whelmingly agrarian, and economi-
Faced with pervasive discrimina-
cally dependent . Moreover, its race tion, many African Americans fol-
relations reflected not just the legacy lowed Booker T . Washington, who
of slavery, but what was emerging as counseled them to focus on modest
the central theme of its history — a economic goals and to accept tem-
determination to enforce white su- porary social discrimination . Oth-
premacy at any cost .
ers, led by the African-American
Intransigent white Southerners intellectual W .E .B . DuBois, wanted
found ways to assert state control to challenge segregation through
to maintain white dominance . Sev- political action . But with both ma-
eral Supreme Court decisions also jor parties uninterested in the is-
bolstered their efforts by upholding sue and scientific theory of the time
traditional Southern views of the ap- generally accepting black inferior-
propriate balance between national ity, calls for racial justice attracted
and state power .
little support .
In 1873 the Supreme Court found
that the 14th Amendment (citi-
THE LAST FRONTIER
zenship rights not to be abridged)
conferred no new privileges or im- In 1865 the frontier line generally
munities to protect African Amer- followed the western limits of the
icans from state power . In 1883, states bordering the Mississippi Riv-
furthermore, it ruled that the 14th er, but bulged outward beyond the
Amendment did not prevent indi- eastern sections of Texas, Kansas,
viduals, as opposed to states, from and Nebraska . Then, running north
practicing discrimination . And in and south for nearly 1,600 kilome-
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the Court ters, loomed huge mountain ranges, found that “separate but equal” many rich in silver, gold, and other
public accommodations for Afri- metals . To their west, plains and des-
can Americans, such as trains and erts stretched to the wooded coastal
restaurants, did not violate their ranges and the Pacific Ocean . Apart
rights . Soon the principle of segre- from the settled districts in Cali-
gation by race extended into every fornia and scattered outposts, the
area of Southern life, from railroads vast inland region was populated
to restaurants, hotels, hospitals, and by Native Americans: among them
schools . Moreover, any area of life the Great Plains tribes — Sioux and
that was not segregated by law was Blackfoot, Pawnee and Cheyenne —
segregated by custom and practice . and the Indian cultures of the South-
Further curtailment of the right to west, including Apache, Navajo, and
vote followed . Periodic lynchings Hopi .
by mobs underscored the region’s
A mere quarter-century later,
determination to subjugate its Afri- virtually all this country had been
can-American population .
carved into states and territories .
178
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
Miners had ranged over the whole days . The continental rail network
of the mountain country, tunnel- grew steadily; by 1884 four great
ing into the earth, establishing little lines linked the central Mississippi
communities in Nevada, Montana, Valley area with the Pacific .
and Colorado . Cattle ranchers, tak-
The first great rush of population
ing advantage of the enormous to the Far West was drawn to the
grasslands, had laid claim to the mountainous regions, where gold
huge expanse stretching from Texas was found in California in 1848, in
to the upper Missouri River . Sheep Colorado and Nevada 10 years lat-
herders had found their way to the er, in Montana and Wyoming in the
valleys and mountain slopes . Farm- 1860s, and in the Black Hills of the
ers sank their plows into the plains Dakota country in the 1870s . Miners
and closed the gap between the East opened up the country, established
and West . By 1890 the frontier line communities, and laid the founda-
had disappeared .
tions for more permanent settle-
Settlement was spurred by the ments . Eventually, however, though
Homestead Act of 1862, which a few communities continued to be
granted free farms of 64 hectares devoted almost exclusively to min-
to citizens who would occupy and ing, the real wealth of Montana,
improve the land . Unfortunately for Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, and
the would-be farmers, much of the California proved to be in the grass
Great Plains was suited more for and soil . Cattle-raising, long an
cattle ranching than farming, and important industry in Texas, flour-
by 1880 nearly 22,400,000 hectares ished after the Civil War, when
of “free” land were in the hands of enterprising men began to drive
cattlemen or the railroads .
their Texas longhorn cattle north
In 1862 Congress also voted a across the open public land . Feed-
charter to the Union Pacific Rail- ing as they went, the cattle arrived
road, which pushed westward from at railway shipping points in Kan-
Council Bluffs, Iowa, using mostly sas, larger and fatter than when
the labor of ex-soldiers and Irish im- they started . The annual cattle drive
migrants . At the same time, the Cen- became a regular event; for hundreds
tral Pacific Railroad began to build of kilometers, trails were dotted with
eastward from Sacramento, Cali- herds moving northward .
fornia, relying heavily on Chinese
Next, immense cattle ranches
immigrant labor . The whole country appeared in Colorado, Wyoming,
was stirred as the two lines steadily Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakota
approached each other, finally meet- territory . Western cities flourished
ing on May 10, 1869, at Promontory as centers for the slaughter of cat-
Point in Utah . The months of labo- tle and dressing of meat . The cat-
rious travel hitherto separating the tle boom peaked in the mid-1880s .
two oceans was now cut to about six By then, not far behind the rancher
179