Black Citizenship in the Age of Jim Crow Press Kit

Unidentified artist 
Dred Scott, after 1857 
Oil on canvas 
Reproduction. New-York Historical Society

Dred Scott was a Missouri slave who sued for his freedom. He argued that he had lived with his master in the state of Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory, places where slavery was outlawed. Other slaves had been emancipated on these grounds. But in 1857 the U.S. Supreme Court decided against him. It said he had no right to sue because he was not a U.S. citizen. The justices ruled that no black person, free or enslaved, could ever be a U.S. citizen.

United States Congress
Thirteenth amendment resolution, 1865
Reproduction. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC00263

In 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution permanently abolished slavery in the U.S. Unlike the Emancipation Proclamation, which applied only to the Confederate states, it freed enslaved African Americans across the nation. As profound as it was, the Thirteenth Amendment left crucial questions unanswered. What was the legal status of America’s black population? What were their rights? They were free, but would they be citizens?

John Rogers 
Uncle Ned’s School, 1866 
Bronze 
New-York Historical Society, Gift of Mr. Samuel V. Hoffman

Popular sculptor John Rogers depicted one of the many improvised classrooms African Americans created during Reconstruction. Plaster casts of an original bronze sculpture were sold widely, bringing this sympathetic depiction of black life to a large audience. In this scene, “Uncle Ned” pauses in his work to assist one of his students with a question from her book. A mischievous young boy sits at his feet trying to distract them. In a popular song from the 1840s, “Uncle Ned” is a blind and docile slave. Here, a free “Uncle Ned” is teaching a child how to read—an act that had been a crime in some Southern states during slavery.  

Ballot box, ca. 1880-90 
Wood, glass, and brass 
New-York Historical Society, Gift of Roberta and Donald Gratz

African Americans embraced their newly acquired citizenship and took seriously their long-denied rights and responsibilities. Black men voted in large numbers and ran for office. Men and women joined patriotic clubs and local branches of the Republican Party. Black participation in local elections and state constitutional conventions created the first interracial governments in the United States. This demonstration of black citizenship aroused deep hostility among those who had only a few years earlier held African Americans as slaves.

Winslow Homer (1836-1910)
A Visit from the Old Mistress, 1876
Reproduction
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of William T. Evans

A former slave holder, dressed in mourning, stands in the home of her former slaves. These black women have spent their lives bowing to whites, but now they show no sign of deference. Artist Winslow Homer, a wartime correspondent for Harper’s Weekly, captured the great shift in relations in the South

Marriage certificate, 1874
Reproduction. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Louis Moran and Douglas Van Dine

Augustus Johnson and Malinda Murphy married on July 9, 1874, in Spencerport, New York. Many African Americans seized the simple freedom to make long-standing relationships legal. Under slavery, formal marriages of slaves had not been recognized.

Kara Walker (b. 1969)
Maquette for the Katastwóf Karavan, 2017
New-York Historical Society, Purchase, Coaching Club Acquisition Fund

Contemporary African American artist Kara Walker uses silhouettes to depict slavery and racial stereotypes in her purposefully provocative work. “The silhouette says a lot with very little information, but that’s also what the stereotype does.” Among the many figures are a chain gang and a woman collapsing in a cotton field. This piece is a miniature model for a large 2018 sculpture, installed for public view at Algiers Point, New Orleans.

Maggie Walker and accountants using an adding machine, St. Luke’s Hall, 1917
Reproduction. Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site, National Park Service

Maggie Walker, a gifted entrepreneur, created businesses to help Richmond, Virginia’s black community advance economically. When she started the St. Luke’s Penny Savings Bank, she became the first black female bank president in the U.S. Other St. Luke’s enterprises included a newspaper, an insurance company, a clothing factory, and a store. All hired black workers, especially young women who otherwise had few job opportunities. Black consumers could now shop and conduct daily tasks safe from the abuses of Jim Crow

Photograph of young girls from The Crisis, May 1918
Reproduction. Indiana University Libraries

W.E.B. Du Bois and an interracial group of men and women founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) after an assault by whites on the black community in Springfield, Illinois, in 1908. The violence in Abraham Lincoln’s home town convinced many that Jim Crow was not simply a Southern problem. Du Bois launched and edited the organization’s magazine. He titled it The Crisis because he believed America was at a critical moment in its history. The magazine informed a national audience about important issues, built support for the NAACP’s mass protests and legal campaigns, and published the work of black writers and poets.

Charles Gustrine
True Sons of Freedom, 1918
Reproduction. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, GLC09121

Close to 400,000 black Americans served during World War I, but most had been drafted. Moreover, few African Americans saw combat because white military officers believed blacks were better suited to manual labor duties. The example set by the Harlem Hellfighters—which spent more time in continuous combat than any other American unit—directly challenged those prejudices.