Jim Crow Blues
Author(s): Leon F. Litwack
Source: Magazine of History, Vol. 18, No. 2, Jim Crow (Jan., 2004), pp. 7-11, 58
Published by: Organization of American Historians
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25163654
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Magazine of History.
http://www.jstor.org
Leon F. Litwack
Crow
Jim
Blues
Whatthe white South lost on the battlefields of the Civil War
separation of black people in the South, much
in the
it would
retake
Reconstruction,
largely
during
In what
centuries.
and early twentieth
has
late nineteenth
a new
American
called
the Nadir
of African
history,
generation
and
been
of
black
southerners
sharply
with
shared
and
proscribed
survivors
the
position
deteriorating
of
a
enslavement
in a South
bent
on
of
it still
Fifty
reached
enforced
after
years
a consensus
Approximately
and
by
custom,
and
habit,
the Emancipation
Proclamation,
to resolve
about
how
growing
90 percent of black Americans
the dominant
racial
were
attitudes
commanding black lives and black labor
and moral
necessary.
by any means
tense years were
between
New
Great
first
seeds
ible
overthrow
in
1890 and the
in the 1910s,
but
in the forc
planted
Migration
had been
the
most
The
4J
Fg^J't-j^^aj-ruin TJMMK^ilT^'iMMM'ii"*''l^Mfc
""
\
in the
of a beggar,
imitated
the
tattered
garment
ill-fitting,
Rice
and grinning
broadly,
and de
singing,
dancing,
to Negro
ascribed
char
generally
meanor
acter.
it "Jump
Jim Crow,"
Calling
on a routine
the number
he
based
seen
in
performed
and
Louisville
crippled
to a Mr. Crow.
had
an
by
elderly
stableman
be
1828
"Weel
longing
he
about,
and
turn about/And do jis so;/Eb'ry time I
weel about,/I jump Jim Crow" (1).The
public
Rice's
with
responded
caricature
of
had
black
life.
become
1830s, minstrelsy
most
forms
of mass
popular
Crow"
had
entered
ment,
"Jim
can
and many
vocabulary,
and
South,
shows
ages
tions.
came
to
enthusiasm
one
to
reinforced
life,
How
a dance
character,
tem
races
become
designed
is less
the term
pers employed
for blacks
and whites
on
additional
force
a
undisci
be
in
trusted
and
1915 designed
familiar
the
already
subordination
State
of black
state
after
de
nied blacks a political voice through dis
franchisement,
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of
imposed
patterns
rigid
racial
"Jim
segregation?nicknamed
an economic
Crow"?sustained
refused
sharecropping?that
or
for ambition
hope,
blacks
educational
equal
and
"enforced
ig
sources?ultimately,
norance."
The
they
criminal
operated
with
holding
command
the absolute
ruthless
the
of blacks.
This
was
justice
re
system
in up
efficiency
of whites
power
and subordination
labor
but
not
the work
of the
"best
educated,
the most
and
sys
and
tem?tenantry
left little room
demagogues
the most
to
of racial
people"?
the most
refined,
mostly
through
respected.
Disfranchisement,
North
state
constitutional
came
to
cause
the
the
amendments,
in
South
issue
of
the
be
1890s
political
participa
tion remained linked in the white mind
and
a sys
with
synonymous
to segregate
the
by whites
clear. Abolitionist
newspa
not
1890
customary
and women.
entertain
aspira
a black
by
a white man
stableman
and imitated
by
for the amusement
of white
audiences
would
and
By the
of the
created
between
institutionalize
men
from minstrel
away
im
in their distorted
of black
in freedom,
born
could
nisms
the Ameri
whites,
religious
that
to
etiquette,
in its place without
In
legal force.
to this fear,
the white
South
response
an
constructed
extensive
and
imposing
of legal and extra-legal
mecha
system
in the early
in minstrelsy
nine
gins
a
teenth
Thomas
century.
"Daddy" Rice,
term.
white
the
minstrel,
popularized
burnt cork to blacken his face,
feared
stay
the Age
of Jim Crow would
1870s,
than half a century.
span more
as a way
term
of
The
"Jim Crow,"
its
ori
had
black
people,
characterizing
attired
a
than
less
Whites
racial
and
Using
tensions.
racial
still lived in the South
nothing
creed.
Negro,
South
the white
plined by slavery, and unschooled
I
in the
of Reconstruction
of it codified and much
violence.
with
"TheCrow
Family," published
on the popular
century, capitalizes
from the American
Special
by H. De Marsan
Collections
in the nineteenth
image of Jim Crow. (Image
Rare Book and
Collection,
Song Sheets
Division,
Library of Congress.)
in the 1840s
to describe
railroad
separate
in the North.
But by the 1890s,
"Jim Crow"
to denote
and meaning
the subordination
assertiveness
black
and
social
every newspaper
equality.
