Caitlin Chin
Grade 11
Mr. Houston
Mrs. Levangie
I. Introduction
A. Background
B. Thesis Statement: The impact of the Jim Crow laws left the black population of
supremacy, and these same beliefs still resonate in today’s society.
II. Origins of Jim Crow
A. Thomas “Daddy” Rice
1. White minstrel who did a performance imitating the stereotyped black
2. Based on “Jump Jim Crow,” a performance performed by a slave
3. Similar shows gave the audience a false view of the life of a black
B. Segregated locations
1. Churches, saloons, asylums, orphanages, hospitals, public school textbooks,
Bibles on which to swear in witnesses in court, telephone booths, bank
windows, elevators in office buildings, schools, restaurants, theaters
2. Hospitals: nurses could only treat their own race
3. Movie theaters: separate ticket windows, entrances, and seating
C. Streetcars
1. 1880s: separate streetcars with the smoking or second class car for the blacks
2. Most streetcar companies created partitions that kept blacks to the back
D.
Plessy v.
1. Plessy didn’t believe in the separate streetcar rule
2. 8 to 1 vote against Plessy
III. Negative Actions Against Blacks
A. Public attitude
1. Blacks had to step aside on sidewalks to make room for whites
2. Couldn’t pass a white’s car on the road
3. Laws restricting intermarriage and cohabitation appeared
B. Politics
1. 1890-1915: disfranchisement, segregation, and unequal learning opportunities
kept blacks from having a voice
2. Whites believed if blacks were given the right to vote, they would soon want to
live and sleep as equals
C. Home Life
1. “Darktowns” & “Niggertowns”- blacks couldn’t move into a white town
2. White women got the jobs before black women
D.
Isaiah
1. Mound Bayou: all black town
2. Believed the blacks could only succeed if they were isolated
3. 1890: only black representative at constitutional convention and voted for poll
taxes and literary tests, which would work against the blacks
E. Voting Registration Restrictions
1. Literacy test, poll tax, grandfather clause
2. “Understanding clause”- allowed illiterate, whites to vote
F. Grandfather clause
1. 1895-1910: seven states used the clause to deny blacks voting rights
2. 1915: clause declared unconstitutional because it violated the 15the
Amendment
IV. Blacks in the WWII
A. Segregation in the War
1. Given service jobs instead of combat assignments
2. Caused military effectiveness to decline
B. Bill Perry
1. Injured black soldier who had his food brought to him in the hospital for the
first week
2. Second week he had to go to the mess hall himself and wait until whites were
done eating before he could get his food
C. Selective Service Act
1. Allowed percentage of blacks recruited to equal the percentage of blacks in the
country’s population
2. Didn’t allow discrimination in the recruitment process
3. Had a technicality that stated blacks could only be assigned to one of the all
black Regular Army units
D. Applying for the War
1. Applications offices told blacks there wasn’t enough room in the six black-only
regiments
2. Blacks were told there wasn’t enough housing for them
3. 2.5 million registered but only 1 million were accepted
4. 1942: War Department created two full divisions of black soldiers
V. Lynch Mobs
A. 1880-1968- 5000 killed by mobs
B. 2-3 blacks killed per week
C. Executions were public entertainment
D. Sam Hose
1. Accused of killing Alfred Cranford and raping Mrs. Cranford
2. 1000s watched as he was mutilated and burned alive
3. Body parts were cut off and distributed as souvenirs
E. Robert Charles
1. Confronted by 3 policemen looking for “suspicious-looking Negroes”
2. Both groups grabbed guns and Charles was shot
F. Thomas Moss- killed because his grocery store was more successful than a white’s
G. Race Riots
1. Erupted in towns that were in defense of segregation and white supremacy
2. Red Summer of 1919- at least 25 recorded riots
VI.
A. Kansas Exodus- 1000s of blacks left for these two states
B.
Great Migration- 1.5 million blacks moved to
C. Blacks bought at only black-owned stores
D. Music
1. Jazz- drew upon plantation band music, minstrel shows, riverboat performers
2. Symbolized the blacks’ energy that defied the whites
E. Sports
1. Jack Johnson- knocked out the a former white champion boxer
2.
Paul Robeson- urged blacks to turn to
F. Harlem Renaissance
1. Exposed feelings about racism, segregations, and discrimination
2. Nella Larsen, Jessie Redmon Fauset, Alice Dunbar Nelson, Zora Neale Hurston
A. White textbooks showed blacks as primitive and inferior
B.
