a small percentage of African‐Americans found work in the new iron foundries and steel mills, after the reconstruction they were generally barred from the textile mills that grew into the region's major industry. Mill owners preferred to use white women and children rather than blacks, who were increasingly portrayed as lazy, ignorant, and shiftless. Consequently, the overwhelming majority of African‐Americans were tied to the land as sharecroppers or tenant farmers. By 1900, segregation was institutionalized throughout the South, and the civil rights of blacks were sharply curtailed.
