1.+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] The 14th Amendment provided me and other African Americans citizenship and protection of our civil liberties (our rights.) Due process means that the government can not take away a person's rights according to law and equal protection of the laws means that everyone has equal rights.

** 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] Of what I can remember, Plessy was an African American (1/8th AA) who purposely sat in a white car and said that he was black because of the Separate Car Act, which segregated cars. Plessy was then arrested and his lawyer argued that this act violated the 13th and 14th amendment. The finial decision made by the US supreme court was that it was constitutional. This led to the separate but equal doctrine, which made it constitutional to have segregated facilities. This caused theaters, restaurants, public schools, and restrooms to be segregated, but they had to be equal, which they often weren't.

** 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] Jim Crow was an African American character in a song. Thomas Dartmouth Rice (Daddy Rice), an actor, performed Jim Crow as an exaggerated and stereotypical African American. Rice and his imitators helped make people believe that African Americans were lazy and stupid. So, Jim Crow did not write the laws, he was a character that many people acted.

1. White and colored people could not play together: This caused me to lose all of my colored friends. 2. White and colored people can not get married (this was a state law thought): This affected me by not letting me be able to marry anyone that is white. 3. Segregated schools (across the US): Now I can't go to a white school or to a school that has whites kids. 4. The Separate Car Act: This affected me because now I can only take Colored cars, which are usually not as nice, even thought they are supposed to be equal. Also, the whites usually have the right of way. 5. Restrictive Covenants: This affected me by not allowing me to live in a neighborhood that had this contract-they were to be all white neighborhoods, the neighborhood agreed that they would not sell their house to African Americans.
 * 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]

Jim Crow America had a lot of riots and cops braking them up. There were also a ton of signs saying "Colored" or "White" places. There were a lot of protests by blacks, pushing for their rights. I have also seen blacks get hung in the streets.
 * 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]

In the Scottsboro Case, two white women falsely testified that 9 black boys (the Scottsboro boys) raped them on a train. At first, all of the boys, except the youngest, were sentenced to death. In the end, the four youngest boys, who already served 6 years in jail, were set free, but later paroled. As an African American in the South this made me feel angry because I believe the boys didn't rape the two women, there wasn't even evidence that they did. Also, it made me feel inferior because the only reason the Scottsboro boys lost their case was because they were said to have raped 2 WHITE women/the boys were African Americans.
 * 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] 1. My friend, George Kenneth Butterfield Jr., said that life in Jim Crow America was full of prejudice. His uncle was in a car accident and they called a white doctor to treat him. This doctor did not show up after several hours, so they called a Black doctor, who was his uncle's friend. This black doctor said he could not come because he didn't want to get the white doctor upset. After 10 hours the white doctor came, he checked his uncle and then left. A few hours later his uncle died. 2. My friend, Thomas Christopher Columbus Chatmon, said that life in Jim Crow America was full of prejudice and racial boundaries. He and his father worked to clear the crops so they can make enough money to go to school and buy new clothes. When they went to get paid after all of their hard work, they were told that they were not going to get paid. Since you can not argue with white people because they can kill you, they were unable to disagree with the white man. In the end, Thomas had to watch his father cry on the walk home.