Editing African Americans (section)

===Reconstruction era and Jim Crow===
{{Main|Reconstruction era|Jim Crow laws}}
African Americans quickly set up congregations for themselves, as well as schools and community/civic associations, to have space away from White control or oversight. While the post-war Reconstruction era was initially a time of progress for African Americans, that period ended in 1876. By the late 1890s, Southern states enacted Jim Crow laws to enforce [[racial segregation]] and [[disfranchisement after the American Civil War|disenfranchisement]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Creating Jim Crow: In-Depth Essay |last=Davis |first=Ronald L.F.|website=The History of Jim Crow |publisher=[[New York Life Insurance Company]] |access-date=June 7, 2007 |url=https://www.jimcrowhistory.org/history/creating2.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020614223755/https://jimcrowhistory.org/history/creating2.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 14, 2002 }}</ref> Segregation was now imposed with Jim Crow laws, using signs used to show Blacks where they could legally walk, talk, drink, rest, or eat.<ref name="Leon Litwack 2004">Leon Litwack, ''Jim Crow Blues'', Magazine of History (OAH Publications, 2004)</ref> For those places that were racially mixed, non-Whites had to wait until all White customers were dealt with.<ref name="Leon Litwack 2004"/> Most African Americans obeyed the Jim Crow laws, to avoid [[ethnic violence|racially motivated violence]]. To maintain self-esteem and dignity, African Americans such as [[Anthony Overton]] and [[Mary McLeod Bethune]] continued to build their own [[Historically Black colleges and universities|schools]], [[Black church|churches]], banks, social clubs, and other businesses.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jimcrowhistory.org/history/surviving.htm|title=Surviving Jim Crow|last=Davis|first=Ronald|website=The History of Jim Crow|publisher=[[New York Life Insurance Company]]|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120526204619/http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/history/surviving.htm|archive-date=May 26, 2012}}</ref>

In the last decade of the 19th century, racially discriminatory laws and racial violence aimed at African Americans began to mushroom in the United States, a period often referred to as the "[[nadir of American race relations]]". These discriminatory acts included racial segregation—upheld by the United States Supreme Court decision in ''[[Plessy v. Ferguson]]'' in 1896—which was legally mandated by southern states and nationwide at the local level of government, [[voter suppression in the United States|voter suppression]] or disenfranchisement in the southern states, denial of economic opportunity or resources nationwide, and private acts of violence and mass racial violence aimed at African Americans unhindered or encouraged by government authorities.<ref>''[[Plessy v. Ferguson]]'' {{Ussc|163|537|1896}}</ref>