Nearly
on
"race problem,"
torial
the
nearly
of candidates
for public
speech
and nearly
constitutional
every
state
convention
in
and
legislature
every
office,
sisted on linking
cars
took
and
If blacks
equality.
living
could
and
sleeping
contemplate
voted
with
such
edi
with
whites
as
whites
as
equals,
and
equals,
social and political
on
insist
they would
no white
southerner
degradation.
OAH
Magazine
of History
January
2004
7
Racial
was
segregation
to be no
seemed
a new
hardly
need
for
measures
statutory
first postwar
the
governments,
was
them,
replaced
however,
the
blacks, there
races.
the
segregating
The restrictive Black Codes, along with
passed
by
tion. What
Before
phenomenon.
slavery had fixed the status of most
Civil War, when
the few segregation
did not
not
survive
racial
no
role, made
concerted
to force
effort
on
integration
unwilling
and resisting whites, especially in the public schools. Constitutional
or legislative provisions mandating
integration were impossible to
enforce. The determination of blacks to improve their position during
and
after
such
mandated
schools.
separate
Where
of African
men
American
and women.
secure
signs
instructed
drink,
and
scape,
blacks
entertain
over
appearing
railroad
houses,
where
the
station
could
they
themselves.
rooms,
waiting
legally
punctuated
to parks,
They
entrances
southern
not
dows
separate
seating,
the balcony?what
races
and
be
tion
in many
ern
separa
of south
areas
life. Whatever
Negro's
legal
and
in
usually
came
the
to
"buzzard
heaven."
"nigger
And blacks came to learn
that in places where they
glish traveler noted in Rich
mond in 1866, he knows
"how
as
known
roost"
the
an En
rights,
becom
ticket win
only separate
but also
and entrances
etiquette, then, defined the
social relations between the
enforced
boarding
fountains.
were
houses
eat,
land
ing increasingly popular
and Jim Crow demanded
and
habit,
sit,
the
theaters,
Movie
accommodations
Custom,
rest,
walk,
and water
toilets,
that equaled those afforded
whites.
remem
Pauli Murray
bered all too vividly how the signs had "screamed" at her from every
direction: "FORWHITE ONLY," "FOR COLORED ONLY," "WHITE
LADIES," "COLOREDWOMEN," "WHITE," "COLORED" (3). The
volved largely around efforts
to
to place
in law.
restrictions
re
Reconstruction
and
intermarriage
states quickly moved
The demands made by Jim Crow worked their way into the daily
routines
an
but
informal code of exclusion and discrimination. Even the Radical
legislatures during Reconstruction, in which blacks played a promi
nent
legally
cohabitation had not been outlawed,
laws
Reconstruc
integration
already
were
to mix
permitted
whites?stores,
far
with
of
post
for
he may
go, and
where
he must
and
stop"
that "habits are not changed
ample?they would need to
wait until all thewhites had
by paper laws" (2).
been
served.
also
restricted
even
Segregation,
more
came
than disfranchisement,
nas
became
of
cisely
early
confrontation,
come
such
home
farmers'
in Harmony
Putnam
ties.
To
equal
footing.
this growing
prob
cars for whites
to designate
in the
and blacks
lem, state after state began
inmany
car the
or
instances
the
second-class
1880s,
making
"smoking"
car available
to African
American
The
passengers.
only
growing
of blacks
to sit
on
streetcars
the urban
prompted
in separate
sections
to take similar
muriicipalities
prescribed
the races
on
refusal
or
and
to
trolleys,
up seats
give
action.
Some
including
to whites,
municipalities
that separated
on
setded
cars, but most
separate
partitions
the same car, with
to the rear
blacks
relegated
seats.
custom
in practically
blacks might
public
parks,
every
conceivable
situation
in which
whites
and
come into social contact: from public transportation to
from
the work
place
to hospitals,
asylums,
and
orphan
ages, from the homes for the aged, the blind, deaf, and dumb to the
prisons,
from
saloons
to churches.
Not
only
were
the races
to be kept
a special section for black infants
apart in hospitals?including
some also denied admission to
medical
attention?but
requiring
blacks
altogether.
Laws
or custom
also
required
that black
nurses tend only the sick of their own race. By 1885,most
8 OAH Magazine of History
January 2004
and white
states had
from
most
and
ing
alleys,
pools,
bowling
swimming
not uncommon
to find a
sign at the entrance
ex
and
facili
of rec
the
late
man
century
roller
skat
parks,
amusement
rinks,
tennis
to a public
Itwas
courts.
park
reading,
"Negroes and Dogs Not Allowed." Excluding blacks from parks not
area but of free
them of a recreational
entertain
deprived
public
With
few exceptions,
libraries were
reserved
for the
municipal
use
some
to establish
exclusive
of whites;
cities
chose
separate
only
ment.
to serve
branches
Although blacks had previously experienced segregation in vari
ous forms, the thoroughness of Jim Crow made it strikingly different.
