JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES)
Following the Civil War (1861 – 1865) and the
passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865
abolishing slavery, the Constitutional question
remained:
“Are African Americans citizens
of the state within which they
reside, and the United States?”
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES)
This question was answered
with a forceful “YES”
with the passage of the
14th Amendment,
ratified July 28, 1868, and
sometimes referred to today as
the “Magnificent 14th”.
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES) - THE “MAGNIFICENT 14TH”
Section 1:
All persons born or naturalized in the United
States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,
are citizens of the United States and of the
State wherein they reside. No State shall make
or enforce any law which shall abridge the
privileges or immunities of citizens of the
United States; nor shall any State deprive any
person of life, liberty, or property, without due
process of law; nor deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES) - THE “MAGNIFICENT
14TH
Section 2:
Representatives shall be apportioned among the
several States according to their respective numbers
counting the whole number of persons in each State,
excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to
vote at any election for the choice of electors for
President and Vice President of the United States,
Representatives in Congress, the Executive and
Judicial officers of a State or the members of the
Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male
inhabitants of such State being twenty-one years of
age and citizens of the United States, or in any way
abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or
other crime, the basis of representation therein
shall be reduced in the proportion which the number
of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number
of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES) - THE “MAGNIFICENT 14TH”
Section 3:
No person shall be a Senator or Representative
in Congress, or Elector of President and Vice
President, or hold any office, civil or military,
under the United States, or under any State,
who, having previously taken an oath, as a
member of Congress, or as an officer of the
United States, or as a member of any State
legislature, or as an executive or judicial
officer of any State, to support the Constitution
of the United States, shall have engaged in
insurrection or rebellion against the same, or
given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.
But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of
each house, remove such disability.
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES) - THE “MAGNIFICENT 14TH”
Section 4:
The validity of the public debt of the United
States, authorizing by law, including debts
incurred for payment of pensions and bounties
for services in suppressing insurrection or
rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither
the United States nor any State shall assume
or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid
of insurrection or rebellion against the United
States, or any claim for the loss or
emancipation of any slave; but all such debts,
obligations and claims shall he held illegal and
void.
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES) - THE “MAGNIFICENT 14TH”
Section 5:
The Congress shall have power to
enforce, by appropriate legislation,
the provisions of this article.
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES) - THE “MAGNIFICENT 14TH”
It is Section 1
of the
th
14 Amendment
that is
our focus
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES) - THE “MAGNIFICENT 14TH”
All persons born or naturalized in the
United States, and subject to the
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the
United States and of the State wherein
they reside. No State shall make or
enforce any law which shall abridge
the privileges or immunities of
citizens of the United States; nor
shall any State deprive any person of
life, liberty, or property, without due
process of law; nor deny to any
person within its jurisdiction the
equal protection of the laws.
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES)
However, from the 1870’s into
the 1960’s, a majority of
American states enforced
segregation through the “Black
Codes”, but often better known
as “Jim Crow” laws (named for
a black-face character in
minstrel shows).
IMAGES OF JIM CROW - MINSTREL SHOWS
The term Jim Crow is believed
to have originated around 1830
when a white minstrel show
performer, Thomas "Daddy"
Rice, blackened his face and
danced a ridiculous jig while
singing the lyrics to the song,
"Jump Jim Crow."
IMAGES OF JIM CROW
"JUMP JIM CROW"
Chorus
Weel about and turn about and do jis so,
Eb'ry time I weel about and jump Jim Crow.
(written and performed by whites, the
words are intended to show black
pronunciation.)
IMAGES OF JIM CROW - MINSTREL
SHOWS
IMAGES OF JIM CROW - MINSTREL SHOWS
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES)
From Delaware to California, from North
Dakota to Texas, many states (and cities,
too) imposed legal punishments on
people for consorting with members of
another race. The most common types of
laws forbade intermarriage, while others
ordered business owners and public
institutions to keep their black and white
clientele separated.
IMAGES OF JIM CROW
IMAGES OF JIM CROW
IMAGES OF JIM CROW
IMAGES OF JIM CROW
IMAGES OF JIM CROW
IMAGES OF JIM CROW
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IMAGES OF JIM CROW – PLESSEY
V. FERGUSON
Mr. Justice Brown delivered the opinion of the Court....
The object of the [Fourteenth] amendment was
undoubtedly to enforce the absolute equality of the
two races before the law, but in the nature of things it
could not have been intended to abolish
distinctions based on color, or to enforce
social, as distinguished from political
equality, or a commingling of the two races
upon terms unsatisfactory to either. Laws
permitting, and even requiring, that
separation in places where they are liable to
be brought into contact do not necessarily
imply the inferiority of either race to the
other, and have been generally, if not
universally, recognized as within the
competency of the state legislatures in the
exercise of their police power.
IMAGES OF JIM CROW – PLESSEY V. FERGUSON
Legislation is powerless to eradicate
racial instincts or to abolish distinctions
based upon physical differences, and the
attempt to do so can only result in
accentuating the difficulties of the
present situation. If the civil and
political rights of both races be equal,
one cannot be inferior to the other
civilly or politically. If one race be
inferior to the other socially, the
Constitution of the United States cannot
put them upon the same plain....
The judgment of the court below is, therefore, Affirmed.
IMAGES OF JIM CROW
IMAGES OF JIM CROW
ETIQUETTE NORMS UNDER JIM CROW
A Black male could not offer his hand to a
White male – and definitely not to a female
 Blacks and Whites could not eat together
 A Black male could not light a cigarette of a
White female
 No PDAs
 Blacks introduced to Whites but not reverse

