Jim+Crow+Life




 * To set the stage for the civil rights movement, you must first understand the environment of segregation in the United States in the first half of the 20th century. What was life like in Jim Crow America? Cut and paste this information into a new page in your Unit 8 Online Notebook. You (and your partner, if you have one) are African Americans who have lived through the era of Jim Crow in America. Using the links provided in this activity, respond to the “oral history questions” in first person . You can do this in Word by copying this document onto a new document , completing it using the resources below, and cutting and pasting it into a new page on your notebook. Make sure your responses are in first person! **

The Fourteenth Amendment was one of three amendments to the Constitution adopted after the Civil War to guarantee black rights. The Fourteenth granted citizenship to people once enslaved. It meant that they would get a fair trial and that they would have equal protection as white folk.
 * 1) Right after the Civil War, the 14th Amendment was ratified. What did the 14th Amendment provide for African Americans? What does “due process” and “equal protection of the laws” mean?  [|14th LINK] **

On June 7, 1892, 30-year-old Homer Plessy was jailed for sitting in the "White" car of the East Louisiana Railroad. The plessy decision set the precedent that separate facilities for blacks and whites were constitutional as long as they were equal.
 * 2) Unfortunately, your equal rights were challenged by the Supreme Court in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson. What do you remember about the facts, decision, and impact of this case?  [|Plessy LINK] **

By 1838, the term "Jim Crow" was being used as a collective racial epithet for Blacks. jim crow was a character played by Thomas Dartmouth Rice, he was the first actor ever to wear black paint on his skin. Rice, and his imitators, by their stereotypical depictions of Blacks, helped to popularize the belief that Blacks were lazy, stupid, inherently less human, and unworthy of integration.
 * 3) The laws developed in the South became known as Jim Crow laws. Who was this Jim Crow fellow? Did he write the laws? [|Jim Crow LINK] **

= **[|Jim Crow Laws LINK 1]  / <span style="background-color: initial; color: #001ee6; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">[|Jim Crow Laws LINK 2] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">/ <span style="background-color: initial; color: #001ee6; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">[|Jim Crow Laws LINK 3] / ****[|Jim Crow Laws Link 4]** = <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1d1c14; display: block; font-family: georgia,serif; text-align: left;">“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.” <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1d1c14; display: block; font-family: georgia,serif; text-align: left;">—Birmingham, Alabama, 1930“Marriages are void when one party is a white person and the other is possessed of one-eighth or more negro, Japanese, or Chinese blood.” <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1d1c14; display: block; font-family: georgia,serif; text-align: left;">—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.” <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1d1c14; display: block; font-family: georgia,serif; text-align: left;">**—Missouri, 1929** <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1d1c14; display: block; font-family: georgia,serif; text-align: left;">“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.” <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1d1c14; display: block; font-family: georgia,serif; text-align: left;">—Tennessee, 1891 <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1d1c14; display: block; font-family: georgia,serif; text-align: left;">All of these laws were terrible to us black folk, but the worst was probably segregation of schools, because the white schools were much better than the schools that we had.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">4) What are some specific examples of the Jim Crow laws from southern states? How did the laws affect you? Which on edo you feel is the worst? **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">5) What did Jim Crow America look like in the 1900s? What are some images that can help explain the realities of the time? <span style="color: #6e1a7e; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">[|Jim Crow Images LINK 1] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">/ <span style="background-color: initial; color: #001ee6; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">[|Jim Crow Images LINK 2] **

During the 1930s, much of the world's attention was riveted on the "Scottsboro Boys," nine black youths falsely charged with raping two white women in Alabama. This case, more than any other event in the South during the 1930s, revealed the barbarous treatment of blacks. This makes me feel angry that they are able to get away with something like this becauseI'm don't think it is true.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">6) What happened in the Scottsboro Case? How did it make you feel as an African American in the South? <span style="background-color: initial; color: #001ee6; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"> [|Scottsboro LINK] **

I believe that people must learn about what we had to go through because if they had to deal with it i know they would not have been able to handle it.
 * 7) Why should anyone care about your lilfe during Jim Crow America? [|Why should I care? Link] **