Jim Crow & Plessy V. Ferguson
“The slave went free, stood a
brief moment in the sun;
then moved back again
toward slavery.”
-- W.E.B Du Bois
Three People Dancing Around Sun
Image: © Images.com/CORBIS
Creator Name:
Bob Commander
After the Civil War:
Blacks make political and civil gains…
•13th Amendment - gave 4.3
million slaves their freedom
•14th Amendment - African
Americans given citizenship
•15th Amendment - African
American men given right to vote
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But…
•Most white Southerners resented
the new rights of African Americans
•White Southerners chipped away at
African Americans rights
3
African Americans Lost
Economic Power
•40 Acres & a Mule After slavery, many
African Americans
thought they would get
this, but didn’t
•Sharecropping Instead work on land
owned by whites &
share profits from crops
4
African Americans Lost
Political Power
•Poll Tax - had to pay
to vote
•Literacy Test - Had
to read to vote
•Grandfather Clause
- Could get around 1st
2 if your grandfather
could vote
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Quickwrite:
Which do you think was a more significant
loss, political or economic power? Explain.
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Jim Crow Laws
What is it?
•Segregation
•began as customs (de
facto), but ended up as
laws (de jure)
•Named after “Jim
Crow” song & dance
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What parts of society were segregated?
Segregated Drinking Fountains
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•Schools,
cemeteries, courts,
hospitals, mental
institutions,
orphanages,
prisons, & Bibles
to swear on in
trials
Plessy vs. Ferguson:
•What? Homer
Plessey tried to sit in
a whites-only train
car
•How did the
Supreme Court
Rule? Segregation
is ok as long as the
facilities are equal
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•“Separate But
Equal”
Problem:
Separate But Equal is Never Equal
•Example:
Whites would
never fund
black schools
equally
•Goes against
14th Amendment
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Quickwrite:
Do you think the Plessy V. Ferguson ruling led
to an increase in the amount of Jim Crow laws
in the South? Why? Why not?
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Jim Crow Violence:
How else did Southern Whites enforce Jim Crow?
•Ku Klux Klan secret terrorist
society that beat,
raped, and
murdered African
Americans
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How else did Southern Whites enforce Jim Crow?
•Lynching - a mob puts
someone to death without a trial
•Between 1880-1968
nearly 5000 blacks were
lynched
•Why?
•“incorrect behavior”
•economic competition
between blacks and whites
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Jim Crow & Segregation:
How did African Americans resist?
•Spoke out against
discrimination
•Organized boycotts
of segregated
facilities
•Tried to improve
segregated facilities
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Segregated School
When did it end?
•WWII jumpstarted
the Civil Rights
movement in the US
Man removes segregation
sign 1956
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•1954 Brown V. Board
of Education declared
segregation in
schools illegal
Quickwrite:
Is there ever a time when separate treatment IS equal
treatment? Consider:
2 students enter a school. One
to a wheelchair.
is confined
12th graders must pass Algebra in
order to
graduate. One student has a disability in math.
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Quickwrite:
Name some situations today where you believe a
certain group of people is NOT being treated equally.
It could be a certain ethnic group, one of the genders,
an age group, a career area, a religious affiliation, an
interest group, etc… After you have listed several, state
your ideas on how to make things more equal for the
groups you mentioned.
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