“Jim Crow” Laws
-From
the 1880s to the 1960s most states enforced
segregation through the “Jim Crow” laws named after a
black-faced character in minstrel shows.
-Through these laws legal punishments could be
imposed on people for having contact with members of
another race.
Jim Crow Guide
1. A Black male could not offer his hand (to shake
hands) with a White male because it implied being
socially equal. Obviously, a Black male could not offer
his hand or any other part of his body to a White
woman, because he risked being accused of rape.
2. Blacks and Whites were not supposed to eat together. If they did eat together,
Whites were to be served first, and some sort of partition was to be placed
between them.
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3. Under no circumstance was a Black male to offer to light the cigarette of a
White female -- that gesture implied intimacy.
4. Blacks were not allowed to show public affection toward one another in public,
especially kissing, because it offended Whites.
5. Blacks were introduced to Whites, never Whites to Blacks.
6. Whites did not use courtesy titles of respect when referring to Blacks, for
example, Mr., Mrs., Miss., Sir, or Ma'am. Instead, Blacks were called by their first
names or by “boy” or “girl” (regardless of age). Blacks had to use courtesy titles
when referring to Whites and were not allowed to call them by their first names.
7. If a Black person rode in a car driven by a White person, the Black person sat in
the back seat, or the back of a truck.
8. White motorists had the right-of-way at all intersections.
DISCUSSION ACTIVITY
Imagine you are a child growing up sometime during the 1880s-1960s. Everything you
have been taught has suggested that your race was superior to all others. Do you think
you could still treat people equally? Why or why not? Please explain your reasoning.
Scottsboro Boys Trial
No crime in American history produced as
many trials, convictions, reversals, and retrials
as the alleged gang rape of two white girls,
Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, by nine black
teenagers on a Southern Railroad on March
25, 1931. Trials of the “Scottsboro Boys”
began only twelve days after their arrest. In
just three days' time, eight of the nine boys, all
under 21 - four of them under 18 and two of
them sixteen or under - were pushed through trials and sentenced to death without even
the chance to communicate with their parents.
The cases were appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which overturned the
convictions in the landmark case of Powell vs. Alabama. The Court ruled that the right of
the defendants under the Fourteenth Amendment to competent legal counsel had been
denied by Alabama. The boys would have to go through new trials. The second round of
trials began with Haywood Patterson on March 30, 1933, in the courtroom of Judge
James Horton. During this trial, one of the accusers, Ruby Bates, admitted to perjury.
Under direct examination, Bates said a troubled conscience and the advice of a New
York minister prompted her to return to Alabama and tell the truth about what happened.
Bates said that there was no rape, none of the defendants touched her or even spoke to
her, and the accusations of rape were made after Victoria Price told her "to frame up a
story."
At one o'clock on April 8, 1933, the jury was sent out to deliberate. The jury pronounced
Haywood Patterson guilty and sentenced him to death. The decision on guilt took only
five minutes. The testimony of Bates wasn't even considered. In 1976, over 40 years
after being accused, the last Scottsboro defendant was finally pardoned.