The white South successfully segregated the races by law and enforced
of blacks
total
certain
in
reation
exclusion
the
expansion
nineteenth
dated
races
of the
from
The
ex
them.
purchasing
women
an
their
for
on
trying
and
shoes
clusion of black men
ca. 1941. (Image
County, Georgia,
Community,
of Agriculture,
Bureau of Agricultural
Division
of
Economics,
courtesy of the Department
Economic
National Archives
and Records Administration.)
Information,
Tenant
resolve
assertiveness
women,
Separation
often meant
on
together
stores,
hats,
before
area of public life, except the
polling place, did blacks and
whites
dresses,
are
in
blacks
in white
from
ample,
ex
rules
Special
forbidding
pre
other
in no
because
banks,
shopping
to be linked towhite fears of
black aggression and social
equality. The railroad and the
streetcar
and
fices,
In the
early
to both
mobiles
communities
others
streets,
black
patrons.
twentieth
races
of auto
growing
availability
some
While
of measures.
the
century,
a
precipitated
variety
limited the access of black motorists
placed
on
restrictions
where
they
to the public
might
park.
In
much of the South, racial etiquette dictated that black drivers should
no
make
effort
roads.
unpaved
to overtake
Not
only
"impudence" but the white
cloud
pass
and wagons
behavior
buggies
could
"As a rule," Benjamin
on either
a
people
dusty
with my father when he apologized
saying,
'Excuse
me,
Boss,
be
I'm
Mays
or a
recalled,
muddy
Did
on
as
by a
did not
"Negroes
... I have been
road
for passing
in a hurry.'
by whites
construed
be enveloped
passengers might
of dust.
white
driven
such
a white driver by
this mean
that my
father mentally accepted or emotionally approved this cringing
was a technique of survival" (4). If the use
behavior? Idoubt it_It
of
roads
could
be
so
legislated,
a town's
could
where
sidewalks,
all African
custom had always dictated that blacks step aside to provide ample
room
for whites.
In the urban South, segregated residential patterns were now legally
sanctioned, making it difficult for blacks of any class tomove into awhite
block and accelerating the appearance or growth of a distinct district
or
as "darktown"
designated
nance, the newer andmost rapidly growing cities tended to be themost
the mid-i8c)os,
By
segregated.
characterized
Adanta,
for
sections
exclusive
example,
racially
In some of the older
and Montgomery.
Richmond,
Some
whites
blacks
could
live were
tiously
setde
the issue.
North
boro,
Carolina,
an African
"when
expedi
of Greens
a resident
to 'move
proposed
into'
awhite section, he was given tounderstand that itwouldn't do. And ifhe
had moved in he would have moved out a great deal quicker?and a pile
of ashes would have marked the house. That iswhat theWhite Man will
law or no
do,
law, and
is understood"
that
(5).
The legislation of Jim Crow affected all classes and ages, and it
to be
tended
thorough,
even
far-reaching,
Crow
on which
bibles
to swear
in black
from
imaginative:
rate public school textbooks for black and white
African
The
population.
education;
racial
a
a reminder
affront,
daily
of
laws made
that no matter
Americans
no
how
on one
educated,
on
based
exception
the laws functioned
indeed,
or
class
level to remind
or respect
wealthy,
upon
was
so much
not
of the
separation
conduct
and
contact
and meted
out
races
as subordina
prescribed
the rules of
the punishments.
The workings of Jim Crow often seemed downright ludicrous, but
blacks had no choice but to tolerate it, even as they privately mocked
its absurdities, contradictions, and obscenities. It took little time for
Jim Crow practices to become a standard item in black folklore and
humor. Perhaps the only way to fathom the depths of white despera
tion and absurdity in keeping themselves apart from blacks was to
subject their actions and rationales to the ridicule they deserved. One
story told of awhite deacon inMississippi entering his church only to
find a Negro. "Boy,"he called out, "What you doin' in here? Don't you
know this is awhite church?" The black man quickly explained, "Boss,
I only
sepa
children and Jim
in court
witnesses
dominant
insisted
where
restricting
sentiment
would
that public
man's
town,"
unnecessary,
"In this white
argued,
or ordinances
laws
thought
was
tion, a system of controls in which whites
antebellum communities, where house slaves and free blacks had lived
near their white employers, black housing tended to be more widely
scattered.
Jim Crow
Americans,
the distinctive place "white folks" had marked out for them?a
confirmation of their inferiority and baseness in the eyes of the
able they might be, it did nothing to entitle them to equal treatment
with the poorest and most degraded whites. What the white South
or ordi
by custom
Whether
"niggertown."
Black southerners were left to brood over themessage imparted
by the Jim Crow laws and the spirit inwhich they were enforced. For
just got
importantly
sent here
the manner
tomop
more
up the floor." The response?and
in which
it was
rendered?reassured
the
to separate
telephone booths, separate windows in the banks for black and white
depositors, and Jim Crow elevators in office buildings, one for
whites
one
and
an
adopt
for blacks
so far as to
went
New Orleans
freight.
black
and white
segregating
ordinance
and
prostitutes?At
lanta confined them to separate blocks, while a Nashville brothel
settled for a plan by which black prostitutes were placed in the
basement and white prostitutes on the ground and upper floors.
