Transcript Rise of Jim Crow

Rise of Jim Crow
What was Jim Crow?
Essentially, Jim Crow laws were laws that legally enforced
segregation. While the makers of the laws said that people
would be equal, a deeply embedded prejudice existed in
whites at the time that created a social aura of prejudice.
Southern Oppression-Political
● Black Codes
o
Were southern policies implemented 1865 and 1866 that hindered
rights given to blacks by the 14th amendment such as voting, land
owning, and being free in general.

“Poll Taxes”
o
While eventually the black codes were abolished during
Reconstruction, lasting Southern ideals and perceptions of blacks as a
second class race carried on into later laws, and predominantly seen
as in Plessy vs. Ferguson
o
Were a way for both the southern people and the southern
government to regain control over blacks live they did in the civil war.
Southern Oppression-Political
● Jim Crow laws
o
o
o
Were laws that came into place after reconstruction that toted the
philosophy of “Separate but Equal.”

Made it legal to deny blacks service.

Despite promising equality, Places and services reserved for
blacks tended to be much poorer quality than those designated
for whites
Still separated blacks and whites and promoted a divided mindset
towards people.
Showed the divided viewpoints of average Americans and politicians
at the time, where they were understanding that blacks are actually
people but still holding onto old prejudices.
Southern Oppression-Political
● Jim Crow laws continued
o
One major point of Jim Crow was to separate the white and black
lower class, which prevented them from voting any politician to help
them .
Southern Oppression-Economical
● Sharecropping
o
Sharecropping is a major part in the “black Codes,” this
farming/renting method which could be abused to leave the farmer in
debt.
o
Forced on poor, unemployed blacks to put them into “slavery”
● Getting jobs
o
In the south, blacks were still viewed as inferior to whites, making it
almost impossible to get decent, well paying jobs (which were almost
exclusively reserved for whites.)
o
The laws put in place that oppressed blacks created a further divide
between the rich (white) and the lower class (black.)
http://www.history.com/topics/ku-klux-klan/videos/the-kkk
Southern Oppression-Social
● KKK
o
Is a group that was founded for promoting the idea of white, christian
supremacy (sometimes forcefully) during the civil war, reconstruction,
and beyond.
o
Was essentially the idea of white superiority personified; actively
oppressed black individuals and those who supported them through
blackmail, violence, and supported segregation and Jim Crow laws.
o
Kept back the American Civil Rights movement by voting and using
fear to keep blacks as second class citizens.
o
To KKK was a recurring tumor to the civil rights movement.
Southern Oppression-Social
● Jim Crow Laws
o
o
While their implementation showed the mindsets of those in
government in the south at the time, the real consequences were
shown and felt by black citizens at the time.
The physical segregation of blacks gave them a generally poorer
quality of life than their white counterparts.

Water fountains, busses, bathrooms, and even schools were
segregated by race

Physical segregation also perpetuated a mindset among both
blacks and whites that placed whites in a position of superiority,
where they believed the lesser, “working class” blacks were below
them.
Southern Oppression-Social
● Physical Segregation Continued
o
Blacks and whites had separate everything

