KEY TERMS Key Terms and People to Know for the Regents Exam
Poll Taxes / Literacy Tests / Grandfather Clauses
Southern states used these laws to bypass the 15th Amendment and deny voting rights to African Americans without specifically restricting voting due to race. Each restriction disproportionately affected former slaves.
Jim Crow Laws
During and after Reconstruction, Southern states enacted Jim Crow laws to deny African Americans equal rights and to create a system of segregation to separate African Americans from whites in public places.
Plessy v. Ferguson
After Homer Plessy, who was part black, sued for being removed from a “white only” train car, the Supreme Court used the 14th Amendment to say that segregation was Constitutional, as long as segregated facilities were “separate but equal.”
New South
After Reconstruction, some Southerners called for economic changes and the development of a “New South” that would have a stronger economy based on industry and diversified agriculture