Even as the laws decreed that African American babies would
enter
the world
in separate
so blacks
facilities,
would
occupy
sepa
rate places at the end of their lives. The ways in which Jim Crow
made itsmark on the ritual of death could assume bizarre dimen
sions. Will Mathis, a convicted white felon, appealed to a judge that
he be hanged at a different hour than Orlando Lester, a black man,
and
from
a different
set of gallows.
The
same
plea
was
made
by
a
white Tennessean convicted of the brutal murder of his wife. After
he objected to going to the gallows with three black men, the
authorities agreed to hang them first. Custom, if not ordinances,
dictated that blacks and whites be buried in separate cemeteries.
The mechanics of repression, both the ritualized and institution
alized subordination demanded of blacks, exacted a psychological and
a physical toll, shaping to an extraordinary degree day-to-day black life
and demeanor. Perhaps the most difficult revelation to absorb was
that color marked
as inferior
them
they behaved and whatever
in the eyes
of whites,
no matter
how
their social class.
Our seedy run-down school told us that ifwe had any place at all
in the scheme of things it was a separate place, marked off,
proscribed and unwanted by thewhite people. We were botded up
and labeled and set aside?sent to the JimCrow car, the back of the
bus,
We
came
the side door
came
to know
of the theater,
that whatever
to understand
the side window
we
that no matter
had was
how
neat
of a restaurant.
inferior. We
always
and clean, how
law
abiding, submissive and polite, how studious in school, how
churchgoing andmoral, how scrupulous in paying our bills and
taxes we were,
itmade
no
essential
difference
in our place
(6).
iVn
-ii
"Pray Keep Moving,
fTime Books, 1998].
Library of Congress.)
Brother."
in Herblock:
(Reprinted
of the Herb
Image courtesy
Block
OAH Magazine of History
i ' .1
i&
A Cartoonist's
Foundation
Life
and the
January 2004
9
deacon,
that's
"Well,
then.
all right
let me
But don't
catch
you
prayin'"
(7). Still another story involved an elderly black man who managed to
talk his way out of a traffic citation by telling the judge, "Lord,boss. I
sho' thought them green lights was for the white folks and the red
lights was for us cullud folks" (8).
The demands of thewhite South for black subordination often found
in
expression
terror.
and
in
sentence
itmay
blacks
but
thousand
also be any time"
met
their deaths
(9). Between
at the hands
1880
and
1968, nearly five
better
terrorists,
of white
as
were
As many
if not more
in
lynch mobs.
quietly murdered
counties
into rivers and creeks. Between
isolated
and dumped
and
1890
were
at
and women
burned
1917, some two to three black men
hanged,
the stake, or quietly murdered
each week.
The offenses
that precipitated
known
related
lynchings
"There was
concluded,
every now
men
economic
and
etiquette
to sex-related
less
and women,
entire
families,
young,
those
as less human
person
not
the outburst
than
often
shared
the racial views
that fed the violence.
of Americans,
generations
social
sciences
eracy,
cultural
of black
and
and
tions
and helping
laws,
practices,
to justify
and beliefs.
on
"scientific"
School
textbooks
membered.
'Kill amule,
re
of the races.
civilized
a license to kill anything but a
was
in sea
nigger. We
always
was
son" (n). What
strikingly
Nay, let them only
We wear the mask.
new and different by the late
nineteenth
was
century
white
The
modes
literature,
reinforcing
see
the emotional
crowd.
The
appetites
execution
became
torture,
as
screen,
Between
War
to
to see
the Governor
were
ritual
participatory
spectacle
the benefit
Sam
a black
Hose,
of
as
prolonged
of the crowd,
The
in
burned
man,
a slice
Sam
of
displayed
prominently
Hose's
heart.
in the window
His
of
severed
an Atlanta
The examples abounded and the details could numb themind and
deaden
the senses.
were
spectators
chine
operators,
men
were
family
io
OAH
Magazine
ordinary
teachers,
and women
the men
Most
disturbingly,
in this fashion
and murdered
dismembered,
Laurence
as two or
to as long
years, and in a few places
in
resulted
losses
"crippling"
for the transit
and
companies
Dunbar,
or who
farmers,
people?merchants,
doctors,
and women,
of History
lawyers,
churchgoing
January
stood
policemen,
came
folk who
2004
who
by
tortured,
as passive
laborers,
students.
to believe
and
private
developed
even
ma
They
that
and
hacks,
carriages,
drays,
transit
informal
a temporary
Jim Crow
they mobilized
walked,
in several
and
systems
suspension
ordinance.
the
cities,
companies.
protestors
Rucker
Lucy
recalled a childhood inAtlanta inwhich she walked to school every day
rather
than
ride on
compliance
"We didn't
place
where
Although
ties,
streetcar.
the segregated
"If you can't get the same
to walk."
Non
told her,
father
"you're
going
amatter
in this family became
of self-pride.
