Sharecroppers eked out a precarious living, farming land they could never hope to own, paying the bulk of their crops to the landlord.

When the Spanish American War breaks out at the end of the nineteenth century, blacks see this as a chance to prove their patriotism to their country. Thousands enlist hoping to convince white America they are entitled to the citizenship long denied them. But they are quick to discover that the war heightens racial tension. Even as black soldiers fight in Cuba and the Philippines, North Carolina whites plot to overthrow the last bastion of black political power in the South. Despite the efforts of Alex Manly, editor of a black daily newspaper in Wilmington, to counteract a vicious white supremacist political campaign unleashed by the Democrats, blacks are swept from office throughout the state. A race riot breaks out in Wilmington and scores of blacks are killed.

Lesson Plans for Program Two: Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man Zora Neale Hurston

As black men are disfranchised throughout the South, black women began to negotiate the space vacated by the men. Some, like Charlotte Hawkins Brown, build schools that become models of educational excellence. Brown is a fierce opponent of Jim Crow. As she struggles to raise enough money to maintain her school, she teaches her students race pride and the belief that blacks are not inferior.

Education, however, is usually a privilege of middle class black communities. For many working class blacks, their choices are limited. Around the turn of the century, many workers become "masterless men," wandering the countryside in search of work. One of these men is Robert Charles, who wanders into New Orleans at the end of the century. Charles is a self-educated man who works as a day laborer. When he arrives in New Orleans, Charles discovers a whole new world. Music is flourishing in every quarter of the city, nourished by the Creole black marching bands, gospel music from the black churches, blues from the Delta, new sounds of jazz and ragtime, and European and Caribbean traditions that date back to the French occupation of the city. Homére Plessy, a Creole black man, tries to overturn segregation laws governing public transportation by getting himself arrested and challenging the law in the court system. As segregation and disfranchisement are imposed, racial tensions rise. When a confrontation breaks out between Robert Charles and two white policemen, Charles fights back. The confrontation eventually leads to a race riot, and before Charles is killed by a mob, he kills nine men and wounds 17 others.

Race riots also break out in Atlanta several years later. The riots have a profound effect on two people--W.E.B. Du Bois, a professor at Atlanta University and Walter White, the 13-year-old son of a mail carrier. Both will become leaders in the civil rights movement. Du Bois eventually decides to leave teaching to become an activist. He joins the NAACP shortly before Woodrow Wilson is elected President of the United States. Du Bois and the NAACP fight against Wilson's efforts to establish Jim Crow within the federal government. But when World War I begins, Du Bois supports the war to his later regret. Wilson allows blacks to be subjected to vicious racial discrimination in the army. When a group of black soldiers stationed in Houston, Texas revolt against the brutality of Houston police by marching into town and killing 16 whites, Wilson allows 19 men to be hung, some without due process of law. As black veterans return home after the war, Du Bois' militantly urges them to fight for democracy in their own country.