Teaching with Primary Sources — MTSU
PRIMARY SOURCE SET: JIM CROW IN
AMERICA
Historical Background
Jim Crow, or segregation, laws of the late 19th and
early 20th centuries effectively divided the American South into black and white in almost every aspect of public life. The laws codified practices that
had developed over many decades during and after
slavery, and the laws made the custom of racial
separation much more rigid. Jim Crow laws extended to restaurants, hotels, theaters, bus stations,
parks, public restrooms and drinking fountains,
public schools, and the United States military.
The term Jim Crow grew out of nineteenthcentury minstrelsy and was first applied to segregated facilities in the pre-Civil War North. While
there is evidence of the passage of some scattered
Jim Crow laws in the South during Reconstruction,
segregation enforced by law did not immediately
replace slavery in the aftermath of emancipation.
During the 1870s and 1880s, however, states began to pass Jim Crow laws, with one of the first
passed by Tennessee in 1875. By 1896, the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that
“separate but equal” did not violate the 14th
Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Jim Crow placed a stigma on African Americans
and promoted the idea that they were second-class
citizens. At the same time, however, Jim Crow
encouraged black entrepreneurship and a strong
sense of community within black schools and
neighborhoods. In sum, though, the costs of Jim
Crow far outweighed any benefits. Civil Rights
leaders began their effort to dismantle segregation
by focusing on the inequality between black and
white schools in the South. The Civil Rights movement finally brought an end to segregation by law
with the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v.
Board of Education (1954) and passage of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964.
Negro drinking at "Colored" water cooler
in streetcar terminal, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma [1939 July]
SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHERS
Students today often have a difficult time understanding Jim Crow laws and their pervasiveness a
century ago. You can find a wide variety of
sources on the Library of Congress Web site to
illustrate the presence of segregated facilities,
schools, and businesses in American history. You
can use these sources to initiate class discussion
around this difficult topic.
Begin by having students analyze the sources
looking for evidence of Jim Crow. Discuss these
questions together: Are there more images that
designate “colored” places or “white” places? If a
facility did not have a sign, what do you think it
was assumed to be, and how would that have suggested a distinction between the races? How
might each example of Jim Crow have influenced
an individual, both black and white? Did
“colored” facilities always appear inferior to
“white” facilities? What benefits might some African Americans have found in separate facilities?
What would have been some of the practical
costs to communities of enforcing Jim Crow?
How do the signs make you feel today?
LINKS






African American History and Culture Links
Guide
January 2012 Newsletter: Civil Rights
Primary Source Set: Jim Crow in America
Today in History: Plessy v. Ferguson
Lesson Plan: Segregation: from Jim Crow to
Linda Brown
“With an Even Hand”: Brown v. Board at Fifty
Secondhand
clothing stores
and pawn shops
on Beale Street,
Memphis, Tennessee [1939
Oct.?]
Street scene near bus station in Durham, North
Carolina [1940 May]
At the bus station in Durham, North Carolina [1940 May]
A Greyhound bus trip from Louisville, Kentucky, to Memphis, Tennessee, and the terminals. Sign at bus station. Rome, Georgia
[1943 Sept.]
Railroad station, Manchester, Georgia
[1938 May]
Fish restaurant for colored in the quarter
cotton hoers are recruited. Memphis,
Tennessee [1937 June-July]
Cafe in warehouse district during tobacco auction
season. Durham, North Carolina [1939 Nov. ?]
Lunchroom near Belle Glade, Florida [1939
Jan.]
Drinking fountain on the county courthouse
lawn, Halifax, North Carolinav[1938 April]
Rex Theatre for colored people. Leland, Mississippi Delta [1930 November]
Beale Street, Memphis, Tennessee [1939 Oct? ]
Tourist cabins for Negroes. Highway sign.
South Carolina [1939 June]
Pleasant Green School--one-room colored
school near Marlinton, W. Va.--Pocahontas
Co... [1921 Oct. 6]
Pleads for Jim Crow School [from newspaper] [07/03/1915]
Colored School at Anthoston. Census
27, enrollment 12, attendance 7...
[1916 September 13]
Jump Jim Crow [between 1966 and 1968]
Click here for an audio recording.
Jim Crow Resort? [from newspaper]
[10/09/1915]
Desegregation landmark, Little Rock Central
High School, Little Rock, Arkansas [between
1980 and 2006]
Barbara Blount Hall, University of Tennessee,
Knoxville [c1903]
Integration at Ole Miss[issippi] Univ[ersity]
[1962 Oct. 1]
Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn., 1900 Theological Hall [1900?]
Click here for more images of Fisk University.
2. View from northeast - University
of Mississippi, Lyceum Building,
University Circle, Oxford, Lafayette
County, MS [1975]
CITATIONS: Jim Crow in America
Teachers: Providing these primary source replicas without source clues may enhance the inquiry experience for students. This list of
citations is supplied for reference purposes to you and your students. We have followed the Chicago Manual of Style format, one of
the formats recommended by the Library of Congress, for each entry below, minus the access date. The access date for each of these
entries is 1/10/12.
Lee, Russell, photographer. “Negro drinking at "Colored" water cooler in streetcar terminal, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.” Nitrate negative. July, 1939. From the Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1997026728/PP/.
Wolcott, Marion Post, photographer. “Secondhand clothing stores and pawn shops on Beale Street, Memphis, Tennessee.” Nitrate negative. October?, 1939. From the Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration/Office of War
Information Black-and-White Negatives. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1998013755/PP/.
