Jim Crow Is Watching

This essay was published in Us and Them: A History of Intolerance in America in 2006.
Teaching Tolerance Staff

AT THE END OF THE CIVIL WAR, THE 13TH CONSTITUTIONAL Amendment outlawed

slavery. In the next few years, the 14th and 15th Amendments guaranteed African Americans the full
rights of citizenship. The decade of Reconstruction brought black people into public life and public
office across the South. Still, even a bloody defeat on the battlefield and the long arm of Congress
couldn’t loosen the grip of white power for very long.

            By 1877, corrupt politicians and racist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan had begun to
intimidate black people into surrendering their hard-won equality. Lynch mobs carried out a bloody
campaign of vigilante justice [...]. Whites regained their former domination of local and state
governments. They began passing laws that openly favored Whites and redefined black people as
second-class citizens. The segregation laws acquired the name “Jim Crow” from a popular blackface
minstrel song.

            A rigid barrier between the races was enforced by separate schools, restrooms, waiting rooms,
drinking fountains and seating areas in movie theaters and on trains and buses. Commercial facilities
such as restaurants and Laundromats could refuse service to Blacks altogether. In addition, poll
taxes and other measures limited black participation in elections. By denying African Americans
educational, economic and political opportunities, these laws instituted a social system that was
closer to slavery than to true freedom.

            The Jim Crow system survived a serious legal challenge in 1896. In the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, the
U.S. Supreme Court approved the use of separate facilities as long as they were equal. In practice, of course, the
facilities were rarely equal. It would take another 60 years, however, for the courts to declare separate facilities
inherently unequal. Antilynching campaigns and other national movements in the early 1900s focused national
attention on injustices in the South. But not until the Civil Rights Movement of the late 1950s was the Jim Crow
system dismantled and replaced with fair and impartial laws.

     The following are some examples of Jim Crow laws and provisions:

That if any Negro, mulatto, or other person of color shall intrude himself into … any railroad car or
other public vehicle set apart for the exclusive accommodation of white people, he shall be deemed guilty of a
misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be sentenced to stand in pillory for one hour, or be whipped, not
exceeding thirty-nine stripes, or both, at the discretion of the jury. (Florida, 1865)

No property in a white section should ever be sold, rented, advertised, or offered to colored people.
(Code of Ethics, Real Estate Board of Washington, D.C., 1948)

It shall be unlawful for any person, firm, or corporation engaged in the business of cotton textile manufacturing in
this state to allow or permit operatives, help and labor of the different races to labor and work together within the same
room, or to use the same doors of entrance and exit at the same time, or to use the same stair-way and windows at the same
time, or to use at any time the same lavatories, toilets, drinking-water buckets, pails, cups, dippers, or glasses. (South
Carolina, 1950s)

It shall be unlawful for white and colored persons to play together in any game of cards, dice,
dominoes, checkers, pool, billiards, softball, basketball, football, golf, track, and at swimming pools
or in any athletic contest. (Montgomery, Ala., 1958)
 Reread the following sentence: “Still, even a
bloody defeat on the battlefield and the long
arm of Congress couldn’t loosen the grip of
white power for very long.” What bloody defeat
is the author referencing? Put this sentence into
your own words.
Describe the Jim Crow system of racial caste
and how it reinvented itself after
Reconstruction.
How did Jim Crow function as a mechanism for
social control?
John Lewis - What was it like growing up in Alabama under Jim
Crow?
Directions: Watch the video below and answer the comprehension question.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p8tTiJ3EoY
Before watching the video, do a quick Google
Search of John Lewis. What is he known for, and
why might he be an authority on the realities of
Jim Crow and the Civil Rights Movement?
John Lewis describes asking his parents and
grandparents about why segregation existed.
What was their response, and how does their
response show the effect of living under Jim Crow
for decades?
How does John Lewis’ account of living under Jim
Crow demonstrate the fundamental problem with
segregation’s premise of “separate but equal”?
The bloody defeat was the civil war and is
referring to the reconstruction but even with
social reforms it wasn’t enough to abolish
racism. The amendments forced on the
southern states were also a demonstration of
the long arms of congress.
The Jim Crow system made black people second
class and the courts did little to no punishments
for black violence.
Jim Crow served as a mechanism to prevent
people from being able to rise in the social
ladder. Jim Crow laws prevented black people
from experiencing equality which led to a
disparity to form.
John Lewis was the chairman of the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He also was
an American politician and civil rights activist who
served in the United States House of
Representatives for Georgia's 5th congressional
district.
They said it was the way it is, and to not question
it. This shows how the people didn’t question it
since it was ingrained in them that it was the way
it was supposed to be.
This premise of separate but equal wasn’t upheld
since the rule of law wasn’t applied to everyone.
People were treated differently even though they
were supposed to be equal. Segregation of
separate but equal was never achieved due to the
violence.