In the New South era, Georgia looked like it was moving forward.

(transition whooshing) There were new industries, new opportunities, and cities like Atlanta were booming.

But beneath that progress, a different story was unfolding.

Discriminatory laws called Jim Crow laws and court decisions, (graphic whooshing) including Plessy versus Ferguson, were stripping away the rights Black Americans had just gained.

(gavel clacking) At the same time, voting rules and restrictions were put in place (graphic whooshing) to keep Black citizens (graphic whooshing) from voting and holding power.

(graphic whooshing) For Black Georgians, the New South wasn't truly new.

It was a new name for many of the same old injustices.

(paper rustling) In the decades following the Civil War, African Americans had made huge political and social gains.

Some were elected to office, (graphic whooshing) others opened businesses, and many built (graphic whooshing) thriving communities.

But by the 1890s, White lawmakers in Georgia and across the South worked to reverse those gains.

They passed laws known as Jim Crow laws, (keys clacking) named after a racist minstrel character.

Under Jim Crow, Black Americans lost many of the rights the 14th and 15th Amendments had just promised them, including equal protection under the law and the right to vote.

These laws forced racial segregation across many areas of daily life.

There were separate schools, (graphic whooshing) separate waiting rooms, and even separate cemeteries.

(graphic whooshing) Jim Crow laws didn't just shape everyday life, they raised a powerful legal question.

(graphic popping) If the U.S.

Constitution promised equal protection under the law, could states really require racial segregation in public spaces?

That question soon moved from waiting rooms and classrooms to the courtroom, and one carefully planned act of defiance would force the nation to confront it head on.

(graphic rustling) In 1892, Homer Plessy, (graphic whooshing) who was 1/8 Black and could pass as White, intentionally sat in (graphic whooshing) a Whites only train car in Louisiana.

It was a part of an organized protest.

He was arrested (graphic whooshing) for violating Louisiana's Separate Car Act, which required separate but equal railroad accommodations.

(graphic whooshing) After lower courts upheld the charges, Plessy appealed his case (gavel clacking) to the U.S.

Supreme Court.

(graphic whooshing) In Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896, (graphic whooshing) the court ruled against him, declaring segregation legal (paper rustling) as long as facilities were separate but equal.

This decision gave Jim Crow laws massive support.

Southern states, including Georgia, quickly expanded segregation to almost every part of everyday life.

But the reality, separate was never equal.

(graphic whooshing) Facilities for Black citizens were consistently underfunded, poorly maintained, or simply not provided at all.

Black schools, for example, received far less support than White schools.

In 1930, Georgia spent over four times (graphic whooshing) the amount on White students than it did on Black students.

Some people who broke these unwritten rules faced danger and sometimes deadly violence.

Between 1882 and 1930, more than 450 Black people were lynched in Georgia, the second highest number in the nation.

But violence wasn't the only tool used to control African Americans.

Lawmakers also turned (graphics whooshing) to the legal system, passing laws that restricted basic rights, particularly the right to vote.

Although the 14th and 15th Amendments were meant to protect those rights, many southern states found ways around them.

(paper rustling) Having rights restricted, especially the right (graphic whooshing) to vote is known as disenfranchisement.

(keys clacking) Georgia used several strategies to disenfranchise Black citizens.

In 1877, the state legalized (keys clacking) poll taxes, meaning people had to pay to vote.

(cash register chiming) Poor African Americans (graphic whooshing) and many poor Whites (graphic whooshing) couldn't afford it.

While some White citizens had their tax overlooked, Black voters rarely did.

Then, in 1900, (graphic whooshing) Georgia created (keys clacking) a White-only policy (graphic whooshing) for its Democratic primary elections.

This was known as White primaries.

Because the conservative (graphic whooshing) Democratic Party controlled most of the state's political offices, the primary election was where the real decisions were made.

By banning Black citizens (graphic whooshing) from voting in Democratic primaries, the state effectively shut them out (hand thwacking) of the political process.

Another tool was the literacy test adopted in 1908.

(keys clacking) To cast a ballot, voters had to show they could read and write.

But because Black schools (graphic whooshing) were underfunded, many African Americans struggled to answer test questions.

Even those who could read and write were sometimes deliberately failed by election officials.

The questions were often confusing on purpose, (keys clacking) and getting just one wrong answer could automatically disqualify a voter.

In some cases, poor White citizens were given passes (bell ringing) and allowed to vote even if they couldn't pass the test.

But black voters (graphic buzzing) rarely received the same exception.

To make sure poor White voters weren't affected by these rules, Georgia passed the Grandfather Clause in 1908.

(keys clacking) This law allowed anyone whose father or grandfather (graphic whooshing) was a Civil War veteran, or had been able to vote before the war, to skip the poll tax and literacy test.

This law largely helped poor White citizens, while excluding almost all Black voters.

By the early 1900s, most African Americans in Georgia had been completely shut out of voting.

(paper rustling) (pensive music) The New South Era was a time of major political, social, and economic change in Georgia, but it was also a time when Black citizens faced harsh limits on their rights through Jim Crow laws, the Plessy v. Ferguson decision, and widespread disenfranchisement.

It wouldn't be until the modern civil rights movement decades later that these rights were finally restored and enforced.

(bright energetic music)