LifeInJimCrowAmerica


 *  LIFE IN JIM CROW AMERICA **
 * 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 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? ** //The 14th Amendment granted citizenship to anyone who had been enslaved. It also gave freed slaves // //civil liberties by prohibiting states from denying or abridging the privileges of US citizens, depriving a person of his life, liberty, or property without due process of law, or denying to any person within their jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. “Due process” means that citizens are guaranteed the right to // //a fair and public trial before a just court, the right to be present at the trial, and the right to be heard in his or her own defense. “Equal protection of the laws” guarantees that no person or group of people will be denied the same protection provided by a law that other groups enjoy. //

//state enactments, to defeat the beneficent purposes which the people of the United States had in view when they adopted the recent amendments of the Constitution." The decision that came out of Plessy vs. Ferguson made separate facilities for blacks and whites constitutional as long as they were "equal." This “separate but equal" doctrine soon expanded, covering everything from restaurants and theaters to public restroom and public schools. And worst of all, the facilities weren’t equal at all; the facilities for blacks were always inferior to those for whites. But it was not until 1954 that the "separate but equal" doctrine be struck down. //
 * 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? ** //I remember Plessy vs. Ferguson well, although I was very young when it happened. It was June 7, 1892. A man by the name of Homer Plessy was put in jail for sitting in the "White" car of the East Louisiana Railroad. With his light complexion, he could have easily passed for a white, but he was considered black under Louisiana law therefore required to sit in the "Colored" car. But Plessy deliberately sat in the white section and even identified himself as black. Why? Louisiana had passed the Separate Car Act in 1892, legally segregating common carriers in. A black civil rights organization decided to take the law to court. Plessy’s case went all the way to the Supreme Court. His lawyer argued that the Separate Car Act violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. But Plessy lost the case; Justice Henry Brown decided that "A statute which implies merely a legal distinction between the white and colored races -- has no tendency to destroy the legal equality of the two races. ... The object of the Fourteenth Amendment was undoubtedly to enforce the absolute equality of the two races before the law, but in the nature of things it could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social, as distinguished from political equality, or a commingling of the two races upon terms unsatisfactory to either." This decision to keep the races separate but equal had serious consequences; the Constitution was not written with classes among US citizens; all citizens are meant to be equal before the law. Justice John Harlan knew the decision would cause trouble in the future: “The present decision, will not only stimulate aggressions, more or less brutal and irritating, upon the admitted rights of colored citizens, but will encourage the belief that it is possible, by means of //


