Life+in+Jim+Crow+America

**Mara Peoples** **April 3, 2011** **Taft History 8-4**

**1) 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 fourteenth amendment provide people like me full citizenship to those who were enslaved. We had rights and were no long able to be kept as slaves under the command of the white people. It also protected civil liberties of the newly freed slaves. Due process means that everyone has to go through the same process as everyone else in government terms. Equal protection of the laws means that everyone is protected by the law equally and fairly. Which means I am protected by the law just as much as a white man.

**2) 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] **

 I remember hearing all about the problem, of how Homer Plessy a young man who was riding the East Louisiana Railroad was sitting in the "white" car section of the railroad. I remember how light he was, could've passed as a white man, but he was in fact black and therefore required to sit in the 'black" car section. They called him Creole a person from New Orleans who was lightly colored in skin. I could hear the people around me telling each other about how he kept sitting in the white section. I was told that his case went all the way to Supreme Court. I had heard that Plessy's lawyer said that Louisiana's car act went against the 13th and 14th amendment. It was 1896 at the time I do remember. One of the jury had referred to this case as the statue which implies merely a legal distinction between the white and colored races." The Plessy decision set the stage for separate facilities for blacks and whites. It was found constitutional as long as they were equal, otherwise known as separate but equal. This separate but equal regulation quickly extended to cover many areas of public life, such as restaurants, theaters, restrooms, and public schools.

**3) 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 the name of a song. A very popular one at that, I used to sing it it was a very entertaining dance to do as well. Jim Crow didn't write the laws, we got this name Jim Crow because of the struggling actor who used that name in the plays. The actor would use dark makeup in his plays and eventually the term Jim Crow was like a label to us African American's. It wasn't that common, I have been called it a couple times but they used the names for certain laws.

**4) 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] **

====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font: normal normal bold 12px/normal georgia,serif; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">There were all kind of Jim Crow laws like, it shall be unlawful for any white prisoner to be handcuffed or otherwise chained or tied to a negro prisoner. No colored barber shall serve as a barber to white women or girls. Marriages are void when one party is a white person and the other is possessed of one-eighth or more negro, Japanese, or Chinese blood. It shall be unlawful for a negro and white person to play together or in company with each other in any game of cards or dice, dominoes or checkers. It changed our lives we weren't able to do certain things, see certain people go to certain places, it was terrible! ====

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">**5) 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="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #6e1a7e; padding-right: 10px;">[|Jim Crow Images LINK 1] / <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #001ee6; padding-right: 10px;">[|Jim Crow Images LINK 2] **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Blacks had to drink in different places than whites. Most drinking places weren't as sanitary

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> We faced the horrors of having to live in fear of lynching.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">**6) What happened in the Scottsboro Case? How did it make you feel as an African American in the South?<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #001ee6; padding-right: 10px;"> [|Scottsboro LINK] **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;">The Scottsboro Boys, nine black juniors who were falsely charged with raping two white women in Alabama, this case revealed the barbarous treatment of blacks. It began on March 25, 1931, when a number of white and black hobo's were riding on a freight train. A fight broke out between a group and the whites were thrown off the train. They reported the incident to a stationmaster. The train had stopped at a town called Paint Rock. Dozens of armed men rounded up nine blacks and those young black men were taken to jail. They were about to be charged with assault because of two white women who dressed in boys clothing that were discovered hiding on the train. I know there was no connection people on the train told me that their wasn't any connection to those women at all. I heard that the women had sexual relations with some of the white men that had been thrown off the train. Those poor boys feared their prosecution. The white men had agreed to testify against the black youths. The trial was held in the town of Scottsboro, Alabama. With an all-white jury they were sure to have not made it. All accept for youngest 12 year old were sentenced to death.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">**7) Why should anyone care about your lilfe during Jim Crow America? <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding-right: 10px;">[|Why should I care? Link] **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">** It is very important for us to truly appreciate the great stakes of the Civil Rights Movement and, perhaps even greater, to help us understand America's recent past in order to better evaluate how much has changed and whether obstacles to racial equality still remain, and if these do remain we should be able to fix the wrong problems and make them right so that our horrid past will not be relived. **