HISTORY OF JIM CROW Jim Crow History Resources The history of Jim Crow encompassed every part of American life, from politics to education to sports. This section is a good place to begin to access historical background, source material, and lesson plans that utilize the materials in the Geography, Literature, and Teacher Resources sections. We suggest that you begin your exploration of Jim Crow history by reading the themed essay, "From Terror to Triumph", below, in order to get a holistic look at Jim Crow from many angles. Richmond, VA Historical marker posted in the 1920s If you'd like to create an essay or lesson plan on Jim Crow history, please Join Us! All teachers are paid for the work they contribute. The Journal of American History gave Jimcrowhistory.org a rave review! Read it here. History Essays: (Many more essays and lesson plans are in development, if you would like to contribute for pay, Join Us.) All essays and lesson plans are available to print as Adobe PDF files. If you don't have the FREE Adobe Acrobat Reader, click here. From Terror to Triumph: Historical Overview This historical overview is actually a group of five themed essays focusing on creating, surviving, resisting, escaping, and transcending Jim Crow oppression and discrimination. These themes divide the history of the Jim Crow era, and offer teachers an organizational framework for understanding and teaching the subject. Each of these themes is explored further in the In Depth link. These essays, and others in the Teacher Resources section, provide a wealth of information about the changes and continuity in the tortured history of African Americans as they experienced segregation and discrimination from the Reconstruction Era to the 1950s. Creating Jim Crow Beginning with an explanation of the origin of the term Jim Crow, this essay focuses on the time period beginning with the post Reconstruction period through the late 1890s and the legalization of segregation. • In-Depth Essay Surviving Jim Crow This essay focuses on the ways in which African Americans made accommodations, both personal and on a nationwide scale, within a system that discounted them. • In-Depth Essay Resisting Jim Crow This section offers a multi-perspective look at the ways in which African Americans resisted the confines of the system. • In-Depth Essay Escaping Jim Crow The Kansas Exodus and Great Migration offered the hope of equality to thousands of African Americans fleeing the South. The themed content of this essay encompasses that migration through to the desegregation of the military in the 1940s as the beginning of the end of legal segregation. Transition from Segregation to Civil Rights This essay creates the link from Jim Crow, through the Civil Rights Movement, to our race relations today. Target grade levels: Middle and High School Levels For use with: PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow Passing For White in Jim Crow America Students learn about the nuances of racism in this essay that explains the term "passing." Target grade levels: Middle and High School Levels For use with: PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, Program Four: Terror and Triumph (1940-1954) Passing For White: First Account Narratives People who have passed and some who are still passing as white talk about their lives. Target grade levels: Middle and High School Levels For use with: PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, Program Four: Terror and Triumph (1940-1954) The Lynching of Emmett Till Among the scores of people lynched, the name Emmett Till rings familiar to those who know the Bob Dylan lyrics. Read an account of what happened to this young man in Mississippi in 1955. Target grade levels: Middle and High School Levels For use with: PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, Program Four: Terror and Triumph (1940-1954) African Americans in 'The White City:' The World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 This essay discusses African Americans' lack of participation in the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893 in Chicago. Several lesson plans accompany this essay and its companion essay, "African Americans in 'The World of Tomorrow': 1939." Target grade levels: Middle and High School For use with: Essay: "African Americans in 'The World of Tomorrow'" Lesson Plans: Exhibiting at a World's Fair Why the Colored American is Not in the World's Columbian Exposition Stereotypes at the World Fairs African Americans in 'The World of Tomorrow': 1939 The essay focuses on the continued struggles and triumphs of African Americans at the New York City World Fair of 1939. Several lesson plans accompany this essay and its companion essay, "African Americans in 'The White City:' The World's Columbian Exposition of 1893." Target grade levels: Middle and High School For use with: Essay: "African Americans in 'The White City:' The World's Columbian Exposition of 1893." Lesson Plans: Exhibiting at a World's Fair African-American Artists in 'The World of Tomorrow' Stereotypes at the World Fairs The Desegregation of Clinton Senior High School: Trial and Triumph This student-researched and written essay on the first school in the South to desegregate following Brown