitious and talented black people found it extremely difficult to advance.
This situation called into question the policies of
Booker T. WashingtonBooker Taliaferro Washington was an American educator, orator, author, presidential advisor, and the dominant leader of the nation's African-American community from the 1890s to his death. Born into slavery and freed by the Civil War in 1865, he led the new Tuskegee Institute, then a teachers'...
, the most prominent black leader during the early part of the nadir. He had argued that black people could better themselves by hard work and thrift. He believed they had to master basic work before going on to college careers and professional aspirations. Washington believed his programs trained blacks for the lives they were likely to lead and the jobs they could get in the South.
However, as W.E.B. Dubois pointed out,
it is utterly impossible, under modern competitive methods, for working men and property-owners to defend their rights and exist without the right of suffrage.
Washington had always (though often clandestinely) supported the right of black suffrage, and had fought against disfranchisement laws in Georgia, Louisiana, and other Southern states.
United States as a whole
Many blacks voted with their feet and left the South to seek better conditions. In 1879, Logan notes, "some 40,000
NegroNegro is a term referring to people of Black ancestry. Prior to the shift in the lexicon of American and worldwide classification of race and ethnicity in the late 1960s, the appellation was accepted as a normal, completely neutral, formal term both by those of Black African descent as well as...
es virtually stampeded from Mississippi,
LouisianaThe State of Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state divided into parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
,
AlabamaAlabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States of America. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its...
, and
GeorgiaGeorgia is a state in the United States. One of the original Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution, it had been the last of the Thirteen Colonies to be established, in 1733. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January...
for the Midwest." More significantly, beginning about 1915, many blacks moved to Northern cities in what became known as the
Great MigrationThe Great Migration was the movement of 1.3 million African-Americans out of the Southern United States to the North, Midwest and West from 1910 to 1930. Precise estimates of the number of migrants depend on the time frame. African Americans migrated to escape racism and seek employment...
. Through the 1930s, more than 1.5 million blacks would leave the South for lives in
the NorthThe North may refer to:* A geographical section of the world .* The wealthy and technologically advanced nations of the world, as contrasted with the nations comprising the South ....
, seeking work and the chance to escape lynchings and legal segregation. While they faced difficulties, overall they had better chances there. They had to make great cultural changes, as most went from rural areas to major industrial cities, and had to change from being rural workers to learn to be urban workers.
In the South, whites began to get alarmed and often tried to block black migration. They worried that the labor force was leaving. During the nadir, northern areas struggled with upheaval and hostility. In the Midwest and West, many towns posted
"sundown" warningsA sundown town is a town that is or was all white on purpose. The term is widely used in the United States and Canada in areas from Ohio to Oregon and well into the South. The term came from signs that were allegedly posted stating that people of color had to leave the town by sundown. They are...
, threatening to kill African Americans who remained overnight. These were seldom the destinations of blacks seeking industrial jobs, so it was fear about something that was not going to happen. Monuments to Confederate War dead were erected across the nation— in, for example, Montana. Such towns were not the major destinations of blacks, however, who headed where there were industrial jobs. As an example, in its years of expansion, the
Pennsylvania RailroadThe Pennsylvania Railroad was an American railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
recruited tens of thousands of workers from the South.
Black housing was often segregated in the North. There was competition for jobs and housing, as blacks entered cities which were also the destination of millions of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe. In some regions, blacks could not serve on juries.
BlackfaceBlackface, in the narrow sense, is a style of theatrical makeup that originated in the United States, used to take on the appearance of certain archetypes of American racism, especially those of the "happy-go-lucky darky on the plantation" or the "dandified coon "...
shows, in which whites dressed as blacks portrayed African Americans as ignorant clowns, were popular in North and South. The Supreme Court reflected conservative tendencies and did not overrule southern constitutional changes resulting in disfranchisement. In 1896, the Court ruled in
Plessy v. FergusonPlessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 , is a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in the jurisprudence of the United States, upholding the constitutionality of racial segregation even in public accommodations , under the doctrine of "separate but equal".The decision was handed down by a vote of 7 to 1...
that "separate but equal" was constitutional. The Court was made up almost entirely of Northerners.
As more blacks moved north, they encountered racism where they had to battle over territory, often against ethnic Irish, who were defending their power base. While there were critics in the scientific community such as
Franz BoasFranz Boas was a German American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". Like many such pioneers, he trained in other disciplines; he received his doctorate in physics, and did post-doctoral work in geography...
, in academia,
eugenicsEugenics is the study and practice of selective breeding applied to humans, with the aim of improving the species. Widely popular in the early decades of the 20th century, after having become associated with the Holocaust, it has largely fallen into disrepute.- Overview :As a social movement...
and
scientific racismScientific racism is the use of scientific or ostensibly scientific findings and methods to investigate differences between races, often to support or validate racist attitudes and worldviews. It is based on belief in the existence and significance of racial categories, typically with a hierarchy...
were promoted by scientists
Lothrop StoddardTheodore Lothrop Stoddard was an American political scientist, historian, journalist, anthropologist, eugenicist, pacifist, and anti-immigration advocate who wrote a number of books which are often cited as prominent examples of early 20th-century scientific racism.- Biography :Stoddard was born...
and
Madison GrantMadison Grant was an American lawyer, historian, and anthropologist, known primarily for his work as a eugenicist and conservationist...
who argued "scientific evidence" for the racial superiority of whites and thereby worked to justify
racial segregationRacial segregation is the separation of different racial groups in daily life, such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a washroom, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home. Segregation may be mandated by law or exist through social...
and second-class citizenship for blacks.
Numerous blacks had voted for
Woodrow WilsonThomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States. A leading intellectual of the Progressive Era, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
in the 1912 election, based on his promise to work for them. Instead, he was influenced by his cabinet and introduced the re-segregation of government workplaces and employment in some agencies. This was a decline in Washington, DC.