Jim Crow
we did not go to the theater.
And
the streetcar;
any
her
accommodations,"
store.
grocery
Confederacy.
boy
in effectiveness,
varied
Blacks
a
theater,
was reported to have immediately left for the state capitol hoping to
deliver
of the
The
cotts
of
but
knuckles
state
in every
five cities
Lyrics of Lowly Life (1896)
Georgia,
were
cut off and passed
only after his ears, toes and fingers
torn out, and
as souvenirs,
to the crowd
his eyes gouged,
his tongue
afterwards
his heart was cut out and
his flesh cut in strips with knives;
over the souvenirs
and one of the lynchers
crowd
sliced. The
fought
1899
alive,
laws by
ranging in length from a few
?Paul
public
a voyeuristic
death,
for seven hours?for
to Newman,
to
responded
Jim Crow
of street
boycotts
inmore
than twenty
organizing
car lines
former
freed
of slavery.
and World
1890
I, blacks
the new
us, while
a race
posed
by
the restraints
from
three
possible?once
as favors
distributed
and souvenirs.
severed
parts
bodily
out exceeded
the most
vivid of imaginations.
brutalities
meted
on a
trains
afternoon
Excursion
thousands
Sunday
brought
long
with
did
to ex
gers, vividly depicted on the
of the
and
mutilation,
the cinema
any historian
weeks
violence.
longer
in 1915,
than
to
the "Negro problem"
plain
the American
dan
people?the
the
of pun
satisfied
ordinary
no
ishment
taught
shows,
our eyes,?
and shades
sadism and exhibitionism that
characterized
assump
of racial
complex
the superiority
of
commer
caricatures,
newspaper
a
race
and vaudeville
of
buffoons
depicted
and comforting
in their racial beliefs
whites
and
Popular
minstrel
Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
to have
"They had
racist
a
grounds
degen
hereditary
Anglo Saxons and disparaged blacks as primitive and inferior, the least
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
of
man
as to
justify
and
scholars
validated
theories
reputable
intellectual
and genetic
inferiority,
to traditional
footnotes
scholarly
providing
deficiencies,
cial products,
and half-wits,
our cheeks
It hides
so dramatically
a black
miseducated
a way
the South's denial of constitutional rights to blacks. The newly emerging
buy another. Kill a nigger hire
another,'"
Historians
in such
the past
interpreting
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
and submission.
itwas,
or uncon
fiends
another.
more
and
the cheapness
of crazed
No matter how many whites deplored lynching and terrorism, they
lynching
victims,
was
This
community.
practices. And with Birth of a
black life in the South. "In
days
the
trolled barbarians but the triumph of a belief system that defined one
mostly
to
said by whites
als of deference
those
that if left unchecked would be detrimental to the health and security of
observer
(10). The
in their place, whether
or
people
by statutes
by terror, was
a way of
an
or virus
than pest control,
combating
epidemic
Nation
who had not yet learned theritu
underscored
less
were
of Reconstruction
Nothing
of racial
a
to have
that you had
race relations"
equitable
have been born into the false
teachings
to questions
an
too often,
than
all
competition?and
an
assumption
to preserve
sometimes
then
and
just
crimes
black
the
outright
"Every Negro
in 1937, "knows
a kind of
observed
that he is under
John Dollard
of death; he does not know when
itmay never
his turn will come,
South,"
come,
intimidation
keeping
nothing
with
ride
it was
segregated,
the boycotts
and
neither
white
altered
they
Few
Jim Crow.
and blacks
lacked
lines.
In the
(12).
be
insult"
"gratuitous
for very
sustained
long,
to run compet
necessary
of community-organized
on improving
energies
the equal
of their white
them
their
first-class
paying
so much
not
idea was
resented
made
it was
fares
to end
inequality. Not until World War
in substantial
for
numbers
it clear
unwanted
second-class
racial
IIwould
challenge
communi
black
protests,
blacks
segregated
facili
absence
increasingly
to make
ties, trying
number
of black
spokesmen
where
their presence
impose
women
go"
energized
nor the
could
the boycotts
resources
the financial
focused
The
didn't
protests
attitudes
of
of
ing
we
they
but
by whites,
accommodations.
separation
as
to
they
to eradicate
individual black men
Jim Crow
A
counterparts.
did not wish
laws
and
by violat
compartment,
And
nearly
to leave their seats
and refusing
forcible
ejection,
injuries,
risking
a century
to pass
half
would
have
foundations
of
them,
ing
mass
were
Jim Crow
confronted
VICTORY IS LOST. WE, THEREFORE, RESPECTFULLY
DIRECT YOUR ATTENTION TO THE LAWS and CUSTOMS
OF THE STATE IN REGARD TO SEGREGATION. YOUR
COOPERATION IN CARRYING THEM OUT WILL MAKE
THE WAR SHORTER and VICTORY SOONER. AVOID FRIC
TION. BE PATRIOTIC. WHITE PASSENGERS WILL BE
SEATED FROM FRONT TO REAR: COLORED PASSEN
GERS FROM REAR TO FRONT.
