Jim+Crow+Life

To set the stage for the civil rights movement, you must first understand the environment of segregation in the United States in the first half of the 20th century. What was life like in Jim Crow America? Cut and paste this information into a new page in your Unit 8 Online ISN. **** You (and your partner, if you have one) are African Americans who have lived through the era of Jim Crow in America. Using the links provided in this activity, respond to the “oral history questions” in first person. **

**Right after the Civil War, the 14th Amendment was ratified. What did the 14th Amendment provide for African Americans? What does “due process” and “equal protection of the laws” mean?** [|14th LINK] After the Civil War, the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted to the Constitution to guarantee African American rights. The Fourteenth Amendment was one of the three amendments that focused on African Americans. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery and the Fifteenth Amendment guaranteed African American men the right to vote.

**Unfortunately, your equal rights were challenged by the Supreme Court in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson. What do you remember about the facts, decision, and impact of this case?** [|Plessy LINK] I remember the date al-right, it was June 7, 1892. Homer Plessy was jailed for sitting in the “White” car of the East Louisiana Railroad. He was a Creole of Color, this means that Mr. Plessy could have easily pass for being white though in the Louisiana law, he was considered black. This term was used for people like him because the black people who lived in New Orleans had traces of ancestry from the French, the Spanish, and the Caribbean settlers. The main reason why this would happen is because sometimes a black civil rights organization would decide to challenge the law in courts. So, Plessy deliberately say in the white section and was arrested. The case went all the way up ot the Supreme Court where Plessy lawyer argued that the Separate Car act violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments.

**The laws developed in the South became known as Jim Crow laws. Who was this Jim Crow fellow? Did he write the laws?**[| Jim Crow LINK] No one really knows who Jim Crow was. He is said to be a Black old man or even a young stable boy. Those words (Jim Crow) were beginning to become more and more used by whites to insult blacks. By the end of the 19th century, these words were not used as insult, rather, as a way to describe the laws and customs that oppressed blacks. Some actors that represented Jim Crow in their plays, usually portrayed him as a very stereotypical black character.

In Texas, education laws said that blacks and whites shall attend separate schools and in sports they also couldn't play/fight against each other (boxing). In Florida, hospital and jail laws said that blacks and whites cannot share the same cell or room or apartement; marriage laws prohibited a white and a black or a black descendant to the fourth generation to get married.
 * What are some specific examples of the Jim Crow laws from southern states? How did the laws affect you?** [|Jim Crow Laws LINK 1] / [|Jim Crow Laws LINK 2] / [|Jim Crow Laws LINK 3]

These laws confined me from taking the better transportation, getting better education, better health and more opportunities to make a good living. I was subject to discrimination and extreme segregation.

It was extremely segregated. The white people couldn't even stand being on the same street as a Negro. They made every place, bench, sidewalk, everything segregated. They had to divide everything.
 * What did Jim Crow America look like in the 1900s? What are some images that can help explain the realities of the time?** __ Jim Crow Images LINK 1 __/ [|Jim Crow Images LINK 2]

Some images:







There were, in the Scottsboro Case, nine black youths falsely charged with raping two white women in Alabama. It revealed the terrible treatment of the blacks. On a train, those nine black boys and a group of white boys started fighting and the white boys got thrown off the train. They reported this to the stationmaster and soon after, the officials that were sent to stop the black boys found two women hidden in the train dressed with boys' clothing. They had affairs with the white boys that got thrown off the train and, out of fear they might get prosecuted for having affairs on the train, agreed that the black boys had raped them, even though there was no evident connection between them. The nine boys were convicted and all but the youngest who was 12 were sentenced to death. Some verdicts were overthrown.
 * What happened in the Scottsboro Case? How did it make you feel as an African American in the South?** [|Scottsboro LINK]

It was so unfair. It really does show how unjust the whole thing is. The blacks are treated horribly and the whites think that they can just kill the blacks off as if they were less than animals.

**What do some of your friends and family say about life in Jim Crow America? (listen to one or two)** [|Audio History LINK 1] Some felt that there was no other way to live. You just had to accept what was going on and how people did things. Also, the whites can just get away with whatever they do, even if it's illegal, they can just blame the first black they cross paths with.