Name:__________________

Date:__________________
PD:_______ PG:_______
Challenges for African Americans Notes
1. Examine the image to the right. What is being represented in
this image? Would this image be considered a “success” or
“failure” of Reconstruction? Why?

2. Complete the following questions after reading “Violence Against African Americans” in
the text.
a. What did white Democrats turn to when legal methods failed? _______________
b. What was the most famous secret society to use this new tactic? ____________
c. What group of people did this society target? ____________________________

3. While reading an excerpt from John Patterson Green’s “Recollections of the Inhabitants,
Localities, Superstitions, and KuKlux Outrages of the Carolinas,” answer the following
questions.
a. In the first paragraph, what violence and intimidation factors did the KKK use on
an African American? _______________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
b. According to Green, what were two opinions of the KKK?
i.

ii.

c. What were three goals or “objects” of the KKK in this passage?

i.

ii.

iii.

d. Besides African Americans and carpetbaggers, who else faced the wrath of the
KKK? ___________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
e. In the last paragraph, how does Green respond to the question, “Why don’t the
freedmen fight?” __________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

4. What law was passed to help African Americans combat these acts of violence?
___________________________________________________________________________
a. However, why were arrested white Southerners rarely convicted?
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
5. Since most Northerners were tired of the struggles of Reconstruction, they wanted to
bring an end to it. Therefore, Congress passed the _____________________________
a. What four areas did this new law impact? In what ways were these areas
impacted?
i.

ii.

iii.

iv.

6. Answer the following questions for this portion of an actual literacy test from Louisiana.

After answering the questions,

take a moment to react. Was the
test fair? Why or why not?

7. Examine the picture of an artist’s interpretation of Jim Crow to the right. Why
do you think the artist made Jim Crow look this way?

8. List two examples of Jim Crow Laws.

a.

b.
9. Answer the following questions about the watershed Plessy v. Ferguson case.
a. Why did Homer Plessy get arrested? __________________________________
________________________________________________________________
b. Why did John Ferguson argue that Plessy’s argument was null and void?
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
c. Predict the Supreme Court’s decision. __________________________________
d. What was the Supreme Court’s ruling? _________________________________
________________________________________________________________
e. What precedent was established by this ruling? __________________________
f. What is the impact of this new precedent? ______________________________
________________________________________________________________

10. What were two common ways in which African Americans reacted to the legalization of
segregation?
a.

b.

11. Where were most Southern African Americans located after Reconstruction? _________

12. Apply what you have learned from the repression of African Americans’ rights in the
South by analyzing this political cartoon by Thomas Nast. Answer the questions on the
following page. The cartoon in your notes is a little blurry, so you may want to take a look
at the same cartoon on the screen.
 I. What do you see?
1. What is the historical background for this cartoon? Who are these men and what are
they doing?

II. Symbols and Symbols within Symbols:

1.What are the major symbols appearing in this cartoon? What do you think they stand
for? Why are they added to the picture?
Symbol? Meaning? Why Added

III. Exaggerations & Distortions

1. What do you see as exaggerations, distortions or stereotypes in the cartoon?

IV. Humor and Irony

1. What are some of the things you find humorous in this cartoon?

2. What is ironic about this cartoon?

V. Argument/Cartoonists Position
1. What is the cartoonist’s argument in this cartoon? Or who is he criticizing?

2. Knowing now the cartoonist’s argument, what party and candidate do you think he is
trying to support?
 Southern Repression Political Cartoon

To respond to this prompt, you will need a copy of the cartoon, your notes, and the
Political Cartoon Grading Rubric
.
Using your cartoon resources provided you are to identify all the elements contained in
this cartoon and explain how they were utilized by the cartoonists to express, from his
point of view (bias), the problem he sees in Southern Repression. Be sure to consider
whom he is criticizing, whom he seems to be favoring, and whom his main audience
might be for this cartoon.