in the white-only
fines.
jail, and
sitting
before
by
directly
the
an
very
organized
movement.
so many
in 1890
Like
Louisiana
the
to which
compartment
race he
by
and
purchasing
from New Orleans
Railway
car. Not
whites-only
does
violated
class
to
he
Covington,
the demand
heeding
by
or
"a coach
a
Plessy,
under
the
rights
To look at the black experience during World War II is to discern
to challenge
it in
East Louisiana
few
a vacant
or
the
took
that he
enacted
Homer
his
on
ticket
law
to enter
chose
Amendments,
a first
After
passenger
not belong."
statute
the
claiming
Fourteenth
the
statutes,
segregation
any railroad
black,
light-skinned
Thirteenth
court.
of
forbade
in a
seat
an
to one vote, rejected
eight
accommodations
that were
and found
appeal
but
The
"equal
separate."
on race. "Social
prejudices,"
overwhelming
with
problem
race with
the colored
stamps
"If
this be so,
observed,
it is not
a
by
race
to put that construction
the colored
chooses
solely because
it." Equal
in any event,
"an enforced
did not
rights,
require
of the two races," and any effort to force such commin
commingling
race relations.
to the
"If one race be inferior
gling would
only exacerbate
other
the Constitution
cannot
of the United
States
socially,
put them
but
upon
the same
upon
been
The
plane."
more
enunciated
could not have
supremacy
came from
lone dissent
of white
doctrine
the
clearly.
Ironically,
a southern
justice
Harlan,
John Marshall
to regulate
the states
civil
permitting
the Court had deprived
race," he argued,
and son of a slaveowner.
By
the basis
of
"solely upon
rights
black men
and women
of equal
quality of their lives and freedom depended on the whims, will, and
decision,
for more
force
than
or state. The court's
locality
structure
of Jim Crow,
in
remained
a century,
as did the
and
reality of separate
half
still drawn.
the
Through
mechanisms
mained
first
three
in their
decades
that
the
regulated
intact. No wonder
mostly
of
the
twentieth
of black men
place
the cynicism
and questioning
express
over
outrage
the plight
of
Jews while
Americans
home?
fight
The
abroad
questions
in defense
only
of
grew more
freedoms
insistent
to
denied
as the war
them
at
progressed.
The patriotic hype and sloganeering found no ready acceptance in black
America.
for what?.
"Fight
. .This
war
doesn't
a
mean
to me.
thing
If
we win I lose, so what?" A black youth about to be inducted into the
Army
killed
exclaimed,
fighting
a
"Just carve
man
yellow
Perhaps nothing
of
hypocrisy
fought
buses
than
under
on my
tombstone,
for the protection
'Here
man'"
(14).
illustrated more graphically or symbolically the
the democratic
under
which
slogans
in
all
the
Charleston,
sign appearing
a
emblem:
large red "V for Victory"
the
lies a black man
of a white
the United
South
States
Carolina,
racial
a
consciousness
in the
thousands
violated or
and women
in the ways military
service
abroad
on the
nature
of
provincial
and
IImarked
War
to American
Americans
after
century
the ways
and
rhetoric
perspective
of African
Nearly
black
tensions,
individual black men
segregated society at home?World
the Civil War,
gave
their
a shift in the
society.
battlefields?Mont
on new
New
Little
Orleans,
Rock,
Jackson,
over the
would
be fought
of
meaning
Selma,
Birmingham,
others?another
struggle
freedom inAmerica. This time itwould be fought in the context of the
of World
experience
War
rapidly
would
II, a new
and
world,
changing
force the United
States
a
of black Americans,
generation
climate
of political
that
necessity
as a leader of the free world
to reassess
a new
the traditional position of inferiority assigned to black people. More
a million
than
black
safe for democracy.
and
strategies
selves.
Americans
After
had
the war,
fought
even
a war
No
to make
numbers
larger
to make
the United
ideologies
to contain
longer did they feel the need
States
their
the world
developed
safe for
anger,
new
them
or to veil
their feelings:
I feel my
hell
a-risin',
a-risin'
I feel my
hell
a-risin',
a-risin'
it'll bust
Someday
world
away
ran so
indifferent to the lynching and brutalization of black Americans? How
could a Jim Crow army fight for a free world? How could black
revolutionized
in the
heightened
expectations,
relationship
re
remaining
(15)
and far-reaching
ways?in
between
the democratic
even
increased,
Jim Crow,
challenged
a new
black
soldiers
the
century,
and women
horn!
freedom's
of instances in which
deep in the black community during World War II.How could white
Americans
relations
inWashington
blowing
practices,
and
treatment.
unequal
race
governing
Americans.
still dirty.
yet, in some
significant
dramatized
the disparity
And
the war
racial
line's
there
up
among
to agree.
for a majority
of the Supreme
Court
was
in Plessy v.