Whites did not use courtesy titles of respect
when referring to Blacks
 A Black person who rode in a car driven by a
white person – rode in the back
 White motorists had right of way

FROM: JIM CROW GUIDE

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
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
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Never assert or intimate that a White person
is lying
Never impute dishonorable intentions to a
White person
Never suggest that a White person is from
an inferior class
Never lay claim to, or demonstrate, superior
knowledge
Never curse or laugh at a White person
Never comment on the appearance of a
White female
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES) TEXAS
Education
1866: All taxes paid by blacks to go to
maintaining African schools. Duty of the
legislature to encourage colored schools.
1925: Required racially segregated schools.
1958: No child can be compelled to attend schools
that are racially mixed. No desegregation unless
approved by election. Governor may close
schools where troops used on federal authority.
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES) OKLAHOMA
Education
1897: A separate district will be established
for colored children wherever there are at
least eight black children. Unlawful for
any white child to attend a school for black
children (or vice versa).
1921: Misdemeanor for a teacher to teach
white and colored children in the same
school. Penalty: Cancellation of teaching
certificate without renewal for one year.
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES) –
MISSOURI
Education
1865: Provides education for all children as long as white
children are sent to separate schools from black
children.
1887: A school for Negro children to be established in
districts where there are more than fifteen children of
required age. In districts with less than fifteen
children, they may attend school in another district
with a separate school for Negro children.
1889: Unlawful for any black child to attend any white
public school, or for any white child to attend a school
for black children.
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES) –
MISSOURI
Education
1870: Prohibited white and colored
children from being taught in the
same school.
1882: White and colored children shall
be taught in separate schools. “The
determination as to who is a colored
person lies with the board of
education.”
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES) –
MARYLAND
Education
1870: Taxes paid by colored people shall be
set aside for maintaining schools for
colored children.
1872: Schools to be established for colored
children. No colored school shall be
established in a district unless the colored
population warrants.
1924: Required racially segregated schools.
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES) – VIRGINIA
Education
1870: Prohibited white and colored children
from being taught in the same school.
1882: White and colored children shall be
taught in separate schools. “The
determination as to who is a colored
person lies with the board of education.”
1958: Upon enrollment of members of both
races, schools must close; control
transferred to governor.
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES)
North vs. South
or
de jure vs. de facto
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES)
DE JURE VS. DE FACTO
 In
the South, people tended to live
together in their communities. To
keep the races separated in their
interactions within that community,
the South wrote laws – de jure – that
segregated the races.
de
jure segregation – by law
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES)
DE JURE VS. DE FACTO
 In
the North, people tended to live,
work, and interact in their “own”
communities. The races were
separated from much interaction with
each by these “natural” boundaries –
de facto – making it unnecessary to
separate the races by law – de jure.
de
facto segregation – in fact
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES)
DE JURE VS. DE FACTO
Why
did northern states tend to
feel “superior” when the
Supreme Court began to demand
an end to segregation by law –
de jure segregation?
Which type of segregation is
harder to write laws against?
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES)
DE JURE VS. DE FACTO
What ended
de jure segregation
of public education?
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES)
DE JURE VS. DE FACTO

