Reference no: EM133421084
Questions:
1. According to Woodward, why did racism (by which he means Jim Crow) win out in the South? Why is this important to the book's overall thesis?
2. How did U.S. Empire after 1898 help to legitimize Jim Crow in the eyes of Northerners? What is eugenics and how did this science seem to validate empire abroad and segregation at home?
3. What happened to the opposition to Jim Crow from Southern conservatives, radicals and Northern liberals?
4. Woodward is rather harsh in his criticism of Booker T. Washington and the Atlanta Compromise. In your opinion, is this criticism valid? Why might Washington's philosophy have appealed to so many (of all races) in the South?
5. How and why were the myths of Reconstruction revived at the turn of the twentieth century? How did academics and "scientists" contribute to this revival?
6. Did Jim Crow laws reflect popular prejudices against African Americans or create them? This is an example of a much larger question that social scientists grapple with: Is law a reflection of the "will of the people" or a shaper of that will? Can legislation change hearts and minds?
7. On the surface, Progressivism and disenfranchisement would seem to be mutually exclusive movements. Yet in the South, Progressive leaders were also those pushing to disenfranchise African Americans. What explains this seeming contradiction? (It might be helpful to define Progressivism for the class here).