Dawn of the Twentieth Century

• White ruling class used its powers to control its own interests

• Enforced strict segregation• Few laws were needed to

enforce this because the custom of segregation was so strong

• Hotels, restaurants, movie theaters, doctors office etc… were either separate or off limit to blacks

• Did not use titles of respect like “Mr.” or “Mrs.”

• It was a rigid caste system (social order)

• Violations of the system usually resulted in violence

• Lynching became very prominent– Mob murder by hanging, shooting, or

burning• Mississippi had more lynchings than any

other state: 476 people• Living double lives: Acted one way in

public around whites and acted another way around other blacks

• Resentment grew strong but black Mississippians mounted only one demonstration against segregation

• Blacks accepted segregation and tried to develop the black economy

• Built their own restaurants, bars, barbershops, beauty shops, and funeral parlors.

• Also maintained their own churches

Education• Weak economy and racism caused Mississippi

to neglect education• No public education system before

Reconstruction• Once created they were segregated• After 1885, ruling white Democrats did not

want to spend money on education… most of the children in Mississippi were black

• Students-majority black; teachers-majority white• Few teachers had professional training• State based how much money counties got for

education based on number of students • This caused whites to abuse the system– Whites in majority black counties abused the system

to get better schools

Agriculture

• After the Civil War, credit was tight– Credit: ability to buy something now and pay later

• Landowners did not have money to pay wages• Poor farmers did not have money to buy land• Many poor whites and freedmen turned to

sharecropping– People who did not own the land they farmed, house

they lived in, or tools they used– Worked land and paid rent in form of a portion of

yearly crop

Sharecropping System• Life was miserable• Lived in shacks and had poor diets• Children went to school for 6 weeks then worked in the

fields for the rest of the year• Sharecroppers went into debt easily because they had to

buy everything they needed in one store where the planter had credit.

• Storeowner charged higher prices to those using credit• Because of the lack of education, the planter and

storeowner could cheat the sharecropper when it was time to settle accounts

• Sharecroppers could move but state laws said a planter could keep sharecroppers on plantations until debts were paid

• Closest thing to slavery

Agricultural Problems• Topsoil eroded which made the land less and

less productive• 1907: the boll weevil invaded Mississippi– Small beetle that attacks the bolls

• Devastated the state for several years• To lessen the devastation many farmers

turned to new crops

Lumber Industry• Much of the state was still frontier areas• Most of this land would not grow cotton so settlers

engaged in animal herding and growing sweet potatoes• When railroads and lumber companies came to MS, it

changed the state• They offered employment and cash in return for trees• Between 1880 and 1930, Mississippi was clear-cut by the

lumber companies (all trees cut down)– Problem: did not replant the trees

• Was not until many years later did trees get replanted• Some cities boomed in the lumber industry because of

WWI: Hattiesburg and Laurel

Extra Extra Read All About It!!!• You are a muckraker (journalist who exposes the

underlying truth) reporter from New York traveling to Mississippi to expose the segregated society and the effects of the sharecropping system. Write an article for the New York Times to inform other American citizens of your findings of life in Mississippi.

• You can include your personal feelings in this. Remember its your article, not everyone who reads it has to agree with it!

Label the following on the Map

Label and Color: Germany-RedBritain-BlueFrance-YellowAustria-Hungary-GreenItaly-PurpleRussia-OrangeSerbia-Grey

After you finish with the packet: •Get a county map•Label each county, use MS Studies Book •You will be tested on this!!!!!

After test:

•Complete the map–Label all 82 counties–You will be tested on this

with 3 quizzes and 1 summative test!