Life+in+Jim+Crow+America

**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 14th Amendment granted us citizenship and protects the civil liberties of freed slaves. I think that due process means that states cannot be denied their freedoms unless something in the law grants them too. Equal protection of the laws means that everyone is protected by the same laws and someone else can't say otherwise.

**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] Oh boy did this case really make me angry. Homer Plessy wanted to sit on the white car and he could have easily passed due to his light complexion, but Louisiana declared that he was black. The Separate Car Act was passed in Louisiana which upset black civil rights organizations. Plessy sat in the white car and stated that he was black, he was than arrested. He and his lawyer argued that it went against the thirteenth a nd fourteenth amendments. The decision was that it was constitutional to have different things for colored and white people, though, it was said each thing had to be equal. The impact of all this was that t he "separate but equal" doctrine was made and it covered many areas of public life, such as restaurants, theaters, restrooms, and public schools. 

**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 actually not a person, but a name in a song written by Thomas Dartmouth Rice. Rice was one of the first actors to paint themselves black with burnt cork. He then would sing his song and do his dance about Jim Crow. People began to use Jim Crow as a racial slur because Rice had stereotyped blacks and showed that they were lazy, stupid, not a human, and unworthy of integration. Jim Crow did not write laws because he was not a person but instead, the laws were called Jim Crow laws because they oppressed black customs just like Rice did when he was playing the Jim Crow song.

One of the Jim Crow laws I remember said that us black people were not aloud to be in the same classroom at school. Another law said that men and women in jail would be broken up. White women with white women and so on. White people were not aloud to marry black people. For shows and such, white people would get one area for themselves, while black people would have their own area. Separate accommodations on buses and cars for blacks and whites. All these laws affected me and other blacks because we were constantly discriminated and would always have a separate room than the whites did. Whites and blacks could not live together due to these acts making segregation increase.
 * 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]

Jim Crow American in the 1900s was awful. Whites and blacks were constantly being separated. Most of the time, white people would get better treatment than us blacks. Discrimination and segregation were still huge at the time. The lynching photos showed that lynching was still condoned. Many black people lost their lives from lynching due to the rough discrimination we faced. Another photo that would help explain is the picture of the black man being pulled off a white man's bus. Does color really matter so much that we must have different buses just because of the color of our skin.
 * What did Jim Crow America look like in the 1900s? What are some images that can help explain the realities of the time?** __Jim Crow Images LINK 1 __/ [|Jim Crow Images LINK 2]

Now the Scottsboro Case was just plain out wrong. Nine youths were riding on a train when they got in a tussle with a couple of white hobos. They threw the hobos off and the hobos reported to the stationmaster. He told the train to stop a town where many men were lined up ready to take the youths away. Two women, who had nothing at all to do with the case, said that they would testify against the youths. The women accused the youths of rapping them. I felt that this was an outrage because the story was completely untrue and many people knew it wasn't the correct story. Also, each youth except one was punished to death. The women lied and said something so overboard that it is almost disgusting to think about it.
 * What happened in the Scottsboro Case? How did it make you feel as an African American in the South?** [|Scottsboro LINK]

<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">**What do some of your friends and family say about life in Jim Crow America? (listen to one or two)** <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[|Audio History LINK 1] One thing that George Butterfield told me I could almost not believe. His uncle was about to die and he needed doctore attendance soon. So, George called a doctor and they waited. After 8 hours, the white doctor had finally arrived. Though, it was too late for George's uncle. He had passed on to a better place because as the doctor said, black patients would always come last. That just makes me sick to have a black man die because the white doctor thought he was superior in a way.