Chapter Overview

The 1898 Supreme Court ruling in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson called for a "separate but equal" balance of power between the races in America. In actuality, African Americans remained unequal in almost all situations. The white-backed press of the era made wide-reaching pronouncements of the inferiority of the black race, as did the "science" supporting racial segregation, and there were thousands of everyday reminders of the so-called superiority of whites and the "Negro's place" in society. Rather than fall in step with this growing inertia of Jim Crow in the South (and more often, the North), African Americans turned to a philosophy of self-help, an idea stretching far into their past that emphasized a positive outlook and a refusal to abandon the eventual goal of true equality of all races in the United States. Unfortunately, like all well-meant ideals, self-help was sometimes self-defeating and triggered dissention within the African-American race about means and goals.

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter you should understand the following:

• That African Americans of this era had a large body of literature to draw upon that refuted white-supremacy dogma and demonstrated their growing prominence, affluence, and contributions to American society
• That there were many suggested paths to racial equality—some violent, some that were viewed as appeasement
• The ongoing economic and social struggle that came with being a member of the African American race
• The growing affluence of women in the United States in this era, regardless of race
• The examples of literature, scientific accomplishments, and cultural achievement that the African Americans of this era could claim