The Beginning of Jim Crow & Its Impact

Southern Culture

How Poor Folks Operated
To get rid of parasitic worms poor
southerners of all races used homemade
remedies. Because most country/poor
folks did not have shoes so many poor folk
contracted worms.

Blacks and whites were so much alike in
how they lived in the South. The only thing
that separated them was racism. The
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) set a legal
precedent and entrenched or codified Jim
Crow.







There are three Reconstruction Amendments

13
th
Freed the slaves
14
th
Citizenship
15
th
Deny blacks or anyone else the right to vote you would lose???

Three Phases of Reconstruction
Presidential (Lincoln/Johnson)
Congressional (Radical Republicans)
Military





Jim Crow

The Plessy decision brought in separate but equal into the American South culture
and it minimized the 14
th
Amendment.
The Krushank case denied people their basic rights guaranteed under the 14
th

Amendment.
Courts allowed whites in the South to establish laws that enforced Jim Crow.
Amalgamation sex between the races where children are produced. If a person is
born to a black and white couple, the child was considered black. Only in LA. & VA.
could you be considered white. Many of the fair skinned blacks have passed for
white. If one did this, they had to accept the racism of the South and forget their
blackness.

These folks had to isolate themselves from their black family. The only contact that
was made was through clandestine meetings (grocery stores, public places, etc.) and
at these meetings they could meet and talk about the family and receive money from
their passing white family members. Some family members accepted this or rejected
those who passed as white.

In the country poor families took care of each other and it did not matter if you were
related to them. Even when those family lines were blurred Jim Crow was still in
effect.

Seemed the poorer the community was the more virulent (extremely hostile or
malicious) Jim Crow was entrenched. Names for the black side of towns were given
(e.g. Bottoms, Butter & Colored Town) but whites who would tell blacks to get to
their side of town which often times were separated by train tracks came over to the
black side to do some of their shopping (grocery items and baked goods).



Jim Crow Racism

The hard-core racists were between 7-10 percent of the population
There were hard-core liberals who wanted more opportunities for blacks but still
did not see them as their equal was six percent (believed blacks had a right to work,
earn a living, citizenship, work for whites, blacks had not received a fair shake).



Rise of The Ku Klux Klan

1
st
Reconstruction 1870s Race Riots, Panic of 1873 (Economic Issues)
2
nd
1920s D.W. Griffiths Birth of a Nation Anti-Black, Jew, Catholic, Foreigners and
Organized Labor.
3
rd
1960 are The Civil Rights Movement

Every Southerner was not a member of the Klan. Half supported it the other half
feared it.

Race Movies
Birth of Nation
Micheaux Collection at SMU
Emperor Jones
Cabin in The Sky
Showboat

Each state starts their particular form of Jim Crow
Bus stations ( blacks had to sit outside the bus station on the bench)
Water Fountains (white and colored)
Restrooms
Box Lunches came from Jim Crow (Fried Chicken, Vienna sausage, crackers, cheese)
Cemeteries
Hospital
Box lunches were prepared due to there would be no restaurants who would serve
blacks along the route from the South to North destinations.


Tri-Color Race Situations

The only states that dealt with this were TX, NM & CA.
Mexicans were treated like blacks (No dogs, Mexicans, Blacks would be served)
Any meals they had to go around to the back of the soda-shop to order and pick up
food.
Had to be out of town by dark (Sundown Towns).
Most blacks understood they had to be out of town by dark.