As the 19th century gave way to the 20th, the African American experience was marked by profound shifts, as the aftershocks of slavery, Reconstruction, and the post-Reconstruction era reverberated across the American landscape. The landscape itself was changing — politically, socially, and economically. The early 1900s saw African Americans caught in a delicate balance between the oppressive structures of the past and the promise of a new future, one in which they could secure not only physical freedom but also intellectual, cultural, and economic liberty. These movements, at the turn of the century, laid the foundation for the struggles and triumphs that would define the coming decades.