What were Jim Crow laws?From the 1880s into the 1960s, most American states enforced segregation through "Jim Crow" laws (so called after a black character in minstrel shows). From Delaware to California, and from North Dakota to Texas, many states (and cities, too) could impose legal punishments on people for mingling with members of another race. The most common types of laws forbade intermarriage and ordered business owners and public institutions to keep blacks and whites separated.

Some Facilities that Were Separate:

Bus station waiting rooms and ticket windows

Railroad cars or coaches

Restaurants and lunch counters

Schools and public parks

Restrooms and water fountains

Sections of movie theaters

There were even separate cemeteries

At the bus station, Durham, North Carolina, 1940.

Greyhound bus terminal, Memphis, Tennessee. 1943.

A rest stop for bus passengers on the way from Louisville, Kentucky to Nashville, Tennessee, with

separate entrance for Blacks. 1943.

A sign at bus station, Rome, Georgia. 1943.

A highway sign advertising tourist cabins for Blacks, South Carolina. 1939.

Cafe, Durham, North Carolina. 1939.

Drinking fountain on the courthouse lawn, Halifax, North Carolina. 1938.

Movie theater’s "Colored" entrance, Belzoni, Mississippi. 1939.

The Rex theater for colored people, Leland, Mississippi. June 1937.

Restaurant, Lancaster, Ohio. 1938.

Water cooler in the street car terminal, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. 1939.

Sign above movie theater, Waco, Texas. 1939.

Beale Street, Memphis, Tennessee. 1939.

Related Titles by Carole Boston Weatherford

Impact of the Great Migration

The South was still segregated with Jim Crow Laws.

In northern cities there was racial tension (discrimination and segregation) as blacks and whites competed for jobs and housing.

African Americans become a powerful voting bloc for the Republicans, and they swayed some elections.

Despite some political gains, the NAACP’s anti-lynching law fails to pass the Senate.

Black Nationalism & Marcus GarveyMarcus Garvey was an immigrant

from Jamaica.Garvey proposed that the way

blacks needed to gain economic and political power was by separation & independence from whites.

He set up the Black Star Line Steamship Company to ship blacks to Africa.

This was called the “back to Africa” movement.

His ideas were seen as radical.

Marcus Garvey

Black Nationalism & Marcus Garvey He was found guilty of

defrauding his followers, however, and was booted out of the country.

He left a legacy of black pride, economic independence, and reverence for Africa. He greatly influenced Malcolm X.

THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE

Between 1910 and 1920, the Great Migration saw hundreds of thousands of African Americans move north to big cities By 1920 over 5 million of the nation’s 12 million blacks (over 40%) lived in cities

Migration of the Negro by Jacob

Lawrence

“New Negro” “New Negro” no longer would African Americans silently endure the old ways of exploitation and discrimination.

Founded in 1909, the NAACP urged African Americans to protest racial violence

W.E.B Dubois, a founding member, led a march of 10,000 black men in NY to protest violence

HARLEM, NEW YORK

Harlem, NY became the largest black urban community Harlem suffered from overcrowding, unemployment and poverty However, in the 1920s it was home to a literary and artistic revival known as the Harlem Renaissance

AFRICAN-AMERICAN PERFORMERS

During the 1920s, black performers won large followings Paul Robeson, son of a slave, became a major dramatic actor His performance in Othello was widely praised

LOUIS ARMSTRONG

Jazz was born in the early 20th century In 1922, a young trumpet player named Louis Armstrong joined the Creole Jazz Band Later he joined Fletcher Henderson’s band in NYC Armstrong is considered the most important and influential musician in the history of jazz

EDWARD KENNEDY “DUKE” ELLINGTON

In the late 1920s, Duke Ellington, a jazz pianist and composer, led his ten-piece orchestra at the famous Cotton Club Ellington won renown as one of America’s greatest composers

BESSIE SMITH

Bessie Smith, blues singer, was perhaps the most outstanding vocalist of the decade She achieved enormous popularity and by 1927 she became the highest- paid black artist in the world

George GershwinAmerican composer

and pianist.

Wrote for dozens of Broadway shows.

AFRICAN AMERICAN WRITERS

The Harlem Renaissance was primarily a literary movement Led by well-educated blacks with a new sense of pride in the African-American experience Claude McKay’s poems expressed the pain of life in the ghetto

Mckay

LANGSTON HUGHES

Missouri-born Langston Hughes was the movement’s best known poet Many of his poems described the difficult lives of working-class blacks Some of his poems were put to music, especially jazz and blues

ZORA NEALE HURSTON

Zora Neale Hurston wrote novels, short stories and poems She often wrote about the lives of poor, unschooled Southern blacks She focused on the culture of the people– their folkways and values

Harlem Renaissance’s ImpactGave a voice to the

African American culture.

Sense of group identity that would become the bedrock of later civil rights movements.