Virginia Studies
Civil War and Post-War Eras
Session 4: Segregation and “Jim Crow” Laws in Virginia ______________________________
Prerequisite Understandings/Knowledge/Skills
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The students are expected to have prior knowledge about how African Americans were affected after the
Civil War and during Reconstruction.
Materials
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Virginia Pathways, Episode 5: Civil Rights
Sentence strips or poster
Teacher-selected books on segregation
Computer with Internet access
Paper for vocabulary dictionary
Stapler
Crayons/markers
Instructional Activities
1. In this session, the students will learn how segregation and “Jim Crow” laws affected life in Virginia.
2. Review Reconstruction and remind students that African Americans, because of their newly won freedoms,
had earned equal rights – the rights to vote and to hold office.
3. Introduce the term segregation as the separation of people, usually based on race or religion.
4. Read from teacher-selected books on segregation. Explain and remind students that some Virginians and
some Confederate leaders resented the fact that African Americans now had the same rights as white people,
so Virginia and other southern states passed laws that took away the rights that African Americans gained
during Reconstruction. These laws were called “Jim Crow” laws. They separated the races and reinforced
prejudices held by whites.
5. Show Virginia Pathways Episode 5: Civil Rights, segments 1 and 2.
6. On a sentence strip or 8- by 12-inch poster, write “Jim Crow” Laws. List effects on separate strips of posters
and discuss each one with students. Post in the classroom for quick reference, and review the effects “Jim
Crow” laws had on African American life.
 Unfair poll taxes and voting tests were established to keep African Americans from voting.
 African Americans found it very difficult to vote or hold public office.
 African Americans were forced to use separate drinking fountains.
 African American and white children attended separate schools.
7. Make a vocabulary dictionary (similar to Economic Terms booklet) including the following terms:
Reconstruction, Freedmen’s Bureau, sharecropping, segregation, and discrimination. (Keep dictionary in
reserve to add terms from VS 9,10.)
8. Use the following Web sites for student research.
 The Origin of Jim Crow <http://vastudies.pwnet.org/pdf/jim_crow.pdf>.
 History of Jim Crow. <http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/>.
 “The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow.” <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_14th.html>.
History and Social Science Enhanced Scope and Sequence
Virginia Department of Education
1
Virginia Studies
Civil War and Post-War Eras
Specific Options for Differentiating This Session
Technology
 Use video clips showing the different ways the “Jim Crow” laws were carried out and how African Americans
were affected by them.
Multisensory
 Have students role-play different scenarios of situations African Americans had to face, or example,
segregated rest rooms, drinking fountains, transportation, voting, restaurants, and schools.
Community Connections
 Invite an African American to the class to talk about growing up during segregation and the beginning of
integration.
Small Group Learning
 In small groups, discuss ways we see discrimination in today’s world. For instance, the amount of money
one makes, where you live, religion, clothes we wear, the kind of cars we drive, speech, and levels of
education.
Vocabulary
 Emphasize the following vocabulary words: segregation, integration, “Jim Crow” laws, equal rights,
freedoms, separation, African Americans, race, prejudices, discriminations, and poll tax.
 Add vocabulary to a class word wall.
 Have students review vocabulary by writing each word on an index card along with the definition and a
picture of the concept.
Student Organization of Content
 Have students compare and contrast the positive effect of the Freedmen’s Bureau and the negative effect of
the “Jim Crow” laws using a graphic organizer.
History and Social Science Enhanced Scope and Sequence
Virginia Department of Education
2