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
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka 1954
Chief Justice Earl Warren
A landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, it
overturned earlier rulings going back to Plessey v.
Ferguson in 1896, by declaring that state laws which
established separate public schools for black and white
students denied black children equal educational
opportunities.
The Court's unanimous (9-0) decision stated
that "separate educational facilities are
inherently unequal." As a result, de jure
segregation was ruled a violation of the Equal
Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES) - TEXAS
Miscegenation
1915:The penalty for intermarriage is
imprisonment in the penitentiary from
two to five years.
1925: Miscegenation declared a felony.
Nullified interracial marriages if parties
went to another jurisdiction where such
marriages were legal.
1951: Unlawful for person of Caucasian
blood to marry person of African blood.
Penalty: Two to five years imprisonment.
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES) - OKLAHOMA
Miscegenation
1908: Unlawful for a person of African
descent to marry any person not of African
descent. Penalty: Felony punishable by a
fine of up to $500 and imprisonment from
one to five years in the penitentiary.
1921: Prohibited marriage between Indians
[Native Americans] and Negroes.
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES) - MISSOURI
Miscegenation
1866: Prohibited all marriages between whites
and Negroes.
1879: Persons with one-eighth or more Negro
blood were prohibited from marrying white
persons. “The jury could determine the amount
of Negro blood from appearance.”
1909: Marriages between white persons and
Negroes, or white persons and Asians
prohibited.
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES) - VIRGINIA
Miscegenation
1873: White persons who married Negroes
would be jailed for at least one year, and
fined a minimum of $100. Those who
performed such ceremonies faced fines of
$200, of which one-half would go to the
informer.
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES) - VIRGINIA
Miscegenation
1930: Originally entitled “A bill to preserve the
integrity of the white race,” the law tightened
miscegenation provisions. The definition of
“whiteness” was narrowed to state “no trace
whatever” of non-white blood allowed. Nullified
interracial marriage if parties went to another
jurisdiction where such marriages were legal.
Prohibited marriage between whites and Asians
and other non-white non-Negroes. Penalty:
Felony for both parties if found guilty.
Punishable by confinement in the penitentiary
for between one and five years.
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES) - VIRGINIA
Loving v. Virginia: In 1958, a
couple was convicted under Virginia's
miscegenation law. They were "exiled"
from Virginia for 25 years, although
they could have received a 5 year
prison term.
The judge in his ruling stated:
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES)
LOVING V. VIRGINIA
“Almighty God
created the races
white, black, yellow, Malay and red,
and he placed them on separate
continents. And but for the
interference with his arrangement
there would be no cause for such
marriages. The fact that he separated
the races shows that he did not intend
the races to mix.”
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES) –
LOVING V. VIRGINIA
The couple appealed to the U.S.
Supreme Court, which overturned the
Virginia miscegenation law and those
of 15 other states in 1967.
Chief Justice Earl Warren said that
Virginia's "white supremacy"
marriage law and like laws violated
the 14th Amendment.
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES) - TEXAS
Voting Rights
1876: Required electors to pay poll
tax.
1922: “. . . in no event shall a Negro be
eligible to participate in a
Democratic party primary election
held in the State of Texas...”
Overturned in 1927 by U.S. Supreme
Court in Nixon v. Herndon.
1951: Required electors to pay poll tax.
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES) - OKLAHOMA
Voting Rights
1907: Indigent persons housed in a poorhouse at
public expense excluded from voting. Exception
made for Federal, Confederate, and Spanish
American veterans.
1907: Required electors to read and write any
section of the state Constitution. Exempted
those who were enfranchised on January 1,
1866, and lineal descendants of such persons.
Declared unconstitutional in 1915; however,
provision for literacy was upheld.
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES) - VIRGINIA
Voting Rights
1950: Required electors to pay
poll tax.
What is a poll tax?
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES)
A poll tax was a tax that had to be paid by an individual
in order exercise their right to vote.
It emerged in some US states, many Southern, after the
right to vote was extended to all African American
males by the 15th Amendment.
These laws often included a grandfather clause that
allowed any adult male whose father or grandfather
had voted in a specific year prior to the abolition of
slavery to vote without paying the tax.
These laws achieved the desired effect of
disenfranchising African and Native Americans, as
well as poor whites who immigrated after the year
specified.
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES)
What ended the practice
of using poll taxes?
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES)
24th Amendment to the Constitution (1964)
The right of citizens of the United States
to vote in any primary or other election
for President or Vice President, for
electors for President or Vice President,
or for Senator or Representative in
Congress, shall not be denied or abridged
by the United States or any State by
reason of failure to pay any poll tax or
other tax.
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES) - TEXAS
Public accommodations
1889: Railroad companies required to maintain separate
coaches for white and colored passengers, equal in
comfort. Penalty: Passengers refusing to sit where
assigned were guilty of a misdemeanor, and could be
fined between $5-$20.
1907: Required all streetcars to comply with the separate
coach law passed in 1889.
1909: Depot buildings required to provide separate
waiting areas for the use of white and Negro
passengers.
1914: Negro porters shall not sleep in sleeping car berths
nor use bedding intended for white passengers.
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES) - TEXAS
Public accommodations
1919: Ordered that Negroes were to use
separate branches of county free
libraries.
1925: Separate branches for Negroes to be
administered by a Negro custodian in all
county libraries.
1943: Ordered separate seating on all
buses.
1950: Separate facilities required for white
and black citizens in state parks
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES) - OKLAHOMA
Public accommodations
1908: All railroad and streetcar companies
to provide separate coaches for white and
black passengers, equal in all points of
comfort and convenience.” Penalty:
Railway companies that violate the law
fined $100 to $1,000. Passengers who fail
to comply can be charged with a
misdemeanor punishable by a fine from
$5 to $25. Conductors could be fined $50
to $500 for failing to enforce the law.
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES) - OKLAHOMA
Public accommodations
1915: Required telephone companies to
maintain separate booths for white
and colored patrons.
1921: Required maintenance of
separate accommodations for colored
persons in public libraries in cities
with a Negro population of 1,000 or
more.
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES) – VIRGINIA
Public accommodations
1900: Railroads required to offer separate cars for
white and colored passengers. Conductors given
the authority to judge the race of each
passenger if a passenger refuses to disclose his
race.
1900: Call for the separation of white and colored
passengers on steamboats while sitting, eating
and sleeping.
1901: Alexandria streetcars required to have
separate compartments for white and black
passengers.
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES) – VIRGINIA
1912: An act, noting that “the preservation of the
public morals, public health and public order,
in the cities and towns of this commonwealth
is endangered by the residence of white and
colored people in close proximity to one
another,” authorized cities that adopted the
provision to be divided into districts known as
“Segregation districts.” City councils ordered to
prepare a map showing the boundaries of all such
districts, detailing the number of white persons and
colored persons residing within such segregation
districts. One year from the passage of the ordinances
adopting the provision of this act, unlawful for any
colored person, not then residing in a district so
defined and designated as a white district, to move
into and occupy as a residence any building or portion
thereof in such white district. Also unlawful for a white
person to move into a colored district.
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES) – VIRGINIA
Public accommodations
1930: Required segregation in every theater,
movie theater, opera house or other place
of public entertainment which accepts
both white and colored audiences.
1960: “. . . no athletic team of any school
shall engage in any athletic contest of any
nature within the state of Virginia with
another team on which persons of any
other race are members.”
VIOLENCE - LYNCHING


