Life+in+Jim+Crow+America

= Life in Jim Crow America =
 * 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 ISN. **** 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. **

**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]

The 14th Amendment provided citizenship to people who were once enslaved. "Due process" is denying any person within their jurisdiction equal protection of the laws. "Equal protection of the laws" is the right of all people to have the same access to the law and courts, and to be treated equally by the law and courts.

**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]

In the Plessy V. Ferguson case, Homer Plessy was put in jail because he sat in the "White" car of the East Louisiana Railroad. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, where his lawyer argued the Separate Car Act violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. The decision was that "separate" facilities for blacks and whites were constitutional as long as they were "equal".

**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 was an exaggerated, highly stereotypical Black character that was played by Thomas Dartmouth "Daddy" Rice. He was one of the first performers to wear blackface makeup when he was White. His Jim Crow character became very famous. The term Jim Crow became a racial slur for Blacks. The phrase then started to be known to describe laws and customs which oppressed Blacks.


 * What are some specific examples of the Jim Crow laws from southern states? How did the laws affect you?** [|Jim Crow Laws LINK 1] / [|Jim Crow Laws LINK 2] / [|Jim Crow Laws LINK 3]

Some of the Jim Crow laws from southern states were that "It shall be unlawful for a negro and a white person to play together or in company with each other in any game of cards or dice, dominoes or checkers", "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", "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", and "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." The laws affected me because I had some White friends that I wasn't allowed to play with again. I also couldn't shake hands with any White man because it implied being socially equal.


 * What did Jim Crow America look like in the 1900s? What are some images that can help explain the realities of the time?** __Jim Crow Images LINK 1__ /[|Jim Crow Images LINK 2]

Jim Crow America was very segregated with "Colored" water fountains and White water fountains, when we went to movies, the audiences were segregated, and schools were also segregated. Some images that can help explain the realities of the time are pictures of a Black man not being able to drink from the same water fountain as the one that the White man is drinking from, only white kids at one school and only black kids at another school, and a picture that says Colored City Hall ,with Black people in front of it.


 * What happened in the Scottsboro Case? How did it make you feel as an African American in the South?** [|Scottsboro LINK]

In the Scottsboro Case, nine Black youths were falsely charged for raping two white women in Alabama. All nine of the boys were sentenced to DEATH. The US Supreme Court decided that the decision for them to be put to death was not right, so some of the boys were freed. At first I was furious that they were to be sentenced to death, but then it made me happy when the US Supreme Court decided that they didn't do a crime.

**What do some of your friends and family say about life in Jim Crow America? (listen to one or two)** [|Audio History LINK 1]

Some of my friends as family saw that life in Jim Crow America is that when T.R. Davidson was in fifth grade, he had already had a job. R.C. Hickman says, "We weren't just visible in the white papers. In fact, blacks didn't get in the paper, period".