Delano, Jack, photographer. “Street scene near bus station in Durham, North Carolina.” Nitrate negative. May,
1940. From the Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives.
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1998006259/PP/.
Delano, Jack, photographer. “At the bus station in Durham, North Carolina.” Nitrate negative. May, 1940. From
the Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives. http://
www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1998006256/PP/.
Bubley, Esther, photographer. “A Greyhound bus trip from Louisville, Kentucky, to Memphis, Tennessee, and the
terminals. Sign at bus station. Rome, Georgia.” Nitrate negative. September, 1943. From the Library of Congress,
Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/
owi2001035842/PP/.
Vachon, John, photographer. “Railroad station, Manchester, Georgia.” Nitrate negative. May, 1938. From the Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives. http://
www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1997003449/PP/.
Lange, Dorothea, photographer. “Fish restaurant for colored in the quarter cotton hoers are recruited. Memphis,
Tennessee.” Nitrate negative. June-July, 1937. From the Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration/Office of
War Information Black-and-White Negatives. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa2000001435/PP/.
Wolcott, Marion Post, photographer. “Cafe in warehouse district during tobacco auction season. Durham, North
Carolina.” Nitrate negative. November?, 1939. From the Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration/Office of
War Information Black-and-White Negatives. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1998014040/PP/.
Wolcott, Marion Post, photographer. “Lunchroom near Belle Glade, Florida.” Safety film negative. January, 1939.
From the Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives.
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa2000030908/PP/.
Vachon, John, photographer. “Drinking fountain on the county courthouse lawn, Halifax, North Carolina.” Nitrate
negative. April, 1938. From the Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-andWhite Negatives. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1997003218/PP/.
Wolcott, Marion Post, photographer. “Rex Theatre for colored people. Leland, Mississippi Delta.” Safety film negative. November, 1939. From the Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Blackand-White Negatives. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa2000032936/PP/.
Wolcott, Marion Post, photographer. “Beale Street, Memphis, Tennessee.” Nitrate negative. October?, 1939.
From the Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives.
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1998013763/PP/.
Wolcott, Marion Post, photographer. “Tourist cabins for Negroes. Highway sign. South Carolina.” Safety film negative. June, 1939. From the Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-andWhite Negatives. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa2000032347/PP/.
Hine, Lewis Wickes, photographer. “Colored School at Anthoston. Census 27, enrollment 12, attendance 7.
Teacher expects 19 to be enrolled after work is over. "Tobacco keeps them out and they are short of hands." Ages
of those present: 13 years = 1, 10 years = 2, 8 years = 2, 7 years = 1, 5 years = 1. Location: Henderson County,
Kentucky / Lewis W. Hine.” Photographic print. September 13, 1916. From the Library of Congress, National
Child Labor Committee Collection. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ncl2004004792/PP/.
Hine, Lewis Wickes, photographer. “Pleasant Green School--one-room colored school near Marlinton, W. Va.-Pocahontas Co. It is one of the best colored schools in the County, with a capable principal holding a first-grade
certificate. All the children are Agricultural Club workers. Location: Pocahontas County--Marlinton, West Virginia / Photo by L.W. Hine.” Photographic print. October 6, 1921. From the Library of Congress, National Child Labor Committee Collection. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ncl2004005115/PP/.
Rice, Thomas “Daddy”, composer. “Jump Jim Crow [transcription].” Transcribed by Alan Jabbour, from a performance by Henry Reed. Manuscript. Between 1966-1968. From the Library of Congress, Fiddle Tunes of the Old
Frontier: the Henry Reed Collection. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/h?ammem/afcreed:@field
(NUMBER+@band(afcreed+reedt039)).
.
Cleveland Advocate. “Pleads for Jim Crow School [from newspaper].” July 3, 1915. From Library of Congress/Ohio
Historical Society, The African-American Experience in Ohio, 1850-1920. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?
ammem/aaeo:@field(DOCID+@lit(o5715)).
Cleveland Advocate. “Jim Crow Resort? [from newspaper].” October 9, 1915. From Library of Congress/Ohio Historical Society, The African-American Experience in Ohio, 1850-1920. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?
ammem/aaeo:@field(DOCID+@lit(o5884)).
Highsmith, Carol, photographer. “Desegregation landmark, Little Rock Central High School, Little Rock, Arkansas.” Photographic Print. Between 1980 and 2006. From the Library of Congress, Highsmith (Carol M.) Archive.
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2011631075/.
“Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn., 1900—Theological Hall”. Photographic print. [1900?]. From the Library of
Congress, African American Photographs Assembled for 1900 Paris Exposition. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/
item/2001705785/.
“Barbara Blount Hall, University of Tennessee, Knoxville”. Glass negative. C1903. From the Library of Congress,
Detroit Publishing Company Photography Collection. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/det1994009164/PP/.
Boucher, Jack, photographer. “2. View from northeast - University of Mississippi, Lyceum Building, University
Circle, Oxford, Lafayette County, MS”. Photograph. 1975. From the Library of Congress, Historic American Building Survey Collection. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ms0255.photos.093399p/.
Trikosko, Marion, photographer. “Integration at Ole Miss[issippi] Univ[ervsity]”. Film negative. October 1 1962.
From the Library of Congress, Miscellaneous Items in High Demand. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/
item/2003688159/.