Cumming v.
1.
Allowed separate schools in
blacks
C. Morrill Land Grant Acts- increased number of black colleges
D. Church fundraising created hundreds of black schools
E. 106 Historically Black Colleges and Universities remain today
1. Trained young women to fight illiteracy
VIII. Churches
A.
Baptist, African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal
Methodist Episcopal churches acted as a sanctuary
B. Northern black churches helped black migrants adjust to city life
C. Nation of Islam- taught Black Nationalism
IX. Black Organizations
A. Formed to abolish lynching, equalize education, and to gain the right to vote
B. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
1. Attacked segregated education and suffrage restriction
2. At first concentrated on lynching epidemic
3. 1909-1936: worked to protect civil liberties for blacks
4. 1930s: focused on Federal court litigation and segregated schools
C. Association for the Study of Negro Life and History- promoted Negro History Week
D. Colored Farmers’ Alliance & Knights of Labor- boycotted streetcars
E. National Association of Colored Women
1. “Lifting as we Climb”
2. Established settlement houses
3. Formed kindergartens and day nurseries
F. White Rose Industrial Mission- helped female migrants
G. Working Girls’ Home Association- helped cleaning women, laundresses, nurses
H. Women’s Convention Auxiliary to the National Baptist Convention- largest
membership organization of black women in the nation
I. Housewive’s League of Detroit- “Stabilize the economic status of the Negro through
directed spending”
X. Brown v. Board of Education
A. Declared that state-imposed racially segregated public schooling was unconstitutional
B. Served as the motivation for the 24th Amendment
C. Ended racial apartheid in most aspects of public life
XI. Civil Rights Act
A. 1883: Supreme Court declared the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional
B. 1964: new Civil Rights Act
1.
Allowed the
school systems on behalf of plaintiffs seeking school desegregation
2. Allowed the Department of Education to collect data on school enrollment by
race
XII. Jim Crow Today
A.
Kamehameha Schools in
1. Only accepted students that had at least one Native Hawaiian ancestor
2. Runyon v. McCrary- non native applicant argued against the policy
3. Judge Graber supported the policy
4. Graber stated admissions policy was only temporary until the academic
success between natives and non-natives had come to an equal level
XIII. Conclusion
The Jim Crow laws
were put into effect in
The origins of the term, “Jim Crow,” lie in the minstrel show performed by Thomas “Daddy” Rice. He was a white performer who popularized the expression through his dancing and singing act. He used burnt cork to blacken his face and dressed in the clothes of a vagabond (Litwack). Some say that his character was based on an elderly black slave while others claim it was a poor black stable boy. However, in both versions of the story, Rice’s inspiration was taken from an African American who was singing:
Come listen all you galls and boys,
I’m going to sing a little song,
My name is Jim Crow.
Weel about and turn about and do jis so,
Eb’ry time I weel about I jump Jim Crow (Pilgrim).
Rice
took his performance to
The
Jim Crow laws affected all aspects of life for blacks. Churches, saloons,
asylums, orphanages, hospitals, public school textbooks, telephone booths, bank
windows, and cemeteries all became instances where segregation was apparent
(Gavins). In other locations, like amusement parks, roller-skating rinks,
bowling alleys, swimming pools, and tennis courts, they were denied total
access. Signs outside of public parks read, “Negroes and Dogs Not Allowed”
(Litwack). In some hospitals, blacks were sometimes completely denied of any
medical services. However, in all hospitals, it was required that nurses only
treat patients of their own race. In movie theaters, there were separate ticket
windows, entrances, and seating for the different races. The balcony of the
cinemas soon became known as the “buzzard roost” or the “nigger heaven”
(Litwack). In white stores, blacks were not allowed to try on any clothing apparel
or shoes because the whites were fearful that their indecency would rub off on
the clothing. The segregation laws even went as far to affect prostitutes. In
Throughout
all positions of society, blacks were losing their recognized places that they
had earned. Up until the 1880s, blacks had been allowed to play baseball in the
major leagues. However, in 1889, they were forced out of the league altogether.
