Jim+Crow+Life



To set the stage for the civil rights movement, you must first understand the environment of segregation in the United States in the first half of the 20th century. What was life like in Jim Crow America? Cut and paste this information into a new page in your Unit 8 Online ISN. **** You (and your partner, if you have one) are African Americans who have lived through the era of Jim Crow in America. Using the links provided in this activity, respond to the “oral history questions” in first person. **

**Right after the Civil War, the 14th Amendment was ratified. What did the 14th Amendment provide for African Americans? What does “due process” and “equal protection of the laws” mean?** [|14th LINK] I can still recollect the purposes of the Fourteenth Amendment. It was passed to give freed African Americans slaves their citizenship and to protect their rights. Basically, it was passed to ensure due process and equal protection of the laws. Due process means that civil rights cannot by denied to anyone by the government. Equal protection of the laws means that all people of every race are viewed equally by the law and court.

**Unfortunately, your equal rights were challenged by the Supreme Court in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson. What do you remember about the facts, decision, and impact of this case?** [|Plessy LINK] I recall when Homer Plessy was arrested on June 7, 1892. Homer was put in jail because he took a seat in the East Louisiana Railroad “White” car. Homer was a Creole of Color, which meant that he was black, but he had ancestry dating back to various white, foreign settlers. So, Plessy decided to fight the law. He purposefully sat in the white section of the train, and announced that he was black, which resulted in his arrest. Plessy maintained that the Separate Car act was a violation of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments; his rights. His case even went to the Supreme Court, where the separation was deemed constitutional. Apparantly, there could be separation, but there had to be equality. This lead to the expansion of segregation and set the stage for the Jim Crow Laws.

**The laws developed in the South became known as Jim Crow laws. Who was this Jim Crow fellow? Did he write the laws?**[| Jim Crow LINK] Oh boy, I remember the Jim Crow laws. They were these pesky laws that promoted segregation and discrimination. Well, Thomas Rice, a white actor, took the stage as Jim Crow in 1828. Jim Crow was a stereotypical black man that was modeled after an unknown person. The character helped to spread stereotypes and prejudice. The term "Jim Crow" was a racial slur, but then it eventually became associated with the unjust segregation laws.

When I was a child, I was required to learn in a segregated school without any sort of contact with whites or their education. Also, we were prohibited from sharing train carriages with whites. I remember it vividly. It sure was disheartening, feeling how our superficial differences could result in such radical measures. It wasn't like a racist riot, but it was tacit persecution, and I felt just as hurt by it.
 * What are some specific examples of the Jim Crow laws from southern states? How did the laws affect you?** [|Jim Crow Laws LINK 1] / [|Jim Crow Laws LINK 2] / [|Jim Crow Laws LINK 3]

A recollection of mine is that of the picture show. The images and the wonder...it was good fun. But no matter how much I absorbed myself with the movie, I couldn't help but look down at the white boys below us. The movies never granted me a perpetual reprieve from the agonies of my existence, and I just knew it whenever I looked towards the bottom rows. The blacks went up to the lofts, and the whites stayed comfortably grounded for a wholesome view. I was always envious, and always aggrieved. Then we'd leave the show, and head on the streets. Some of us may want a drink, so we stop at the all black fountains, and then head on in our all black group, to get on buses with the all black seats, to get home to our all black neighborhoods. The trip was never a good one. We treaded on our promenade, victim to silent disapproval and a screaming disquietude. An eye blue was an eye cold.
 * What did Jim Crow America look like in the 1900s? What are some images that can help explain the realities of the time?** __ Jim Crow Images LINK 1 __/ [|Jim Crow Images LINK 2]

That case riveted all attentions, mine especially. Those youths had nothing to do with those women, and I bet most people knew it, but just discredited the facts for their contradiction of that innate, racist mindset of most white folks. In the South, it's an inveterate thing of history and community. He's black, you're white, so you go with what you know and what's been oriented for you to know. I guess that's just how it works, but it disgusts me. Even the abstract ideals of fairness and balance are swayed by our human basis. The law made the wrong decision, but I just figure that there isn't anything that comes of me thinking that. By all the nation's understanding, the law's white, and white's right.
 * What happened in the Scottsboro Case? How did it make you feel as an African American in the South?** [|Scottsboro LINK]

**What do some of your friends and family say about life in Jim Crow America? (listen to one or two)** [|Audio History LINK 1]My family agrees with me with most everything I've got to say. I'm our thinker and our writer. My words can just about sum up or top their words,and they know that. But my father can catch me sometimes. Sometimes I get too impassioned, and my words are just a warm slur that spills out my mouth. Nobody gets me then, but my father can always speak coolly in substitution, and he can neutralize some of my bitterness. He's always been the hopeless optimist, as I can never talk sense into him. He just keeps going on about how Heaven hath ordained greater things for our race, and that our struggle is minor in comparison to our coming success. He's just too soulful and vacant to see things on a more earthly level. But his voice is something else, and his stare can break through practically every hard-coated, cynical argument I can throw at him. I don't know what to make of it. It really kind of bothers me. But he can just stare at his blue skies all day, if he really thinks that's going to pacify the social turmoil of our dear Southern states. I've got to trudge through a muck of disparagement every damn day, but it seems more like a stroll to him. He's like a flowery curse. I convince myself of anything, and he melts the conviction of my coarseness. I really guess I should love him for that, but he's too much like a fly that whizzes about my head. A fly with a Bible and horn-rimmed glasses, anyway.