Illegal seizure and
execution of a
suspected
troublemaker or
criminal
Often the victims
were just someone
who was in the
wrong place at the
wrong time
Lynchings
•Public and
sadistic murders
•1882-1968 –
4,730
•3,440 Black men
and women
•Intimidation –
keep freedmen
“in their place”
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES)
What is generally
considered to have caused
the “death”
of Jim
Crow?
JIM CROW LAWS (BLACK CODES)-CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF
1964
 The



Civil Rights Act of 1964
Landmark legislation that outlawed segregation in US
public schools and public places.
It also started the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission, a federal agency tasked with ending
employment discrimination in the United States. It
can bring suit on behalf of alleged victims of
discrimination against private employers.
Once the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was
implemented, its effects were far reaching and had
tremendous long-term impacts on the whole country.
It prohibited discrimination in public facilities, in
government, and in employment, invalidating the Jim
Crow laws in the South. It became illegal to compel
segregation of the races in schools, housing, or hiring.
AFRICAN AMERICAN RESPONSE
Bishop Henry M. Turner – African Methodist
Episcopal Church – Black pride – emigrate
to Africa
 WEB DuBois – Niagara Falls meeting – 1905
– denounced all political, civil, and economic
discrimination – vowed never to accept
inferiority – formed a nucleus group who
joined with concerned whites for a national
conference on the “Negro question”

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE
ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE
 Formed
in 1909 by an interracial group
 By 1914 – there were 50 branches
 Worked through the courts
 1st victory: Supreme Court declared
grandfather clauses unconstitutional