By the 1890s, the last black had left the minor baseball league. A few decades
later, in 1911, the Kentucky Derby eliminated black jockeys completely from the
races (Loewen 35). The purging of blacks from the sports world was only a minor
aspect of the bigger problem that was facing the country. They were rapidly
losing their well-earned positions to whites. One newspaper that ran from
1910-1925, called the “Chicago Defender,” brought up the issue of the
disintegration of black employment. In 1911, the newspaper published an article
titled “The Passing of Colored Firemen in
In
the 1880’s the nation began putting laws into effect that segregated
streetcars. This soon became one of the most controversial issues. The separate
cars created for the blacks were the smoking or second-class cars that the
whites refused to ride in. While some places created separate cars, most of the
streetcar lines instituted partitions that kept the blacks to the back of the
car. The most notable court case from this time period was Plessy v.
You don’t have to ride jim crow,
You don’t have to ride jim crow
Get on the bus, set any place,
‘Cause Irene Morgan won her case,
You don’t have to ride jim crow (Arsenault 11).
On
The
public attitude towards blacks began to become more unreceptive as Jim Crow
began influencing the various areas of the country. If walking on the same
sidewalk as a white, blacks were expected to step aside and let the whites pass
with sufficient space. In some areas, black motorists were forbidden to pass a
white on the street because the movement of their vehicle could cause the
whites to become covered in dust (Litwack). Black women faced the trouble of
finding a suitable occupation. Laws gave white women the most desirable jobs,
which were in shops and department stores, or working as secretaries or sales
clerks. The black women were hired for only the most unfavorable jobs like
those in the food processing and automobile industries (African American
Women). Unfortunately, with this decrease in public freedom, came the loss of
political rights. States soon began rewriting and amending their constitutions
so that blacks would be denied suffrage by law rather than by fraud (
Some of the whites believed that if the blacks were given equal voting rights, then they would soon be insisting to live and sleep with whites as equals. “Darktowns” and “niggertowns” began to appear due to the inability of blacks to move into the same neighborhoods as the whites (Litwack). An author by the name of Andrew Hacker stated in 1961, “If there is one sword which hangs over the heads of untold millions of white – and Northern – Americans it is that they cannot afford to live in close proximity to Negroes. The single social fact which can destroy the whole image of middle class respectability is to be known to reside in a neighborhood which has Negroes nearby (Loewen 121).”
One black man,
Isaiah Montgomery, believed that blacks could only succeed if they were
isolated from the white population. In 1888, he created a colony of black
farmers in a town he named Mound Bayou, which was located in the Yazoo Delta of
Mississippi. For thirty years, over 800 black families lived a detached life
from the whites.
The rapid spread of segregation even went as far as to impact the soldiers of World War II. For most of the war, blacks were kept in segregated units and were often ordered to perform service jobs instead of regular combat assignments (Morehouse 3). Black volunteers were deterred from the war by the applications offices, which informed them that there was not enough space in the six black-only regiments. They were also sometimes told that there was a lack of housing because of the segregated facilities (Morehouse 5). For Bill Perry, a black soldier, the differences between the “separate but equal” units became apparent when he was injured. He went to a United States Army hospital to receive treatment and during his first week, the nurses brought him his food. However, the second week, he was told to go to the mess hall and fetch his own food. When he reached the dining hall, six blacks were waiting outside the room and informed him that he was to wait until all of the whites had finished with their own meals. Looking back on the experience, he said, “I had never experienced anything like that, and it was as if a veil had been lifted, and I began to see things more clearly (Morehouse 4).”
In 1940, the Selective Service Act was put into effect. This allowed the percentage of blacks recruited to equal the percentage of blacks in the country’s total population. It also called for no discrimination in the recruiting process. Nevertheless, the act contained a technicality that stated blacks could only be assigned to one of the all-black Regular Army units (Morehouse 5). This same year, the Army Plan for Mobilization was instituted. This allowed the mobilization of black soldiers to equal the percentage of blacks in the total population. It also allowed blacks to be assigned to any unit that they were qualified to serve in. Even though this act was put into effect, by the end of 1941, only five percent of the infantry was black and by 1944, ten percent of the infantry was black (Morehouse 6). It was in 1942 that the War Department created two full divisions of black soldiers. Each division held 18,000 soldiers, which finally allowed black applicants to hold a spot in the war (Morehouse 11). However, by the end of the war, two and a half million blacks had registered to fight, yet only one million were actually accepted to serve (Morehouse 5).
From 1880-1968,
approximately 5000 blacks died as a result of lynch mobs and from 1890-1917,
two to three blacks were hanged, burned at the stake, or murdered each week.
