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 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 granted citizens to us, the African Americans who were once slaves for them southerners. Now, whoever was born in this country, is a citizen of this country, including me! Thats right, I'm a citizen. They passed this in 1966 for congress but it came to the states two years later. They say we get the same things as any other white man, due process of law, which means the government got to respect us and be equal when it comes to giving us stuff like property or liberty. They also say we have equal protection of the law, so no states can make it unfair for blacks or whites and they have to treat us all with respect to the law. Nobody gets no acceptions!

**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] You see, I was sitting in what they call a white car of the train and I am black, but I am paler than others. So I got in all sorts of trouble for not being in my correctly colored car like in the Seperate Car Act I was told to do. So when I sat in the white section, I was arrested and I went to a trial that made it all the way to the Supreme Court. They said that I was wrong and that the amendment did not mean that things like cars couldn't be segragated, but it just had to be equal. So after that, things were still seperated and I have to go in a certain type of car even though the Constitution said I was equal with the whites.

**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 a character who was often played on stage as a very exaggerated and sterotypical black man. The whites used this nickname to call us, and even though it was not that offensive, why couldn't they just call me a better name? Not something so mean like Jim Crow. No, Jim Crow did not write the terrible laws! That was just a nickname and we called them that because the nickname was offensive and so were these laws given out!

One law said that none of us could play games with whites, no checkers or dice or nothing. Now if I wanted to play a game, I had to make sure to find someone of my color to play with, I would not dare to ask a white. I once also fell in love with a boy, one problem, if I am more than 1/8 black, I can't marry a white, or more like he can not marry me. Also, I couldn't eat with whites, I had to find a new place to eat and I couldn't even sit near whites on a bus or a train, because we were not equal. We were also said to be like dogs, signs that say "no dogs", yeah they said "no negros" too. Nobody really cared for us, and they did not care to see us or share a drinking fountain with us, or wait in the same waiting area with us. In some states, even if at a stop light where there was not a right of way, the whites could go first just because they were white, sounds fair, huh?
 * 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]


 * 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]

In this time, there was protests everywhere, about blacks wanting more rights and how it wasen't fair. So they usually needed to send in some cops to break it up and yell at the blacks. We also saw signs everywhere. Signs telling us where to go, away from whites and were not to go just cause we wern't welcome. Most of the time we saw whites giving us looks, mean ones. And also we saw fellow friends, blacks getting hanged for doing just the wrong thing at the wrong place, not many things were pretty then.

In this case, nine little black boys were tried for the rape of two women on a train. The women claimed that even though they never had a connection with the boys on the train, they had the connection with the white boys, but they said that the nine black boys raped them. In the end, all nine were sentanced to death besides the youngest one. This was bad, this was sad and bad because all the people knew the little boys never rapped those ladies, but just cause they were black, they were killed for it. This made me even more scared about what could happen to me if I was just walking down the street at the wrong moment and suddenly, I would be charged for a felony because I was black.
 * What happened in the Scottsboro Case? How did it make you feel as an African American in the South?** [|Scottsboro LINK]

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

It wont work, it says that safari cant find a plug-in or something and I have no idea what it is talking about.... Is there any other way I could listen to it? sorry...