 * The laws developed in the South became known as Jim Crow laws. Who was this Jim Crow fellow? Did he write the laws? **//The name Jim Crow actually came from a that went something like this: "Come listen all you galls and boys- I'm going to sing a little song- My name is Jim Crow- Weel about and turn about and do jis so- Eb'ry time I weel about I jump Jim Crow." This song, called "Jim Crow," was written by Thomas Dartmouth Rice, a struggling "actor" from New York. Rice wrote it down after he came across an African American singing it. No one really knows who this person was; I have heard some say it was an old Black slave who had trouble walking; others say it was a poor Black stable boy. While we don’t know who this song was about, it is clear that in 1828 Rice appeared on stage as "Jim Crow,” an exaggerated, very stereotypical Black character. By 1838, the term "Jim Crow" was being used as a derisive term for blacks. By the late 1800s, “Jim Crow” was being used frequently to not to describe African Americans but to describe the laws and customs which oppressed them. Rice is often thought of as “the original Jim Crow.” He died in New York on September 19, 1860. //
 * What are some specific examples of the Jim Crow laws from southern states? How did the laws affect you? ** //Life was hard with the Jim Crow laws and customs. Segregation might not have been law everywhere, but throughout the South it was a custom. We lived in almost constant fear of violence or even death; lynchings were not uncommon. Many state constitutions, including those of Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida demanded that white students and colored students be taught in separate schools. In Florida, it was illegal to store the books that had been used by the different schools in the same place. I remember that our schools were always dirtier, smaller, and more cramped than the white schools. Southern states also required that blacks and whites be separated in jails and hospitals. In Alabama, a white nurse could not be required to work in a ward where there were African American men. In Kentucky, the hospitals had white buildings and colored buildings to keep us apart. Whites and black were not even allowed socialize in some places, much less get married. In Birmingham, Alabama, it was illegal “…for a Negro and white person to play together or in company with each other in any game of cards or dice, dominoes or checkers.” In Nebraska back in 1911, it was declared that “Marriages are void when one party is a white person and the other is possessed of one-eighth or more Negro, Japanese, or Chinese blood.” In many places, we were forced to ride in railroad cars that were equal too but separate from those that whites rode in. the same went for busses and other forms of public transportation. It made me so mad and so embarrassed to sit in the Colored car; we all knew that separate was not equal, and the accommodations were always better for whites. Sometimes, there were no Black facilities at all; some of the places my family lived there //was //<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">no Colored public restroom, no Colored public beach, no place we could sit or eat. Blacks were often not allowed to have custody of a white child. My uncle, a barber, was not allowed to cut the hair of white girls or women. We all found these laws humiliating. They even would put up signs such as “Coloreds Served in rear” or “No Negroes” to remind us of our place in society; we were second class citizens, below the whites. //
 * <span style="font-weight: normal; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">What did Jim Crow America look like in the 1900s? What are some images that can help explain the realities of the time? //Everywhere I looked I was painfully reminded of the laws that separated me from whites. Signs above buildings read “Colored entrance in back” or whites only.” Signs for “Colored water fountains” or “Colored theater” were everywhere, keeping us African Americans in a social class below the whites. Wherever I went I was forced to sit in the “Colored waiting room.” I went to school at a run-down “Colored school.” Images of protests remind me of Jim Crow life as well; many of us marched or picketed for equal rights. All of these images symbolize the segregation, separation, and unfair treatment of blacks and whites in Jim Crow America.// **

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 * <span style="font-weight: normal; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">What happened in the Scottsboro Case? How did it make you feel as an African American in the South? ** //The Scottsboro Case was a very important event that received a HUGE amount of attention in the 1930s. Nine young blacks were falsely accused of raping two white women in Alabama.// //<span style="color: #403152; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS','sans-serif'; mso-themecolor: accent4; mso-themeshade: 128;">It all began on March 25, 1931. Several white and black youths were riding on a train, traveling around to see if they could find work. When a fight broke out between the two groups of hobos, the whites were thrown off the train. Angry, they reported the incident to a stationmaster, who wired for officials to stop the train at a town a little ways ahead called Paint Rock. Dozens of armed men surrounded nine blacks and took them to jail. These boys were going to be charged with assault; but that’s when two white women, dressed in boys clothing, were found hiding on the train. Even though there was no evidence connecting the youths to the women, the blacks wee charged with rape. The women had had sexual relations with some of the white men thrown off the train. Fearing prosecution for their sexual activity with the white men, they agreed to testify against the black youths. A trial was held in Scottsboro, Alabama. The jury was all white; all but the youngest of the boys, who was 12 years old, were sentenced to death. As an African American in the South, I was deeply upset and frightened as well. The Scottsboro decision proved that blacks could be accused and sentenced to death even when they were innocent, simply because of the color of their skin. ////<span style="color: #403152; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-themecolor: accent4; mso-themeshade: 128;">

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 * <span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> What do some of your friends and family say about life in Jim Crow America? //One friend of mine recalls being fined by a policeman for being out after the 10:30 p.m. curfew. She had been at a party and was going home. Although her name was on a permit, she and her friend were followed by police as they drove home and fined for being out late. Another friend of mine has a more tragic story. Because black patients were taken car of last by doctors, his uncle died in a hospital because the white doctor was 8 hours late. He even called another doctor, a black doctor who was a friend of his uncle, but this man did not want to come because he was afraid of offending the white doctor who had already been called.// **<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">

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