The decision
in its
less than dramatic
Ferguson
most
For
black
it
underscored
and
rein
southerners,
impact.
simply
forced what
knew
from
the
they already
personal
experience?that
of a majority
of whites
with
the
elaborate
along
car's
color
gomery,
protection before the law (13). Itwould require another fifty-eight years
toleration
Jim Crow's
The
They're
of inferiority,"
Justice Brown
of anything
in the act,
found
badge
reason
The
Yet
Plessy's
views
embraced
majority
opinion
popular
wrote
B. Brown
not be "overcome
for the majority,
may
Justice Henry
were
to eradicate
and
bodies
racial
by legislation,"
"powerless
legislative
instincts."
the idea that "the enforced
of the two
Rejecting
separation
races
mechanisms
interlocking
racial attitudes
of white
that car, Plessy
leave
was forcibly ejected and placed in the parish jail of New Orleans.
In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the United States Supreme Court, by
no
in the
changes
in the dominant
The
and
white
this
every day;
every day;
levee and wash
the whole
wide
. . . (16).
conviction
black
men
America
to be did not have
that the way
it used
to be,
grew
and women
to that
would
in ways
give voice
feeling
could no longer
ignore.
Endnotes
i. As quoted in Leon F. Litwack, Trouble inMind: Black Southerners
Inc., 1998) xiv.
Jim Crow (New York: Alfred A. Knopff,
2. David McCrae,
at Home: Pen and Ink Sketches
The Americans
in the Age of
of American
2 vols.
and Institutions,
Men, Manners,
(Edinburgh, UK, 1870). See also
Howard N. Rabinowitz,
"From Exclusion
to Segregation:
Southern Race
of American
Relations,
Journal
1865-1890,"
History
63 (September
Race Relations
in the Urban South 1865
1976): 325-50, and Rabinowitz,
Press, 1978), 197.
1890 (New York: Oxford Universtiry
Proud Shoes: The Story of an American
3. Pauli Murray,
Family
(New York:
Harper,
1956), 268.
4. Benjamin
1971),
E. Mays,
26.
On
Born
to Rebel: An
(New York: Scribner,
Autobiography
associated
see Neil R.
with
automobiles,
the etiquette
VICTORY DEMANDS YOUR COOPERATION. IF PEOPLES
OF THIS COUNTRY'S RACES DO NOT PULL TOGETHER,
See Litwack
OAH
Magazine
of History
January
/ Page
2004
58 >
11
bered
as
questioning
and even
blacks
the prejudiced
a child
the poorest
way,
the
didn't
they
distinction
whites
between
and
that
learning
to get
blacks
want
for
schooling
"in that time,
in
educated."
The film conveys the texture and tone of life under
through
Dorsey
Flemin'"
personal
talks about
and
as well
accounts
two
"Good
local
as visual
Rockin'
renderings.
as "Good
known
officers,
police
who
Floyd,"
Jim Crow
Dr.
L. C.
Rockin'
brutalized
routinely
most
of them out of
men
one
and
people,
facial expressions
his eyes, mumbles
of
we
town.
the
Dr.
As
The
from
the
clip, probably
a group
of four white
"You tell these
command
men
white
for years?" One
your friend
and movement
of the black man
a faint
to read
strains
been
white
humiliation,
marked
man.
black
haven't
and
and
harassed
local blacks,
effectively
keeping
evocative
is a film
the most
Among
episodes
an encounter
late 1950s, documenting
between
as he
enactment
It is a compelling
and
subservience
arrogance,
gestured
that
were
people
beaten
down
by this
accommo
of resistance
and
strategies
to stand up
for her willingness
notable
Carter
enrolled
her
had
the opportunity,
soon
as she
As
fight.
in the public
Carters were
the only black family
children
schools?the
to do so. "Somebody
in them,"
in their community
had to do it if itwas
"It was
in me."
of
She understood
that the freedom
Carter
explained.
and
choice
was
plan
as a way
designed
to get
around
order "because they think they know black folk so well."
The
white
to enter
students
of the first black
experience
in a mosaic
is recounted
here
schools
all
previously
of memory
from
the
to the
in 1965,
the first
Carter
entered
child?who
youngest
grade
is
in which
the experience
whites
remembered
The ways
oldest.
as well. One white
the years,
back across
woman,
looking
highlighted
want
to attend Drew
the Carters
would
bewildered.
still seemed
Why
High School when theywould be excluded from all of the social events
that defined the high school experience formany young people? "For
me,"
Carter
Gloria
we
school...