Wilson was said to be a vocal fan of the film
Birth of a Nation (1915), which celebrated the rise of the first
Ku Klux KlanKu Klux Klan , informally known as The Klan, is the name of several past and present hate group organizations in the United States whose avowed purpose was to protect the rights of and further the interests of white Americans by violence and intimidation. The first such organizations originated in...
. His praise was used to defend the film from the NAACP. The director of the film was said to publicize remarks by Wilson out of context.
Birth of a Nation helped popularize the second incarnation of the
Ku Klux KlanKu Klux Klan , informally known as The Klan, is the name of several past and present hate group organizations in the United States whose avowed purpose was to protect the rights of and further the interests of white Americans by violence and intimidation. The first such organizations originated in...
, which gained its greatest power and influence in the mid-1920s. In 1924, the Klan had 4 million members. (Current, p. 693). It also controlled the governorship and a majority of the state legislature in Indiana, as well as exerting a powerful political influence in Arkansas, Oklahoma, California, Georgia, Oregon, and Texas. (Loewen,
Lies Across America, pp. 161–162)
In the years during and after the First World War, there were great social tensions in the nation: not only because of the effects of the Great Migration and European immigration, but because of demobilization and attempts of veterans to get jobs. Mass attacks on blacks that developed out of strikes and economic competition occurred in Houston, in Philadelphia and
in East St. LouisThe East St. Louis Riot was an outbreak of labor and racially motivated violence against blacks that caused an estimated 100 deaths and extensive property damage in the United States industrial city of East St. Louis, Illinois, located on the Mississippi River...
in 1917.
In 1919 there were riots in several major cities, causing the season to be called Red Summer. The
Chicago Race Riot of 1919The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 was a major racial conflict that began in on July 27, 1919 and ended on August 3. During the riot, dozens died and hundreds were injured. It is considered the worst of the approximately 25 riots during the Red Summer of 1919, so named because of the violence and...
erupted into mob violence for several days. It left 15 whites and 23 blacks dead, over 500 injured and more than 1,000 homeless. An investigation found that ethnic Irish, who had established their own power base earlier on the South Side, were heavily implicated in the riots. It was during that same year that Race Riots erupted throughout the nation (hence, the term
Red Summer of 1919Red Summer, a term coined by author James Weldon Johnson, is used to describe the bloody race riots that occurred during the summer and autumn of 1919. Race riots erupted in several cities in both the North and South of the United States. The three with the highest number of fatalities happened...
) The 1921
Tulsa Race RiotThe Tulsa race riot, also known as the 1921 race riot, the night that Tulsa died, the Tulsa Race War, or the Greenwood riot, was a massacre during a large-scale civil disorder confined mainly to the racially segregated Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA on May 31, 1921...
in
Tulsa, OklahomaTulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 45th-largest in the United States. With an estimated population of 385,635 in 2008, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Statistical Area, a region of 916,079 residents projected to reach one million between 2010...
was even more deadly; white mobs invaded and burned the
GreenwoodGreenwood is a neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. As one of the most successful and wealthiest African American communities in the United States during the early 20th Century, it was popularly known as America's "Black Wall Street" until the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. The riot was one of the most...
district of Tulsa. 1,256 homes were destroyed and 39 people (26 black, 13 white) were confirmed killed, although recent investigations suggest that the number of black deaths could be considerably higher.
Legacy
Black literacy levels, which rose during Reconstruction, continued to increase through this period. The NAACP was established in 1909, and by 1920 the group won a few important anti-discrimination lawsuits. African Americans, such as Du Bois and Wells-Barnett, continued the tradition of advocacy, organizing, and journalism which helped spur
abolitionismAbolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and emancipate slaves in western Europe and the Americas. The slave system aroused little protest until the 18th century, when rationalist thinkers of the Enlightenment criticized it for violating the rights of man, and Quaker and other evangelical...
, as well as developing new tactics helping to spur the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. The
Harlem RenaissanceThe Harlem Renaissance refers to the flowering of African American cultural and intellectual life during the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after the 1925 anthology The New Negro edited by Alain Locke...
and the popularity of
jazzJazz is a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
music during the early part of the 20th century made many Americans more aware of black culture and more accepting of black celebrities.
Overall, however, the nadir was a disaster, certainly for black people and arguably for whites as well. Foner points out:
...by the early twentieth century [racism] had become more deeply embedded in the nation's culture and politics than at any time since the beginning of the antislavery crusade and perhaps in our nation's entire history.
Similarly, Loewen argues that the family instability and crime which many sociologists have found in black communities can be traced, not to slavery, but to the nadir and its aftermath. (
Lies My Teacher Told Me, p. 166)
Foner noted that "none of Reconstruction's black officials created a family political dynasty" and concluded, the nadir "aborted the development of the South's black political leadership." (p. 604)
Many commentators pointed out lynchings and
mob actionMob Action is a clothing label based in Leipzig, Germany. The name is synonymous with riot, outlining the company's political appeal....
undermined respect for the established justice system. Lynching and mob violence continued in the first three decades of the twentieth century. More racial violence of whites against blacks arose in the South in relation to activities of the
Civil Rights MovementThe Civil Rights Movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. It was accompanied by much civil unrest and popular rebellion. The process was long and tenuous in many countries, and most of these movements did not achieve or...
.
Exact year
Logan took some trouble to establish the exact year when the nadir reached its lowest point; he argued for 1901, suggesting that relations improved after then. Others, such as John Hope Franklin and Henry Arthur Callis, argued for dates as late as 1923. (Logan, p. xxi) Though the term "nadir" is still used to describe the post-Reconstruction and early 20th century period, the search for the single worst year has been abandoned.