Jim Crow in the South

1877-1964

How did we get to Jim Crow?

• After the Civil War, all slaves were freed.

• The period of Reconstruction, when African Americans’ rights were protected by the military in the South, lasted from 1867-1877

• In 1877 “Home Rule” began in the South after the U.S. military left

What was the goal of “Home Rule?”

• During “Home Rule,” southern whites wanted life to return to the way it used to be before the Civil War

• The primary goal of “Home Rule” was to make African Americans occupy and inferior position in society than whites

Notes

• Jim Crow was legalized SEGREGATION and DISCRIMINATION in the South. Jim Crow followed the RECONSTRUCTION when the South regained control during HOME RULE and tried to make African Americans INFERIOR to whites.

How did southern whites make African Americans inferior?

• Jim Crow laws

• Intimidation (Ku Klux Klan – KKK)

• Lynchings

• Supreme Court decision saying “Separate but Equal was Okay” (Plessy v. Ferguson)

• Take away voting rights of African Americans (literacy test, poll tax, grandfather clause)

Who Was Jim Crow?

• The "Jim Crow" figure was a fixture of the minstrel (singing, comedy & variety) shows that toured the South

• a white man made to look like a black man

• He sang and mimicked stereotypical behavior in the name of comedy

• (Like Black Face)

What did Jim Crow

Look Like?

Highly Racist

Jim Crow Picture –

from sheet music

Racist Caricatures of

African Americans

including the “Uncle Tom,”

“Coon,” “Pickaninny,” and “Mammy”

1898

What Was Life Like for Southern African Americans during Jim Crow?

• Stop now to read Virginia Jim Crow Laws• WRITE

– Pick three the MOST SHOCKING to you.• Why are they shocking?• Why are they unfair?

– What do you think was Virginia’s goal in writing these laws?

What Did the South Look Like During Jim Crow?

Black Man Being

Removed from a “White” Train Car

History Class at Booker T. Washington’s All Black Tuskeegee Institute (AB)

“Negro Homes, Chatanooga, TN” 1899

Segregated Theater – Probably White Owned (MISS)

Segregated Movie Theater – Probably Black Owned (1939,

MISS)

Segregated Water Fountains

“Juke Joint” tavern and blues music hall (FL, 1941) note police order sign

Prison Chain Gang Newport News, VA 1919

African American Prisoners on Work Detail (no longer in chain gang – this is from the 1930s)

Howard University, DC (1919)

Students Outside of Howard

NAACP Parade 1944, Detroit

How did Southern Whites Intimidate African Americans?

• Ku Klux Klan (KKK)

• Nationwide (membership 3 million in 1920)

• Used terror and intimidation to try keep African Americans “in their place” and to prevent them from challenging Jim Crow– Throw rocks through windows– Burn crosses on lawns– Lynchings

KKK Cross Burning

What is a “Lynching?”

• Lynching: putting to death by mob action without due process of law (no trial)

• Term comes from American Revolution, Colonel Charles Lynch held informal trials for Tories and Criminals and then whipped or beat them

What is Important to Know About Lynching?

• Mobs of white men would lynch African Americans (mostly men) in order to keep African Americans “in their place”

• Often the mob would blame the black man of raping a white woman– This was usually a lie, if there was a

relationship, it was usually consensual between a white woman and a black man (To Kill a Mocking Bird…)

continued

• The mobs would usually lynch African Americans who were most threatening to them– Smart and talented business people– Handsome or beautiful– Outspoken critics or challengers of Jim Crow

Stop – Watch Slideshow

• Look For:– What is most common form of lynching?– How old were men/women who were lynched?– Judging from the crowds at lynchings, what

kind of an event was it for the town?– Why did people take pictures of lynchings and

even make postcards out of them?– Why didn’t the police in the town stop the

lynchings?

Causes Of Lynchings, 1882-1968 

Number PercentHomicides 1,937 40.84Felonious Assault 205 4.32Rape 912 19.22Attempted Rape 288 6.07Robbery and Theft 232 4.89Insult to White Person 85 1.79All Other Causes 1,084 22.85Total 4,743

Leo Frank

Jewish factory owner in Georgia who was accused of raping and murdering an employee. Mob got him from jail and hanged him. Innocent. (1913)

Attention to anti-Semitism.

Thousands gather at the lynching of Henry Smith in Paris, Texas, 1893.

How was the African American response to Jim Crow?

• Form own colleges and universities (Howard, Tuskeegee Institute, etc.)

• Speak out – especially in black newspapers– Ida B. Wells and anti-lynching crusade

• Challenge Jim Crow in Supreme Court– Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896 - lost

• Leave the South – “Great Migration” to the northern cities

Ida B. WellsOutspoken critic of lynching

Wrote articles, books, and pamphlets trying to disprove the myth that lynchings were justified - she showed it was lawless racism

“The real purpose of these savage demonstrations is to teach the Negro that in the South he has no rights that the law will enforce. Lynchings happened to teach other Negroes that no matter what a white man does to them, they must not resist.”