Life+in+Jim+Crow+America

Life in Jim Crow America

 The 14th amendment granted citizenship to people once enslaved.The amendment was designed to grant citizenship to and protect the civil liberties of recently freed slaves. It granted citizenship to anyone born in the United States and it made states follow it. Tennessee was the only state to ratify it but Republicans passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867, which set the conditions the Southern states had to accept before they could be readmitted to the union, including ratification of the 14th Amendment. Due process means legal- they must be treated equally by the government. It is okay if people aren't treated equally by other people at a house. Equal protection of the laws means that all people must be protected the same under the laws. Nobody can be protected more than the other because of race or gender.
 * 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]

 There was a white car and a black car and Plessy sat in the white car(he was 1/8 black). He wanted to challenge the law. The Supreme Court said that is was okay as long as both the black and white car were "equal". This precedent spread to more things like schools, bathroom, ect. The supreme court said that the 14th amendment was not added to make black and whites socially and politically equal.  Jim Crow was an actor. In this play a white man put on make up and acted like a "stereotypical" black person. The name Jim Crow became a racial slur for blacks and lasted about a half of a century. He did not write the laws.  In Alabama, black and white people couldn't play cards, dice, dominos, or checkers together in public. (1930) In Nebraska a white person could not marry someone more than 1/8 black, Japanese, or Chinese blood. (1911) Black and white people could not eat together. A black person could not light a white woman's cigarette or shake her hand. Some Christian people taught that whites were the chosen people and blacks are servents. They would say God supported segregation. I would not be able to play cards or marry a black person. 
 * 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]
 * 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]
 * 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? ** __<span style="color: #810081; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Jim Crow Images LINK 1 __<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">/ [|Jim Crow Images LINK 2]

Jim Crow originally was a white man pretending to be a black man in a play. It ended up being a racial slur for black people. <span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; text-align: center;"> There were 9 young black men on a train and some white men( who were hobos) on the train who got in a fight. The white men were thrown off the train and the black men were sent to jail. There were also 2 women on the train who were dresses as men and had sexual relations with the white men but did not want to admit is. Instead they told police that the black men had raped them and an all white jury decided to sentence all but the youngest (12 year old) to death. It was overturned but four got sent to prison for a while. I would feel pretty powerless because if you were in a situation like that and you were black, it's kind of like an automatic loss. You can't put up a fight because in the end, you will always lose. <span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; text-align: center;">
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">What happened in the Scottsboro Case? How did it make you feel as an African American in the South? **<span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> [|Scottsboro LINK]
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">What do some of your friends and family say about life in Jim Crow America? (listen to one or two) **<span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"> [|Audio History LINK 1]