One particular case, concerning a man named Sam Hose, displays just how
horrific the treatment of blacks had become. In 1899 in
The execution of
blacks became a form of public entertainment for the white population. Some
executions had been known to last up to seven hours just to engross the crowd
(Litwack). Litwack, a past President of the Organization of American Historians
commented, “To kill the victim was not enough; the execution needed to be
turned into a public ritual, a collective experience, and the victim needed to
be subjected to extraordinary torture and humiliation. What had been in the
past a usually rapid dispatch of the victim, now became part of a voyeuristic
spectacle.” For the whites, the chase to track down any suspicious blacks and
lead them to their death almost became a game. Robert Charles, an individual
greatly upset by Hose’s experience decided to turn the negativity into a
positive plan. He became a subscription agent for African Methodist
Episcopalian Bishop Henry M. Turner’s nationalist, “Voice of Missions.” This
was a newspaper that supported black pride and campaigned for a return of all
the blacks to
There are numerous
stories that are similar to the tragedy faced by Charles and Hose. Will Mathis,
a convicted white felon, refused to be hanged at the same set of gallows as
Orlando Lester, a black man. He appealed to a judge that he be allowed to face
his death at a different location and at a different time than Lester. An
analogous appeal was made by a man who had murdered his wife. He demanded that
he be hanged before the three blacks that were scheduled to be executed that
day (Litwack). Thomas Moss, a black grocery storeowner, was killed by a lunch
mob because he was more prosperous than a white storeowner in the same
neighborhood. This shows the white’s fear of the blacks obtaining an equal or
even higher level of success. In many towns that supported segregation and
white supremacy and in urban areas where southern, rural blacks had recently
migrated, race riots occurred. This was because most of the whites frowned at
the thought of blacks overpopulating their cities. The worst race riots
occurred from 1917-1921 in
A vast majority of
the blacks found refuge in merely moving to a different location or finding a
stronger voice within themselves that allowed them to embrace their own
culture. While many blacks were forced out of the South because of natural
disasters, some were pulled to the North by the prospect of job opportunities.
During the 1880s and 1890s, thousands of blacks left for
Some blacks took a
passive stand hoping that if they went unnoticed, they would remain safe. This
meant that they were forced to hide their true emotions and personalities when
they were near any whites. Some learned that if the whites believed they were
superior, then there would be less conflict. Successful blacks soon began to
purchase unpainted houses, which made them appear destitute in order to dodge
the anger of whites who were less affluent. W.E.B. DuBois, a black intellectual
commented, “It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense
of always looking at oneself through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul
by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity” (
Many blacks vented their frustrations through their artistic abilities. Throughout this period, a wide variety of music emerged. Ragtime, rural-based blues, black gospel, and urban-based jazz all appeared as a way of non-political protest. Jazz, especially, showed the true feelings of the majority of blacks. It was a type of music based on plantation band music, minstrel shows, and riverboat performers. It showed all of the hardships the blacks had overcome while showing all of the strength that they had accumulated from the blows of the whites. Billie Holiday and Paul Robeson were particularly influential people in the performing arts field. In 1924, Robeson made his stage debut as a man with a white woman in an interracial couple. This caused much fury among the whites who had worked to make segregation possible. Major sports figures like Jack Johnson, Jesse Owen, Joe Louis, and Jackie Robinson showed that the blacks could exceed the whites’ expectations of the black race. In 1910, Jack Johnson knocked out the white boxer, Jim Jeffries, who had come out of retirement specifically to fight Johnson. It was events like these that boosted the morale of the blacks. During the 1920s and 1930s, there was a movement known as the Harlem Renaissance (Davis). During these few decades, black women authors, like Nella Larsen, Jessie Redmon Fauset, Alice Dunbar Nelson, and Zora Neale Hurston, used the everyday American language to express their feelings about racism, segregation, and discrimination (Gavins). By stepping forward and having their voices heard, whether through sports, music, or writing, the blacks formed their own style of protest.
