Jim Crow in the South
1877-1964
How did we get to Jim Crow?
• After the Civil War, all slaves were freed.
• The period of Reconstruction, when African
Americans’ rights were protected by the
military in the South, lasted from 18671877
• In 1877 “Home Rule” began in the South
after the U.S. military left
What was the goal of
“Home Rule?”
• During “Home Rule,” southern whites
wanted life to return to the way it used to be
before the Civil War
• The primary goal of “Home Rule” was to
make African Americans occupy and
inferior position in society than whites
Notes
• Jim Crow was legalized SEGREGATION
and DISCRIMINATION in the South. Jim
Crow followed the RECONSTRUCTION
when the South regained control during
HOME RULE and tried to make African
Americans INFERIOR to whites.
How did southern whites make
African Americans inferior?
•
•
•
•
Jim Crow laws
Intimidation (Ku Klux Klan – KKK)
Lynchings
Supreme Court decision saying “Separate
but Equal was Okay” (Plessy v. Ferguson)
• Take away voting rights of African
Americans (literacy test, poll tax,
grandfather clause)
Who Was Jim Crow?
• The "Jim Crow" figure was a fixture of
the minstrel (singing, comedy & variety)
shows that toured the South
• a white man made to look like a black
man
• He sang and mimicked stereotypical
behavior in the name of comedy
• (Like Black Face)
What did
Jim Crow
Look Like?
Highly
Racist
Jim Crow
Picture –
from
sheet music
Racist
Caricatures of
African
Americans
including the
“Uncle Tom,”
“Coon,”
“Pickaninny,”
and “Mammy”
1898
What Was Life Like for Southern
African Americans during Jim Crow?
• Stop now to read Virginia Jim Crow Laws
• WRITE
– Pick three the MOST SHOCKING to you.
• Why are they shocking?
• Why are they unfair?
– What do you think was Virginia’s goal in
writing these laws?
What Did the South Look Like
During Jim Crow?
Black Man
Being
Removed from
a “White”
Train Car
History Class at Booker T. Washington’s
All Black Tuskeegee Institute (AB)
“Negro Homes, Chatanooga, TN” 1899
Segregated Theater – Probably
White Owned (MISS)
Segregated Movie Theater –
Probably Black Owned (1939, MISS)
Segregated Water Fountains
“Juke Joint” tavern and blues music
hall (FL, 1941) note police order sign
Prison Chain Gang
Newport News, VA 1919
African American Prisoners on Work
Detail (no longer in chain gang – this is from the 1930s)
Howard University, DC (1919)
Students Outside of Howard
NAACP Parade 1944, Detroit
How did Southern Whites
Intimidate African Americans?
• Ku Klux Klan (KKK)
• Nationwide (membership 3 million in 1920)
• Used terror and intimidation to try keep
African Americans “in their place” and to
prevent them from challenging Jim Crow
– Throw rocks through windows
– Burn crosses on lawns
– Lynchings
KKK Cross Burning
What is a “Lynching?”
• Lynching: putting to death by mob action
without due process of law (no trial)
• Term comes from American Revolution,
Colonel Charles Lynch held informal trials
for Tories and Criminals and then whipped
or beat them
What is Important to Know
About Lynching?
• Mobs of white men would lynch African
Americans (mostly men) in order to keep
African Americans “in their place”
• Often the mob would blame the black man
of raping a white woman
– This was usually a lie, if there was a
relationship, it was usually consensual between
a white woman and a black man (To Kill a
Mocking Bird…)
continued
• The mobs would usually lynch African
Americans who were most threatening to
them
– Smart and talented business people
– Handsome or beautiful
– Outspoken critics or challengers of Jim Crow
Stop – Watch Slideshow
• Look For:
– What is most common form of lynching?
– How old were men/women who were lynched?
– Judging from the crowds at lynchings, what
kind of an event was it for the town?
– Why did people take pictures of lynchings and
even make postcards out of them?
– Why didn’t the police in the town stop the
lynchings?
Causes Of Lynchings, 1882-1968
Number
Homicides
1,937
Felonious Assault
205
Rape
912
Attempted Rape
288
Robbery and Theft 232
Insult to White Person 85
All Other Causes
1,084
Total
4,743
Percent
40.84
4.32
19.22
6.07
4.89
1.79
22.85
Leo Frank
Jewish factory
owner in
Georgia who
was accused of
raping and
murdering an
employee. Mob
got him from
jail and hanged
him. Innocent.
(1913)
Attention to
anti-Semitism.
Thousands gather at the lynching of
Henry Smith in Paris, Texas, 1893.
How was the African American
response to Jim Crow?
• Form own colleges and universities
(Howard, Tuskeegee Institute, etc.)
• Speak out – especially in black newspapers
– Ida B. Wells and anti-lynching crusade
• Challenge Jim Crow in Supreme Court
– Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896 - lost
• Leave the South – “Great Migration” to the
northern cities
Ida B. Wells
Outspoken critic of lynching
Wrote articles, books, and pamphlets trying to
disprove the myth that lynchings were
justified - she showed it was lawless racism
“The real purpose of these savage
demonstrations is to teach the Negro that in
the South he has no rights that the law will
enforce. Lynchings happened to teach other
Negroes that no matter what a white man
does to them, they must not resist.”