Water fountains

Seats in busses and trains

Different schools

Often different shops
● Dentists, doctors, food stores
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Graduation, the hush-hush magic time of frills and gifts and congratulations and diplomas, was finished for me
before my name was called. The accomplishment was nothing. The meticulous maps, drawn in three colors of ink, learning and
spelling decasyllabic words, memorizing the whole of The Rape of Lucrece—it was for nothing. Donleavy had exposed us.
We were maids and farmers, handymen and washerwomen, and anything higher that we aspired to was farcical and
presumptuous.
Then I wished that Gabriel Prosser and Nat Turner had killed all whitefolks in their beds and that Abraham Lincoln had been
assassinated before the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, and that Harriet Tubman had been killed by that blow on her
head and Christopher Columbus had drowned in the Santa María.
It was awful to be Negro and have no control over my life. It was brutal to be young and already trained to sit quietly and listen
to charges brought against my color with no chance of defense. We should all be dead. I thought I should like to see us all dead,
one on top of the other. A pyramid of flesh with the whitefolks on the bottom, as the broad base, then the Indians with their silly
tomahawks and teepees and wigwams and treaties, the Negroes with their mops and recipes and cotton sacks and spirituals
sticking out of their mouths. The Dutch children should all stumble in their wooden shoes and break their necks. The French
should choke to death on the Louisiana Purchase (1803) while silkworms ate all the Chinese with their stupid pigtails. As a
species, we were an abomination. All of us.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Context- A speech was just given at the main character’s graduation by a
white man, who said that he was proud of blacks and was eager to see them
“try to be sport stars like Jessie Owens.”
This excerpt shows the prejudice coming from both sides as a result of white
segregation and viewpoints, and more importantly shows the degradation of
self worth in blacks and the results of the mental beatings inflicted by
oppressive people and laws.
Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896)
Homer Plessy (who was ⅛ black) rode in the “white” section of a
train and refused to move (In 1892). In their state (Louisiana,) they
had “Separate but Equal” laws, and he was arrested. Plessy
challenged the law, saying it was unconstitutional and
contradicted the 13th amendment. He lost.
This court decision normalized the concept of “Separate but
Equal” and solidified the legal argument for segregation.
Thanks to this solidifying, the government (and their growing
control on civil rights) adjusted funding for public schools mainly
towards whites.
Again, it promoted ideas of black inferiority
We aint havin none of that
Podcast~10:55-9:18
http://www.missedinhistory.com/podcasts/plessy-v-ferguson/
Wanted complete
and total equality
for whites and blacks
Thought that blacks could
tolerate factors like segregation
and political representation
Had the philosophy that blacks
should “elevate” themselves
above normal people to show
civility.
Thought a more radical form of
activism was needed to agitate the
public.
Both were
leaders of the
civil rights movement
Believed in the “talented tenth,”
a well educated group of blacks that
would lead the civil rights movement
Both were aiming for
new black rights and equality
with
No race can prosper till it learns
world,
that there is as much dignity in
tilling a field as in writing a poem.
It is at the bottom of life we must
begin, and not at the top. Now him
should we permit our grievances
to overshadow our
opportunities?”
"the Negro is a sort of seventh son,
born with a veil, and gifted
second sight in this American
-a world with yields him no true
self-consciousness, but only lets
see himself through the revelation of
the other world. It is a peculiar
sensation, this double
consciousness, this sense of always
looking at one's self through the
W.E.B. Dubois Views
Booker T. Washington Views
Believed becoming a
“First Class” citizen required
slow acceptance and gradually
climbing towards the goal of
higher citizenship.
Dubois and Washington differences
Dubois was raised in the free
Massachusetts and never
experienced having to work his way
up from slavery. Due to this, his
views on education were that every
black person should get a traditional
liberal education. His ideas were
more straightforward, and was likely
because he didn't have as much fear
and respect for whites as a former
slave.
Booker T. Washington was born in
Virginia and raised in slavery, with
the emancipation of slaves, he
learned working skills. Due to him
working his way up, he appreciated
and believed in the values of working
your way up.
Citations
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•
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•
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"America's Black Holocaust Museum." Americas Black Holocaust Museum The Five Pillars of Jim Crow Comments. 14 Apr. 2005. Web. 11 Mar.
2015. <http://abhmuseum.org/2012/10/the-five-pillars-of-jim-crow/>.
Beckham, Kyle. "Competing Paths of Struggle: African American Resistance to white Oppression, 1863-1896." 09.02.01:. Yale. Web. 25
Feb. 2015. <http://teachers.yale.edu/curriculum/viewer/initiative_09.02.01_u>.
"The Black Codes." The Black Codes. 19 July 2011. Web. 5 Mar. 2015. <http://history-world.org/black_codes.htm>.
"Black Education - Washington and DuBois." Black Education - Washington and DuBois. Kenyon, 28 June 2009. Web. 5 Mar. 2015.
<http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Amerstud/blackhistoryatkenyon/Individual Pages/Washington and DuBois.htm>.
Fremon, David K. The Jim Crow Laws and Racism in American History. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow, 2000. Print.
"Jim Crow Laws." Jim Crow Laws. 11 Apr. 2008. Web. 5 Mar. 2015.
"Ku Klux Klan in the Reconstruction Era." New Georgia Encyclopedia. Georgia Encyclopedia, 12 Aug. 2010. Web. 5 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/ku-klux-klan-reconstruction-era>.
"Maya Angelou – I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Chapter 23." Genius. 17 Oct. 2011. Web. 11 Mar. 2015. <http://genius.com/Maya-angelou-iknow-why-the-caged-bird-sings-chapter-23-annotated>.
PBS. PBS, 4 Nov. 2011. Web. 5 Mar. 2015. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/race/etc/road.html>.
W.E.B. Du Bois - Rivalry with Booker T. Washington. Bio., 2013. Film.