They Don't Sing Like They Used To : Negro Soldier's Resistance To Jim Crow in 1898

Abstract

By the turn of the twentieth century, Negro troops began to resist Jim Crow laws in an organized way. While some historians have mentioned these racially motivated disturbances, many have failed to seriously analyze and assess these clashes, which has led to the neglect of an important source of African-American resistance to racial discrimination in the post Reconstruction era. The purpose of this thesis is to address that failure. By briefly examining the evolution of Jim Crow policies at the turn of the century, by demonstrating how blacks struggled to serve in the U. S. army from 1673- 1868, by illustrating the ambiguity within black America before and during the Spanish American War, and by examining several racially charged incidents involving African-American soldiers in 1898, this thesis will show blacks as actors in the effort to promote racial justice and not just victims of violence and bigotry.