v. Board of Ed. serves as an insightful example of what students can learn about Jim Crow from their own school and community's history. An accompanying lesson plan and first account narratives are also included. Target grade levels: High School Levels For use with: PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, Program Four: Terror and Triumph (1940-1954) Childhood Experiences Color Routes to Civil Rights Activism-Booker Taliaferro Washington and William Edward Burghardt Du Bois: Different Beginnings/Different Ways This essay explores the two philosophically opposed men by looking back at their very different upbringings. Teachers will find this valuable before examining the Black Colleges map in the geography section because so many of the colleges aligned themselves with the philosophies of one of these two great men. Target grade levels: Middle and High School Levels For use with: PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, Program One: Promises Betrayed (1865-1896) and Program Two: Fighting Back (1896-1917) The Unconquerable Doing the Impossible: Jackie Robinson's 1946 Spring Training in Jim Crow Florida Intended for use with the Jackie Robinson Lesson Plan below, this essay looks at Jackie Robinson's rude awakening to the Jim Crow South upon his arrival in Daytona Beach, Florida. Focusing on the part of Robinson's life before he made the big leagues, this essay also focuses on the qualities and making of a hero. Target grade levels: Middle and High School Levels For use with: Sports and Jim Crow America Map, Jackie Robinson Lesson Plan Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson: Interview Essay A companion essay to the Jackie Robinson lesson plan, this essay focuses on the discussion between Dodger owner-manager Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson prior to Robinson's signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball club. Target grade levels: Middle and High School Levels For use with: PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow Urban Race Riots in the Jim Crow Era A companion essay to the Jim Crow Violence map addressing the race riots of America's past ... from the root causes to the outcomes and their effect on the nation. Lesson activity suggestions are included. Target grade levels: Middle and High School Levels For use with: Jim Crow Violence map Jim Crow and Sports Supplements the Jim Crow Sports Map, which documents many "firsts" made by African-American athletes in a variety of sports. Students can use this essay as a starting point for their own research into local sports heroes. Target grade levels: Middle and High School Levels For use with: Sports and Jim Crow America map; Jackie Robinson essay and lesson plan Popular Art and Racism: Embedding Racial Stereotypes in the American Mindset -- Jim Crow and Popular Culture Virtually every type of popular art medium in the past embraced the negative stereotype associated with African Americans. This essay looks at Jim Crow through an examination of popular culture's various ways of portraying African Americans from the earliest minstrel shows to motion pictures. For a sampling of Jim Crow images in pop culture, go to the Distorted Mirror Collection in the Image Gallery. Target grade levels: Middle and High School Levels For use with: Image Gallery Distorted Mirror Collection Jim Crow Legislation Overview This essay summarizes the more than 400 state laws, constitutional amendments, and city ordinances that legalized segregation and discrimination in the United States between 1865 and 1967. Target grade levels: Middle and High School Levels For use with: Jim Crow and the Supreme Court Map The Black Press and Jim Crow, 1875-1955 This overview essay covers the beginnings of the Black press in America, its struggles to survive, and its evolution over time. Target grade levels: Middle and High School Levels For use with: Historical Overview: Resisting Jim Crow and Jim Crow Press Map The Paris Exposition of 1900 and W.E.B. Du Bois An essay on W.E.B. Du Bois's trip from New York City to Paris in 1900 for the Paris Exposition Universalle. Du Bois traveled with several boxes of photographs, captions, maps, and educational materials to display in the "Negro Section" of the American exhibit. So impressive were the images, that the Exhibition judges awarded Du Bois a gold medal as the Exhibit's principal compiler. Target grade levels: Middle and High School Levels For use with: PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, Program Two: Fighting Back (1896-1917) and the Paris Exposition Collection in the Image Gallery Racial Etiquette: The Racial Customs and Rules of Racial Behavior in Jim Crow America This overview essay gives students insight into the social customs and interactions between the races under Jim Crow. Target grade levels: Middle and High School Levels For use with: PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow. Using Images for Historical Purposes For use with the growing Image Gallery, teachers can use this essay to introduce students to the factors for consideration when viewing a photograph to glean historical information. Target grade levels: Middle and High School Levels For use with: PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow and the Image Gallery. History Lesson Plans: Teachers contribute their best lessons on the events that they think are the most important in the Jim Crow years. The lessons also link themselves to one or more of the four episodes of The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow. The Brown v. Board of Education Cases: An Education Unit on the Cases Comprising the Landmark 1954 School Desegregation Decision Students analyze the legal history of segregation in this 7-section unit, focusing on documents from five early court cases that comprised the landmark Brown v. Board of Education school desegregation decision in 1954. Target grade levels: High School or College Undergraduate Levels For use with: PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, Program Four: Terror and Triumph (1940-1954) Where did it All Begin? This lesson should be used with the Jim Crow and the Supreme Court map. Students select from the cases on the map as a starting point for researching these major decisions in regard to segregation and civil rights. Target grade levels: Middle School or High School Levels For use with: Jim Crow and the Supreme Court Map Brown v. Board of Ed. Teaching unit Signs of Segregation Collection in the Image Gallery PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow Student Research of the Integration of Clinton High School This lesson is a template you can use to have students research the background of their own high schools and communities in the Jim Crow era. Students from Clinton High School, the first southern school to desegregate following Brown v. Board of Ed., provide an example of finished products of their research. Target grade levels: High School Levels and the jimcrowhistory.org Web site For use with: PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, Program Four:Terror and Triumph (1940-1954) Exhibiting at a World's Fair In this complementary lesson to the essays on the 1893 Columbian Exposition and the 1939 New York World's Fair, students research the difficulties faced by African Americans in these World Fairs. They then design their own exhibit. This lesson serves as a link to the beginnings of the Jim Crow era. Target grade levels: Upper Elementary through High School For use with: PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow: Program One: Promises Betrayed (1865-1896) Program Three: Don't Shout Too Soon (1918-1940) Essays: "From Terror to Triumph: Historical Overview" "African Americans and 'The White City'" "African Americans in 'The World of Tomorrow'" Why the Colored American is Not in the World's Columbian Exposition Students research the difficulties African Americans faced when protesting their exclusion from the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Target grade levels: Upper Elementary through High School For use with: PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow: Program One: Promises Betrayed (1865-1896) Essays: "From Terror to Triumph: Historical Overview" "African Americans and 'The White City'" Stereotypes at the World Fairs This lesson examines the stereotypes of African Americans during the Jim Crow era and today. This is a companion lesson to the essays, "African Americans in 'The White City'" and "African Americans in 'The World of Tomorrow.'" Target grade levels: Upper Elementary through High School For use with: PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow: Program One: Promises Betrayed (1865-1896) Program Three: Don't Shout Too Soon (1918-1940) Essays: "African Americans and 'The White City'" "African Americans in 'The World of Tomorrow'" African-American Artists in 'The World of Tomorrow' Students study primary and secondary sources to discover the role African Americans played in the arts at the 1939 New York World's Fair and the historic context of those art forms. A companion lesson to the essay, "African Americans in the 'World of Tomorrow,'" this lesson focuses on the music of William Grant Still and the sculpture of Augusta Savage. Target grade levels: Upper Elementary through High School For use with: PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow: Program Three: Don't Shout Too Soon (1918-1940), and the Essay "African Americans in 'The World of Tomorrow'" Jim Crow on the National Level: The Right to Flight In this student-centered lesson, students learn through Internet and library research about the difficult path carved by the African-American military men during World War II. Target grade levels: High School and College Undergraduate Programs For use with: PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, Program Four: Terror and Triumph (1940-1954) W.E.B. Du Bois and the Paris Exposition Students will study primary and secondary sources to discover how W.E.B. Du Bois portrayed African Americans at the 1900 Paris Exposition. They then will create a similar exhibit using their classroom as the example. Target grade levels: High School Levels For use with: PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, Program Two: Fighting Back (1896-1917) Jim Crow Image Gallery: Paris Exposition Universelle Collection Women and Jim Crow Using the Women and Jim Crow map as a starting point for research, students