What was life like for African Americans in the years right before Taft's term in office?

African-Americans were among the disfranchised groups of American society in the late 19th century-early 20th century. Most blacks lived in the South by 1908. The Jim Crow laws had erected powerful barriers to effective equality and the exercise of black political rights, imposing literacy tests and poll taxes which made them very hard to register for voting. There were also fewer economic opportunities and education chances for them.