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Creating Jim Crow: In-Depth Essay
By Ronald L. F. Davis, Ph. D.
The term Jim Crow is believed to have originated around 1830 when a white, minstrel show
performer, Thomas "Daddy" Rice, blackened his face with charcoal paste or burnt cork and danced a
ridiculous jig while singing the lyrics to the song, "Jump Jim Crow." Rice created this character after
seeing (while traveling in the South) a crippled, elderly black man (or some say a young black boy)
dancing and singing a song ending with these chorus words:
"Weel about and turn about and do jis so,
Eb'ry time I weel about I jump Jim Crow."
Some historians believe that a Mr. Crow owned the slave who inspired Rice's act--thus the reason for
the Jim Crow term in the lyrics. In any case, Rice incorporated the skit into his minstrel act, and by the
1850s the "Jim Crow" character had become a standard part of the minstrel show scene in America.
On the eve of the Civil War, the Jim Crow idea was one of many stereotypical images of black
inferiority in the popular culture of the day. The word Jim Crow became a racial slur synonymous
with “black,” “colored,” or “Negro” in the vocabulary of many whites; and by the end of the century
acts of racial discrimination toward blacks were often referred to as Jim Crow laws and practices.
Segregation and disfranchisement laws were often supported, moreover, by brutal acts of ceremonial
and ritualized mob violence (lynchings) against southern blacks. Indeed, from 1889 to 1930, over
3,700 men and women were reported lynched in the United States--most of whom were southern
blacks. Hundreds of other lynchings and acts of mob terror aimed at brutalizing blacks occurred
throughout the era but went unreported in the press. Numerous race riots erupted in the Jim Crow
era, usually in towns and cities and almost always in defense of segregation and white supremacy.
These riots engulfed the nation from Wilmington, North Carolina, to Houston, Texas; from East St.
Louis and Chicago to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the years from 1865 to 1955. The riots usually erupted in
urban areas to which southern, rural blacks had recently migrated. In the single year of 1919, at least
twenty-five incidents were recorded, with numerous deaths and hundreds of people injured. So
bloody was this summer of that year that it is known as the Red Summer of 1919.
The so-called Jim Crow segregation laws gained significant impetus from U. S. Supreme Court
rulings in the last two decades of the nineteenth century. In 1883, the Supreme Court ruled
unconstitutional the Civil Rights Act of 1875. The 1875 law stipulated: "That all persons ... shall be
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entitled to full and equal enjoyment of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges of
inns, public conveyances on land or water, theaters, and other places of public amusement." The
Court reviewed five separate complaints involving acts of discrimination on a railroad and in public
sites, including a theater in San Francisco and the Grand Opera House in New York. In declaring the
federal law unconstitutional, Chief Justice Joseph Bradley held that the Fourteenth Amendment did
not protect black people from discrimination by private businesses and individuals but only from
discrimination by states. He observed in his opinion that it was time for blacks to assume "the rank of
a mere citizen" and stop being the "special favorite of the laws." Justice John Marshall Harlan
vigorously dissented, arguing that hotels and amusement parks and public conveyances were public
services that operated under state permission and thus were subject to public control.
It was not long after the Court's decision striking down the Civil Rights Act of 1875 that southern
states began enacting sweeping segregation legislation. In 1890, Louisiana required by law that
blacks ride in separate railroad cars. In protest of the law, blacks in the state tested the statute's
constitutionality by having a light-skinned African American, Homére Plessy, board a train,
whereupon he was quickly arrested for sitting in a car reserved for whites. A local judge ruled against
Plessy and in 1896 the U. S. Supreme Court upheld the lower court's ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson. The
Court asserted that Plessy's rights were not denied him because the separate accommodations
provided to blacks were equal to those provided whites. It also ruled that "separate but equal"
accommodations did not stamp the "colored race with a badge of inferiority." Again, Justice Harlan
protested in a minority opinion: "Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates
classes among citizens."
With the Supreme Court's approval, southern states quickly passed laws that restricted the equal
access of blacks to all kinds of public areas, accommodations, and conveyances. Local officials
began posting "Whites Only" and "Colored" signs at water fountains, restrooms, waiting rooms, and
the entrances and exits at courthouses, libraries, theaters, and public buildings. Towns and cities
established curfews for blacks, and some state laws even restricted blacks from working in the same
rooms in factories and other places of employment.
http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/history/creating2.htm
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AFTER READING write a 1 (one) paragraph summary or reaction to what you have just read.
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Louisiana Black Code
(1865)
Louisiana
Please note in Louisiana counties (i.e. Monroe, Sussex) are called parishes.
Introduction
After the region's slaves were freed, Southern communities passed laws called "black codes" to control black
citizens. The first states to pass black codes were Mississippi and South Carolina; other Southern states soon
followed. Exact provisions of these laws varied from state to state, but their effect was similar. Read the
following provisions of a Louisiana parish's black codes and evaluate their impact.
Source
. . . Sec. 1. Be it ordained by the police jury of the parish of St. Landry, That no [black/African-American] shall
be allowed to pass within the limits of said parish without special permit in writing from his employer. Whoever
shall violate this provision shall pay a fine of two dollars and fifty cents, or in default thereof shall be forced to
work four days on the public road, or suffer corporeal punishment as provided hereinafter. . . .