The fight for
equal education was one of the constant battles that the blacks were confronted
with. In the textbooks available in the white schools, blacks were shown as
primitive and inferior. Other media, like literature, newspapers, cartoons, and
commercial products showed them as imbeciles (Litwack). By ordering the
segregated races to attend different schools, the government was indirectly approving
of the idea of black inferiority (Wolters). In the Supreme Court case of
Cumming v. Richmond County Board of Education, it was declared that separate
schools in
Even though forced
to create their own school systems, blacks made great progress during the Jim
Crow era to overcome the “separate but equal” doctrine that haunted their
lives. Approximately sixty to seventy-five percent of all black children
attended primary school. However, they had a shortened school year so they
would be able to help the family with weeding and picking cotton in the late
spring. In 1862 and 1890, the Morrill Land Grant Acts were established, which
increased the number of black colleges. It provided federal support to the
institutions that carried courses in agriculture, engineering, home economics,
or industrial or vocational arts. By 1899, eighty-one black colleges had been
established (
However, it was
the work of the churches that greatly influenced the education and rise of
blacks. Baptist, African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion,
and the Colored Methodist Episcopal churches all gave sanctuary to those
affected by the horrors of Jim Crow (Gavins). Northern black churches were
created to help the blacks that had fled from the South adjust to the city life
of the North. These churches also helped their members’ other needs. They cared
for the sick, collected contributions for the penniless, taught necessary
domestic skills, and helped to find jobs for the blacks. One church, the Nation
of Islam, led by Timothy Drew, preached the idea of Black Nationalism. This was
the belief that all of civilization had flowered from
Many black
organizations formed in an effort to abolish lynching, equalize education, and
advocate suffrage (Gavins). The National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People was one of the most influential organizations that formed. It
worked to assimilate blacks into the economic flow of American life (
From 1909-1936,
they worked to protect the civil liberties of blacks. They fought to allow
blacks on juries and wrestled to earn equal salaries for black schoolteachers.
In the 1930s, the NAACP focused their attention on the issue of segregated
schools. This caused DuBois to resign from his position of leadership in the
group because he didn’t believe that segregation was the vital problem that
they were facing. After DuBois’s departure, Walter White, Charles Houston, and
Thurgood Marshall led the group to advocate the end of school segregation,
lynching, and Jim Crow laws (
Many other
organizations followed the footsteps of the NAACP and fought for equal
opportunities and services. The Association for the Study of Negro Life and
History, founded by Carter G. Woodson, encouraged the celebration of Negro
History Week throughout schools in the nation (
With the rise of
black pride came the rise of the black woman’s status in society. One of the
most prominent women’s organizations was the National Association of Colored
Women. Their motto was “lifting as we climb (Gavins).” They created settlement
houses that taught cooking, sewing, childcare, and crafts. They also founded
YWCAs, reformatories, hospitals, and schools while encouraging suffrage and
prohibition (National Association of Colored Women). The White Rose Industrial
Mission worked to incorporate black females, who had previously lived in the
rural areas of the South, into the city life of
There were also
several individual women who made their impact on gaining equality for blacks.
Jo Ann Gibson Robinson created and distributed 30,000 fliers that told blacks
in
Desegregation became apparent throughout all aspects of life. One of the most monumental court cases of the time took place in 1954. In Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court declared that segregated schools were unconstitutional (Brown). Within an hour after declaring the decision of the case, a Voice of America radio broadcast had announced the news abroad (Wolters). This decision was epic because it served as the motivation behind the 24th Amendment, which was put into effect in 1964. Under this amendment, the poll tax and literacy tests for voting were abolished, which once again gave blacks the right to vote. The case also ended the “separate but equal” lifestyle in many other portions of public life (Brown). Along with the Brown v. Board of Education case, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 helped to end segregation (Gavins). This permitted the U.S. Attorney General to bring legal action against segregated school systems. It supplied schools with grants, which could be used to help desegregate the school systems. It also allowed the Department of Education to compile information on the various race populations within a particular school (Brown).
Today, even though the days of Jim Crow America have disappeared, there are still lingering characteristics apparent in society. In 2007, John Mellencamp released a CD titled, “Freedom’s Road.” On this disc, he introduced one of his songs titled, “Jim Crow (Semon).”
You can call it what you want to
But it’s still a minstrel show
You can call it what you want to
But it’s still Jim Crow (Semon).
This shows
Mellencamp’s desire to question just how much our country has progressed since
the days of Jim Crow. Even though segregated facilities have vanished, there
are still remnants of Jim Crow. This became apparent when the
The Jim Crow era
transformed the country for the worst. Thousands of blacks were murdered at the
hands of whites for any reason, even if it was not justifiable. They worked to
segregate and discriminate the blacks from all factors of the American life.
However, it was also during this time that blacks showed they could adequately
fight for their own rights and show their strength as a race. They abolished
the “separate but equal” policy that followed them around in all elements of
their lives. With the disappearance of segregated and second-class facilities,
they revolutionized the preconceived notions that were associated with blacks.
Even though Jim Crow is legally buried, the beliefs of this time period still
reverberate in the social and economic fields of
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