Jim+Crow

**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 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 Fourteenth Amendment made us slaves into real people of the U.S. "Without due process of law" means "without a carryout of the law" or "without and order of the law." Equal protection of the laws means roughly that all people are treated equally with the same laws. **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] Well, I remember a black folk like us was in Louisiana and was taking a train trip. Just for the the halabit he sat in the white car and admitted he was black and was arrested. The case went to the Supreme Court, and that's where I remember it from. The court said it was okay, and bunches of places started seperating blacks from whites, and people started saying "seperate but equal" all the time. It made me sick. **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] I heard of a man named Daddy Rice who seen a black man walking down a street singing a song 'bout Jom Crow. Jim did not write the laws, but his name influenced them. **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] Many of the buildings that we would nomally go to were seperated into colored and white sections. This made me mad because the whites always got all the attention and we didn't. We weren't even allowed to go around white folk unless summoned upon and even then we were spit on. My children go to school only with colored children and do not receive quite the education, treatment, or equipment that white children do. **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] It was cruelty, abuse, meaness, rudeness, uncaring, and worst of all, lynching. Lynching is what you saw everywhere and you couldn;t help but bear to wacth the black terror that surrounded those white masks. It was horrifying enough to make you go to bed at night and fear being grabbed by the men in white and be taken away. **What happened in the Scottsboro Case? How did it make you feel as an African American in the South?**  [|Scottsboro LINK] Nine black boys got into a fight with some white boys on a train and threw 'em off. A couple of white girls said that they had been raped by the black boys, and all but one were sentanced to death. It was horrifyin'. I didn't know what to do. It made me feel like that everywhere I turned I could be accused of something I didn't do and no one would agree with my arguement. It was truely and utterly terrible. Words can't describe the terror. **What do some of your friends and family say about life in Jim Crow America? (listen to one or two)** [|Audio History LINK 1] All of them have been mistreated by it in some way. My unlce was beaten by whites, my mama was raped, my daddy was lynched, and my children all suffered segregation and horrible experiences at such a young age. It was mortifyin', I tell ya'.