Sec. 3. . . . No [black/African-American] shall be permitted to rent or keep a house within said parish. Any
negro violating this provision shall be immediately ejected and compelled to find an employer; and any person
who shall rent, or give the use of any house to any negro, in violation of this section, shall pay a fine of five
dollars for each offence.
Sec. 4. . . . Every [black/African-American] is required to be in the regular service of some white person, or
former owner, who shall be held responsible for the conduct of said negro. But said employer or former owner
may permit said negro to hire his own time by special permission in writing, which permission shall not extend
over seven days at any one time. . . .
Sec. 5. . . . No public meetings or congregations of [black/African-American] shall be allowed within said
parish after sunset; but such public meetings and congregations may be held between the hours of sunrise and
sunset, by the special permission in writing of the captain of patrol, within whose beat such meetings shall take
place. . . .
Sec. 6. . . . No [black/African-American] shall be permitted to preach, exhort, or otherwise declaim to
congregations of colored people, without a special permission in writing from the president of the police jury. . .
Sec. 7. . . . No [black/African-American] who is not in the military service shall be allowed to carry fire-arms,
or any kind of weapons, within the parish, without the special written permission of his employers, approved
and indorsed by the nearest and most convenient chief of patrol. . . .
Sec. 8. . . . No [black/African-American] shall sell, barter, or exchange any articles of merchandise or traffic
within said parish without the special written permission of his employer, specifying the article of sale, barter or
traffic. . . .
Sec. 9. . . . Any [black/African-American] found drunk, within the said parish shall pay a fine of five dollars, or
in default thereof work five days on the public road, or suffer corporeal punishment as hereinafter provided.
Sec. 11. . . . It shall be the duty of every citizen to act as a police officer for the detection of offences and the
apprehension of offenders, who shall be immediately handed over to the proper captain or chief of patrol. . . .
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Questions
1. What were the black codes?
2. List some of the restrictions placed on black citizens in this Louisiana parish.
3. Why were these black codes so restrictive?
4. Speculate about how these laws were enforced.
5. What impact would these laws have had on the black community?
http://college.hmco.com/history/us/bailey/american_pageant/11e/students/primary/blackcode.htm
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The "Jim Crow" figure was a fixture of the minstrel
shows that toured the South; a white man made up as
a black man sang and mimicked stereotypical behavior
in the name of comedy.
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1.
What is a one-sentence description of this picture?
2.
What are details in the picture that give you an indication of the subject's background,
economic standing, profession, age.
3.
What is the mood of the subject(s)?
4.
What occasion is this image documenting?
5.
What is the purpose of the photographer in snapping this shot?
6.
How is the subject interacting with the background?
7.
To what degree are the themes of Jim Crow revealed in this photograph?
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November 1867: "The First Vote"--African American
men, in dress indicative of their professions, in a queue
waiting for their turn to vote. Illustration by Harper's
Weekly artist Alfred R. Waud 1828-1891
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8.
What is a one-sentence description of this picture?
9.
What are details in the picture that give you an indication of the subject's background,
economic standing, profession, age.
10.
What is the relationship between the various people in the picture if there is more than
one?
11.
What is the mood of the subject(s)?
12.
What occasion is this image documenting?
13.
What is the purpose of the photographer in snapping this shot?
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14.
How is the subject interacting with the background?
15.
What is the quality of the photo? What does that reveal about the subject?
16.
To what degree are the themes of Jim Crow revealed in this photograph?
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The Rex Theater for Colored People, Leland, Mississippi, 1939: Although many motion
picture houses admitted both black and white patrons, they did so by segregating the
audience. In such movie houses the blacks were seated upstairs in the balcony. A few
theaters, like the Rex, completely separated the races, however, playing to all black
audiences. The Rex was probably a black-owned theater.
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17.
What is a one-sentence description of these pictures?
18.
What are details in the picture that give you an indication of the subject's background,
economic standing, profession, age.
19.
What is the relationship between the various people in the picture if there is more than
one?
20.
What is the mood of the subject(s)?
21.
What is the purpose of the photographer in snapping this shot?
22.
How is the subject interacting with the background?
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23.
What is the quality of the photo? What does that reveal about the subject?
24.
To what degree are the themes of Jim Crow revealed in this photograph?
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Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, July 1939: "Colored"
water fountains were fixtures throughout the
South during the Jim Crow era. Photo by Russell
Lee.
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25.
What is a one-sentence description of this picture?
26.
What are details in the picture that give you an indication of the subject's background,
economic standing, profession, age.
27.
What is the relationship between the various people in the picture if there is more than
one?
28.
What is the mood of the subject(s)?
29.
What occasion is this image documenting?
30.
What is the purpose of the photographer in snapping this shot?
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31.
How is the subject interacting with the background?
32.
What is the quality of the photo? What does that reveal about the subject?
33.
To what degree are the themes of Jim Crow revealed in this photograph?
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Detroit 1944: Pallbearers with casket walking in
front of sign reading "here lies Jim Crow" during
the NAACP Detroit branch "Parade for Victory."
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34.
What is a one-sentence description of this picture?
35.
What are details in the picture that give you an indication of the subject's background,
economic standing, profession, age.
36.
What is the relationship between the various people in the picture if there is more than
one?
37.
What occasion is this image documenting?
38.
What is the purpose of the photographer in snapping this shot?
39.
How is the subject interacting with the background?
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40.
What is the quality of the photo? What does that reveal about the subject?
41.
To what degree are the themes of Jim Crow revealed in this photograph?
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