Lauren Taylor
COMPSTD 1100
September 5, 2020
Hi, my name is Lauren and my pronouns are she/her/hers. Today I will be talking about the collision of Jim Crow laws and civil rights activists prior to and leading up to the civil rights movement.
Jim Crow laws are a topic covered in practically every history class in modern America. However, most classes seem to focus solely on Jim Crow laws in the 1950s-60s with the Civil Rights movement. Before doing research of my own, I didn’t fully understand all that led up and fueled the civil rights movement of the mid 20th century. In this context research project, I will highlight and identify some well known, and some not-so-well-known, history that is imperative to keep in mind as we approach this next week of reading.
The exact starting point of Jim Crow laws is debated, but in general, most agree that the laws came about following the Civil War (in the mid-late 1800s) and ended around the time of the Fair Housing Act in the late 1960s. So there was nearly 100 years of this “racial caste system”[5] in the US following centuries of brutal slavery. This is a long time for tensions to build, violence to be executed and innocent lives to be lost
When the civil rights movement is taught in school, curriculums seem to focus on a select group of individuals to study such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Rosa Parks. While these individuals are incredible to learn about, there were some less well known African Americans that were resisting and advocating for change long before these prominent figures. Ida B. Wells, for example, was a “prominent activist against Jim Crow laws after refusing to leave a first-class train car designated for white people only.”[1] In 1889, Wells “became the co-owner of the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight and used her position to take on school segregation and sexual harassment.”[1] In addition, Wells traveled throughout the United States writing about her findings in lynching investigations.[1] Another important figure to note is Charlotte Hawkins Brown. After funding was withdrawn for the school she taught at around 1901, “Brown became the first black woman to create a black school in North Carolina and through her education work became a fierce and vocal opponent of Jim Crow laws.”[1]
African Americans resisted the Black Codes from the time they were enacted after the Civil War. Those who defied “the segregation and disenfranchisement laws”[2] knew that it could cost them their lives. For decades prior to the Civil Rights movement of the 50s and 60s, there were increasingly violent race riots, frequent lynchings and overall unrest and conflict. For example, The Red Summer of 1919 had violent race riots in more than three dozen cities across America that resulted in hundreds of deaths[1,4]. There was not a single aspect of life spared from Jim Crow laws, and that was by design. Whether it was media, schools or public facilities[1,2,5], African Americans were constantly reminded of how they were perceived by white Americans–as “second class citizens”[5].
There were some famous court cases and proposed legislation that eventually led to the end of Jim Crow laws in the 1960s. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) “upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation for public facilities as long as the facilities were ‘equal in quality’”[3]. Unsurprisingly, facilities were almost never equal in quality or cleanliness. In the landmark court case Brown v. Board of Education (1954), “the Supreme Court ruled that educational segregation was unconstitutional, bringing an end to the era of ‘separate-but-equal’ education[1]. Following Brown v. Board, the Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act and Fair Housing Act were passed after years of opposition and negotiation. These acts effectively ended Jim Crow laws, but the issue of racism in America is still, about 60 years later, far from over.
Works Cited
- History.com Editors. “Jim Crow Laws.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 28 Feb. 2018, www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/jim-crow-laws.
- “Jim Crow Laws.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/freedom-riders-jim-crow-laws/.
- “Plessy v. Ferguson.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Aug. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plessy_v._Ferguson.
- “Red Summer.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Aug. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Summer.
- “What Was Jim Crow.” What Was Jim Crow – Jim Crow Museum – Ferris State University, www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htm.
Hi Lauren,
I really appreciate your in-depth research on the history of Jim Crowe laws and those that were fighting it well before they were passed. I most certainly agree that more needs to be worked on. For example, inner-city school funding needs to be increased. Redlining of certain cities or counties need to be addressed. Additionally, an overall societal shift needs to take place for African Americans and other people of color to be truly equal to their white counterparts. For that to happen, there in my opinion should be harsh rules for hate crimes commited against minorities. I like your input but again agree that 60 years later, there still is more to be accomplished.
Thank you for your research Lauren! I never realized until now that in school, we focus on Jim Crow Laws only during the height of our civil rights unit, not the lasting effects it has throughout the rest of history and even in today’s society. As you stated, there is a constant reminder throughout textbooks and lectures that African Americans are inferior to white people. Even though this is not the intention, we raise our kids through school systems that introduce these ideas to kids that could promote name calling, teasing, etc. While these topics are VERY important to teach students, the approach by teachers needs to emphasize the reason our history between African Americans and white people was not okay, and there is still a lot of work to be done.
Hi Lauren, I really like the perspective that you take in your context presentation. As you make a point of noting, Jim Crow laws are often taught in American schools as being a localized incident of the past, and you afforded a new perspective in showing how much further reaching they really are. Even now, I think there are several laws and legal requirements that could be argued as intentionally isolating certain groups, in much the same way the original Jim Crow laws once did. By teaching and learning about Jim Crow laws as an isolated thing of the past, it really closes off a lot of potential discussion about similar legalities now.
Lauren,
Thank you for the information you provided in your research presentation! You created an insightful and well articulated history regarding the Jim Crow laws that led up to the Civil Rights Movement. You opened my eyes to the reality of how long these laws were truly practiced in the United States; I very much relate to the comment you make that high school history classes don’t provide as broad of a spectrum of education, they mainly focus on the 50s and 60s that encased the Civil Rights Movement mainly. The information you provided helped me to get a better understanding of the racial injustices between the abolition of slavery up to the Civil Rights Movement.
Thank you for the informative and detailed presentation Lauren! I appreciate you mentioning that schools are surface level with injustice issues, and just begin to touch the surface with the Civil Rights Movement. I truly hope that making this a daily conversation in schools and through life will help the discrimination end. In schools it it so important to educate children about the importance of equality and how unjust the events in our past and even present are. We need to learn more in depth about the past events to be better prepared for the future as well as right now. Thank you for taking the time and sharing about the civil rights movement Lauren.
Thanks for the great post Lauren, I think that your post provided a needed context for the Jim Crow laws. I think the ideas that you mention about how Jim Crow laws are indoctrinated into our education systems is really important. I think that it is really important mentioning how large the movements against these laws were. As you showed so many activists are often not talked about and an image of the resistance is painted by those who were in power that often removes the fights of so many important people. Thanks for the information and bringing light to some parts of Jim Crow history that are not talked about as much.