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African Americans in the ‘New South’

New South was a term used to describe American South following the end of the civil
war in 1865. The war greatly devastated the region’s agrarian economy. In addition, the
emancipation of African American slaves after the war meant that the south could no longer rely
on endless supply of free labor that powered its ante-bellum economy. Faced with this reality,
some southern leaders sought to create a ‘new south’ whose economy was based on industries just
as the north and not plantations.

In this ‘new south’, African Americans faced major challenges. Chief among them were
discrimination and lack of knowledge and skills needed for effective integration into the new
industrial economic (Jones, 2018). Even though slavery had ended and all African Americans
were free, there still remained deep racism in the south. African Americans who sought jobs in
the new factories and industries of the south found that most of the well paying jobs were
reserved for whites. This state of discrimination was made legal by the 1883 Supreme Court
ruling that made it lawful for private entities to discriminate against African Americans when
recruiting workers (Jones, 2018). Thanks to such laws and racial attitudes of the time, African
Americans often found that only the dirtiest, most dangerous, and very low paying jobs were
reserved for them (Jones, 2018).

Apart from discrimination, African Americans also lacked the knowledge and skills that
were needed to find jobs in the new textile and tobacco factories. Thanks to education
restrictions of the slavery days, the vast majority of African Americans were either illiterate or
only had elementary education. They also did not have any useful skills as they had spent almost
all of their time during slavery doing manual work in the plantations. To gain knowledge and

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skills, African Americans, with the help of wealthy white men, founded colleges and training
facilities that taught both literacy and basic industrial skills. An example of such institution is the
Tuskegee College that was founded and led by Booker T. Washington (Stein, 2015).

In modern times the challenges that African Americans faced in the 19th and 20th
centuries can be compared to those currently faces by immigrants from Latin American countries
in the USA. Most of them lack education and practical skills. They also find it hard to integrate
because of their poor command of English, the dominant language spoken in the USA. As the
experience of African Americans shows, the setting up schools that respond to the unique needs
of some Latin American immigrants will go a long way in improving their condition in the USA.

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References

Jones, J. E. (2018). “The Negro’s Peculiar Work”: Jim Crow and Black Discourses on US
Empire, Race, and the African Question, 1877–1900. Journal of American Studies, 52(2),
330-357.

Stein, J. (2015). “Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others”: The Political Economy of Racism
in the United States. In Renewing Black Intellectual History (pp. 31-62). Routledge.