The World of Jim Crow chapter 9 section

The World of Jim Crow -- chapter 9, section 3 --

The Roots of Jim Crow • Reconstruction – Union troops enforce rights of former slaves in South – Blacks vote blacks into office • 1877 = End of Reconstruction – No more Union troops to enforce rights – Freedoms begin to fade

Voting Restrictions • Concern = too much political power for blacks if they vote • 1890 s: voting restrictions emerge – Property requirement – Poll tax – Literacy tests – Grandfather clauses • Limit black voting w/out specifying

De Facto Segregation • Segregation that simply results from tradition. – It exists in fact, but not in law. • Soon became legalized – Jim Crow laws required segregation in schools, parks, hospitals, theaters, restrooms, other public buildings. – Black facilities were always inferior.

Jim Crow Etiquette • Keeping blacks “in their place” • System of etiquette requiring blacks to show deference to whites – Whites say, “Boy” or “(first name)” – Blacks say, “Mister” or “Sir” • Small breaches of etiquette: – Loss of job for blacks – Subjected to violence

Lynching • The murder of an accused person by a mob w/out a lawful trial. – Sometimes included a mock trial. – Sometimes victims were mutilated before being hanged or shot. • Lynchers were rarely pursued, caught, convicted, or punished.

WARNING The following are pictures of lynching. They are very graphic. Please do not look if you cannot handle seeing such images.

Lige Daniels, 1920 • Postcard depicting the lynching of Lige Daniels (Center, Texas, August 3, 1920) • The back reads, "This was made in the court yard in Center, Texas. He is a 16 year old Black boy. He killed Earl's grandma. She was Florence's mother. Give this to Bud. From Aunt Myrtle. "

Jesse Washington, 1916 • A postcard showing the burned body of Jesse Washington (Waco, Texas, 1916) • Washington was a 17 -year-old retarded farmhand who had confessed to raping and killing a white woman. • He was castrated, mutilated, and burned alive by a cheering mob that included the mayor and the chief of police.

Jesse Washington, 1916 • An observer wrote that "Washington was beaten with shovels and bricks. . . [he] was castrated, and his ears were cut off. A tree supported the iron chain that lifted him above the fire. . . Wailing, the boy attempted to climb up the skillet hot chain. For this, the men cut off his fingers. "

Jesse Washington, 1916 • This image is from a postcard, which said on the back, "This is the barbeque we had last night. My picture is to the left with a cross over it. Your son, Joe. "

Will James, 1909 • The circus-style lynching of Will James (Cairo, Illinois, 1909)

Duluth Lynching, 1920 • In Duluth, Minnesota on June 15, 1920, three young African-American travelers were dragged from their jail cells (where they were confined after being accused of raping a white woman) and lynched by a mob believed to number more than one thousand. • This is a postcard of that lynching.

Charting the Trend

Northern Migration • Many African Americans moved north de facto discrimination – Schools, housing, employment • Job competition in N. cities creates fear. RACE RIOTS! – NYC, 1900 – Springfield, Illinois, 1908 (not job-related)

It becomes LEGAL. • Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896 – Homer Plessy (1/8 African) buys a firstclass train ticket from New Orleans. He refuses to sit in the black only car. – He is arrested. • Case reaches the Supreme Court.

Plessy Decision • RULING: Segregation is legal as long as the separate facilities were equal to the whites’ facilities. – “Separate but Equal” • The 14 th Amendment was “not intended to give Negroes social equality but only political and civil equality. ”

Resisting Discrimination • 1905: Niagara Movement vows – Never to accept “inferiority” – Never to bow to “oppression” – Never to apologize “before insult” • Only 400 initial members • They are listened to after the 1908 Springfield Race Riots.

NAACP • Mary White Ovington – White social worker – Organized a national conference to address the “Negro Question” – Founding of the NAACP • By 1914 – 50 branches w/ 6, 000 members – Worked through the court system