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'''Segregation''' was the institutional subjugation of blacks following the [[Civil War]] and subsequent passage of the [[Wikipedia:Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Thirteenth]] and [[Wikipedia:Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendments]] that constitutionally abolished [[slavery]] and secured the rights of former slaves. Like other areas in the South, Pensacola was engaged in policies of legal segregation through '''Jim Crow laws''' and other means. | '''Segregation''' was the institutional subjugation of blacks following the [[Civil War]] and subsequent passage of the [[Wikipedia:Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Thirteenth]] and [[Wikipedia:Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendments]] that constitutionally abolished [[slavery]] and secured the rights of former slaves. Like other areas in the South, Pensacola was engaged in policies of legal segregation through '''Jim Crow laws''' and other means. | ||
==Background== | ==Background== | ||
− | The origins of institutionalized segregation may be traced to the contentious [[Wikipedia:United States presidential election, 1876|1876 election]] of president [[Wikipedia: | + | The origins of institutionalized segregation may be traced to the contentious [[Wikipedia:United States presidential election, 1876|1876 election]] of president [[Wikipedia:Rutherford B. Hayes]], who ordered the withdrawal of federal troops from the South, effectively ending the Reconstruction period. |
Pensacola played a pivotal role in the so-called [[Wikipedia:Compromise of 1877|Compromise of 1877]] that delivered Florida's electoral votes (and thereby the election) to Hayes. One of the Florida's electors for Hayes, Pensacolian [[Frederick C. Humphreys]], faced objections by the Democrats that he was constitutionally ineligible to cast a vote because he also held a federal office as shipping commissioner of the [[Port of Pensacola]]. Humphreys was able to provide proof that he had resigned from the shipping position a month before the election, and with the matter resolved, "it was such as to give all but absolute assurance that the next President will be Rutherford B. Hayes."<ref>"The Electoral Tribunal." ''New York Times'', February 8, 1877.</ref> | Pensacola played a pivotal role in the so-called [[Wikipedia:Compromise of 1877|Compromise of 1877]] that delivered Florida's electoral votes (and thereby the election) to Hayes. One of the Florida's electors for Hayes, Pensacolian [[Frederick C. Humphreys]], faced objections by the Democrats that he was constitutionally ineligible to cast a vote because he also held a federal office as shipping commissioner of the [[Port of Pensacola]]. Humphreys was able to provide proof that he had resigned from the shipping position a month before the election, and with the matter resolved, "it was such as to give all but absolute assurance that the next President will be Rutherford B. Hayes."<ref>"The Electoral Tribunal." ''New York Times'', February 8, 1877.</ref> | ||
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==Streetcar segregation== | ==Streetcar segregation== | ||
− | In [[1905]], [[John Campbell Avery | + | In [[1905]], [[John Campbell Avery]], State Representative for Pensacola, introduced a bill providing for the segregation of streetcars. Pensacola's black population responded immediately to the bill (which the legislature would pass unanimously) by boycotting the [[streetcar system]]. A report was sent to streetcar parent company Stone & Webster saying, "In Pensacola 90% of the negroes have stopped riding even though the company has not issued an order or intimated anything as to what they intend to do. The negroes have appointed Committees who meet negroes visiting their city at the train and present each one with a button to be worn in the lapel of the coat. This button bears the single word WALK."<ref name="ortiz">Paul Ortiz. ''Emancipation Betrayed: The Hidden History of Black Organizing and White Violence in Florida from Reconstruction to the Bloody Election of 1920''. University of California Press, 2005.</ref> Some African-Americans rode the streetcars despite the boycott, but according to the ''[[Pensacola Journal]]'', "in each case when they are seen by persons of their own race they are subjected to taunts and cries of 'Jim Crow.'"<ref name="ortiz"/> |
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− | Pensacola's black population responded immediately to the bill (which the legislature would pass | ||
− | The | + | The Florida Supreme Court (in ''Florida v. Patterson'') struck down the Avery law a month after its passage, after which the ''Pensacola Journal'' noted, "The negroes began to ride early and it was noticeable that they almost invariably occupied the front seats."<ref name="ortiz"/> However, segregation was soon reinstituted when municipalities passed ordinances using modified Avery language; in Pensacola, it was sponsored by the [[Pensacola Chamber of Commerce|Chamber of Commerce]]. [[L. B. Crooms]] was jailed for violating the streetcar laws, and in the [[1906]] cases ''Crooms v. Schad'' and ''Patterson v. Taylor'' these new segregation laws were upheld as constitutional.<ref>Shira Levine. [http://www.umich.edu/~historyj/pages_folder/articles/To_Maintain_Our_Self-Respect.pdf "'To Maintain Our Self-Respect': The Jacksonville Challenge to Segregated Street Cars and the Meaning of Equality, 1900-1906."]</ref> |
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− | However, segregation was soon reinstituted when | ||
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− | [[L. B. | ||
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{{sectstub}} | {{sectstub}} | ||
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==References== | ==References== |