Jim Crow Laws
“All railroads carrying passengers in the state
(other than street railroads) shall provide
equal but separate accommodations for the
white and colored races, by providing two or
more passenger cars for each passenger train,
or by dividing the cars by a partition, so as to
secure separate accommodations.”
----Tennessee, 1891
“Marriages are void when one party is a white
person and the other is possessed of oneeighth or more negro, Japanese, or Chinese
blood.”
----Nebraska, 1911
“Separate free schools shall be established for
the education of children of African descent;
and it shall be unlawful for any colored child
to attend any white school, or any white child
to attend a colored school.”
----Missouri, 1929
“It shall be unlawful for a negro and white
person to play together or in company with
each other in any game of cards or dice,
dominoes or checkers.”
----Birmingham, Alabama, 1930
Jim Crow Laws
http://eastchestermhs.wikispaces.com/file/vie
w/jimcrow.gif/30212181/jimcrow.gif
Background
• Reconstruction 1865-1877
• Attempt to rebuild the South
– Bring Confederate states back into the Union
– Provide rights to newly freed slaves
• Temporary gain in rights ended with
Democratic control of government in 1877
• Jim Crow laws promoted racial segregation at
the state and local level 1876-1965
• Segregation of
– Public schools
– Restrooms
– Restaurants
– Drinking fountains
– US military
• 1913- overt discrimination even at the federal
level due to election of first Southern
President- Wilson
“Separate but equal”
Plessy vs. Ferguson, 1896
Policy found to be constitutional.
• Prior to Jim Crow Laws, discrimination was
overt.
• No pretense at fairness.
• Blacks simply had no rights.
• With Jim Crow Laws, pretense was that blacks
were treated equally but with separate
facilities.
• Laws appeared to apply to everyone.
• Lynchings and violence further suppressed the
black population
• Intimidation- give address to vote. Reasonable
fear of address being passed on to KKK.
• Blacks attempting to vote were routinely fired
from jobs.
voting
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Property tests- must own property to vote
Poll tax- must pay a tax to vote
Literacy tests- must pass test to vote
Grandfather clause- above waived if voter’s
ancestors had voted before Reconstruction.
Each was designed to
disenfranchise blacks and poor
whites.
• Look at 10 documents from the Jim Crow era
and identify which rights are restricted in
each.
– Marriage and Family
– Education
– Public Accommodation
– Transportation
– Voting
Complete Jim Crow worksheet page 1.
– Vocabulary
– Help or Hurt?
– Out of Order!
Complete Barriers to Voting worksheet page 2.
• Complete Cartoon Time, worksheet page 2.
• Complete Extension Activity, page 1.
Double V Campaign
• “The V for victory sign is being displayed prominently in all so-called
democratic countries, which are fighting for victory . . . Let we
colored Americans adopt the double V for a double victory. The first
V for victory over our enemies from without, the second V for
victory over our enemies fro within.” ----James G. Thompson, 1942
J.Edgar Hoover, the first director of the FBI,
considered the black newspaper’s reports
about the war and Jim Crow Laws treason
against the US Government. He tried to sue
the black press to shut them down and stop
them from maintaining the truth about
discrimination among the troops and at home.
• 1954- Supreme Court declared school
segregation illegal.
• 1964- Civil Rights Act overturned remaining
Jim Crow Laws.
• 1965- Voting Rights Act