The Jim Crow Era

Who is Jim Crow?The origin of the phrase "Jim Crow" has often been attributed to the words from the song, ”Jump Jim Crow” as it appeared in sheet music written by Thomas Dartmouth "Daddy" Rice a white actor who performed a song-and-dance caricature of African Americans performed in blackface.

Plessy v Ferguson----1896

• Louisiana, 1888, Homer Plessy, (7/8 white) purchased a first class ticket on the train and tried to take his seat in the white section and was ordered to the “colored” section.

• He refused to comply and was jailed • Plessy argued that his civil rights, guaranteed under the 14th amendment had been violated• Court legally endorsed the practice of racial segregation and established a new idea in America-

“separate but equal,”• _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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“Separate But Equal”• In most instances, the Black facilities were inferior. In other cases, there were no Black facilities --

no Colored public restroom, no public beach, no place to sit or eat.

What was the Jim Crow Era?•

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________.• A series of rigid anti-Black laws• _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________.• Legitimization of anti-Black racism.

Jim Crow Rules of behavior

A Black male could not offer his hand (to shake hands) with a White male because it implied being socially equal. Obviously, a Black male could not offer his hand to a White woman, because he risked being accused of rape.

Blacks were introduced to Whites, never Whites to Blacks. Never assert or even intimate that a White person is lying. Never comment upon the appearance of a White female. No colored persons may be buried upon ground set apart or used for the burial of white persons. No White female nurse shall nurse in wards or rooms in hospitals, either public or private, in

which Negro men are placed. And the list goes on…

What was going on in North Carolina?1875- prohibited all marriages between a white person and a Negro or a person of Negro descent. In 1921 this was considered a felony.1903- No child with Negro blood in its veins, however remote the strain, shall attend school for the white race, and no such child shall be considered a white child.”1931- the state librarian shall maintain a separate place for the use of the colored people.1947- Public accommodations called for racial restrictions for the burial of the dead at cemeteries.1952- National Guard [Statute]No black troops to be permitted where white troops available; colored troops to be under control of white officers.1957- Education [Statute]No child forced to attend school with children of a different race.

Denied the right to vote by: ______________________________________________

o (Law that restricted the right to vote to people whose ancestors had voted before the Civil War)

______________________________________________ o (Fees charged to vote)

______________________________________________ o (Only Democrats could vote, only Whites could be Democrats)

______________________________________________ o ("Name all the Vice Presidents and Supreme Court Justices throughout America's history").

So what if a Black person didn’t know his/her “place”? What would happen?

The Jim Crow system was based on the belief Whites were superior to Blacks in all important ways. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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LYNCHINGS.• Blacks who violated Jim Crow norms risked their homes, their jobs, even their lives. • Blacks had little legal recourse against these assaults because the Jim Crow criminal justice system

was all-White: police, prosecutors, judges, juries, and prison officials. • Between 1882 and 1968, there were 4,730 known lynchings, including 3,440 Black men and

women.• Most of the victims of Lynch-Law were hanged or shot, but some were burned at the stake, beaten

with clubs, or dismembered. • Why was someone Lynched?

Most Blacks were lynched for demanding civil rights, violating Jim Crow etiquette or laws, or in the aftermath of race riots. The victim was an example of what happened to a Black man who tried to vote, or who looked at a White woman, or who tried to get a White man's job.