learn about the social climate in which these women lived, and how it affected their outlooks on life. Target grade levels: High School Levels For use with: Jim Crow and Women Map Oral History Learning About History Through First Account Narratives: Students interview and document the stories of people who lived through and remember the Jim Crow and Civil Rights eras. Target grade levels: Middle and High School Levels For use with: Jimcrowhistory.org Narratives PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow An Interactive Theater Presentation Using the Essay "From Terror to Triumph: Historical Overview" Students extract the information in the Historical Overview to create a play for peers. Ideal for African-American History Month, this lesson makes the information in the overview accessible to middle and high school students alike. Target grade levels: Middle and High School Levels For use with: "From Terror to Triumph: Historical Overview" Jimcrowhistory.org Sources PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow Creating a Jim Crow Political Cartoon Classroom Museum Students first examine, then create their own Jim Crow related cartoons to help them understand the power of political satire in shaping popular opinion. Target grade levels: Middle School or High School Levels For use with: PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow. The Unconquerable Doing the Impossible: Jackie Robinson's 1946 Spring Training in Jim Crow Florida This lesson, complete with an overview essay of baseball great Jackie Robinson's Jim Crow experience as a rookie on the Dodger Farm team in Florida, focuses on his struggles and his victories, as well as his relationship with Dodger owner-manager Branch Rickey. Target grade levels: Middle and High School Levels For use with: PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow Image Gallery Lesson Introduce your students to Jim Crow through the use of the unique images in the Jim Crow image gallery. An introductory essay on "Using Images for Historical Purposes" is included. Target grade levels: Middle School or High School Levels For use with: The Jim Crow Image Gallery Historical Overview Gallery Walk Lesson Using the Historical Overview themed essay, students learn about the Jim Crow era. The culminating project is a synthesis of the information learned into a visual presentation. Target grade levels: Middle School or High School Levels For use with: From Terror to Triumph: Historical Overview essay and PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow Issues of Post Civil War America Talk Show Students research, then become the African-American leaders of post-Civil War America. In a talk show format, students will address the different reactions and recommendations of these leaders living under Jim Crow. Target grade levels: 8-12 For use with: PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, Program One: Promises Betrayed (1865-1896) Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit: Using Music to Send a Message Students examine the lyrics in this song about the lynchings of African Americans, using it as a springboard to research the Jim Crow period. Students also explore how this and other politically charged songs impact public understanding of social issues. Target grade levels: 8-12 For use with: PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, Program Two: Fighting Back (1896-1917) Reconstruction to Plessy v. Ferguson Newscast Students use the first film in the Jim Crow series, Promises Betrayed (1865-1896) as a springboard for a research assignment into the period. In this collaborative unit, the culminating activity is a newscast in which the students report on what they learned about the freedoms and injustices of the beginning of the Jim Crow era. Target grade levels: Advanced Middle School or High School Levels For use with: PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, Program One: Promises Betrayed (1865-1896) Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education: Looking At Primary Source Documents Students examine the majority and minority opinions of both Supreme Court decisions. Using their research on Washington and Du Bois, students will also correlate the philosophies with of those men with the decisions. Target grade levels: 9-12 For use with: PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, Program One: Promises Betrayed (1865-1896) Presidential Advisory Committee to Andrew Johnson Students take on roles and serve as advisors to President Johnson during the tumultuous times following the Civil War. This lesson is a pre-viewing activity for The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow. Target grade levels: 9-12 For use with: PBS series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, Program One: Promises Betrayed (1865-1896) History Resources Jim Crow Teacher Resources The teacher resources section contains a wide range of materials to help you teach Jim Crow. You'll find a growing Image Gallery, our Gateway to some of the best Jim Crow source material on the internet, first account narratives of people who lived through the Jim Crow years, the Jim Crow encyclopedia, and the newly added National Park Services Gateway.