The
assaults,
physical
about
her feelings
"itwas
remembered,
were
excitement
getting
[about]
to go to a better
in the face of daily taunts, abuses,
dissipated
quickly
to describe
seeks words
Ruth Carter
and ostracism.
the experience,
sad, sick, depressed,
"angry,
to think about
"I don't even want
recalls,
Litwack
and
brother
sisters
the cafeteria,
avoided
every
lunch
a crowded
she
and her
tried to befriend
students,
elementary
out to them because
"Our hearts went
they
sister,
cost was
the personal
children
is one
the Carter
not insignificant,
of achievement
of their parents
and a small network
support
an education
not
obtained
that would
they
a decade
on
and went
earlier
in the end,
success.
and
of civil
have
story
the
activists,
rights
been
careers.
to successful
the
With
less
possible
But the
last
to the Drew pubic
schools
what has happened
part of the film recounts
to
It is a tale of white
since
the 1970s.
of the
academies,
private
flight
and
of
starved
and
of
schools,
resegregation
public
budgets
crumbling
in a regretful
citizen
As one local white
facilities.
tone, the
explained,
a chance;
never
vast majority
of white
gave
parents
integration
they
were unwilling or incapable of considering how itwould benefit their
children
and
Law
the community
there was
remarked,
as after
to change
The Intolerable
lives
human
at large. As veteran
civil rights activist W.
submission
the "same kind of reluctant
the Civil War."
Burden
and
a sober
offers
a
for
potential
society
resources
assessment
that, while
of
the
cost
in
public
Drew
squeezing
construction.
to prison
devotes
education,
increasing
the connections
is a metaphor
for many
communities,
illustrating
a
economic
school
system,
among
underdevelopment,
public
failing
black
of disproportionately
and a growing
young
prison
population
one
was how
men.
has
has
changed,"
changed;
nothing
"Everything
summed
person
of Mae
spirit
who
Carter,
In the
rights movement.
to fight
for the education
of the civil
the aftermath
up
Bertha
continued
who
has
it in them
to do
about
something
it.Q
American
and African
associate
Sullivan,
of History
professor
wrote
most
Freedom
at University
South
Carolina,
recently
of
Foster Durr, Letters from the Civil Rights Years
(2003).
Virginia
Patricia
Studies
/ From page n
in the Age of Jim Crow
Dark Journey: Black Mississippians
IL: University
of Illinois Press,
1989), 11.
(Urbana,
Dark Journey,
11;Norfolk Journal & Guide March 27,1915, Hunter
5.McMillen,
Box 13 (1871-1928), Charles N. Hunter
Papers, Duke Univer
Scrapbooks,
in
the
South
Race
Thomas
(New York: The
Orthodoxy
Bailey,
sity Library;
L. Grant, The Way It
Neal Publishing
Company,
1914), 79; and Donald
Carol
in Georgia
Was in the South: The Black Experience
(Secaucus,NJ:
Group,
1993), 170.
Publishing
6. Murray,
Proud Shoes, 269-70.
7. Lawrence W. Levine, Black Culture
University
Press,
1977),
and Black
Consciousness
(New York:
311-12.
8. Ibid.
9.
While
of
Writer:
McMillen,
Oxford
how
as
students
would
and desks
pull their chairs
students
year old girl as possible.
Very few white
across
to reach
the chasm
of race.
Janet Free
of all children until her death five years ago, this film implicitly asks
excited."
Carter
Stanley
thing."
time." He and his
recalled
W.
the desegregation
the white
time,
Carter.
and Deborah
Beverly
were
children
just like us."
than
system.
segregation
some
suggests,
Dorsey
others
system,
developed
Mae
Bertha Carter was
cruel
dation.
each
far away from the eight
broke
from
the pack
the
averts
grins,
of the ritual
yes.
if they sat down, white
students
scattered
"as if a bomb had
space where,
to the outdoors,
been dropped."
the
lunch
retreated
During
period,
they
even on the coldest winter
the
School,
James Elementary
days. At A. W.
to sit near
teacher
decided
that no student
be required
should
third
more
at a time. So she rotated
than a week
them,
grader Pearl Carter for
Caste
John Dollard,
Institute of Human
and Class
in a Southern
Relations
(New Haven,
Town, Publication
CT: Yale University
J937)> 359
10. McMillen,
224.
Oral History
11.Ruth Hill, ed., The Black Women
CT: Meckler,
287.
1991)^111:282,
for
the
Press,
12. Ibid.
13. Plessy v. Ferguson,
16} US. 537 (1896).
"American Negroes
and the War," Harper's
April 1942,
14. Earl Brown,
Horace
Folks," Nation
155 (September
Clayton,
"Fighting for White
1942): 268.
song.
15. Popular
blues musician.
16. Anonymous
Leon
January 2004
F.
American
Litwack
History
F.
is the Alexander
at the University
and May
of California,
T. Morrison
Berkeley.
Professor
In addition
of
to
Trouble inMind his other books include Been in the Storm So Long: The
Aftermath of Slavery, for which he received thePulitzer Prize in history and
the Parkman
Prize,
and North
of Slavery:
The
Negro
in the Free
States,
1790-1860. A recipient of the Guggenheim Prize, he is the author of
numerous
Project,
10 vol.
(Westport,
American
Jordan,
58 OAH Magazine of History
546.
26,
articles
and
has
history. The United
is now in its seventh
edited
collections
important
a textbook he coauthoredwith
several
States,
edition.
of essays
Winthrop
in