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Read the reading answer the questions (total 150 words)
Then reply to two students below (each 100 words)
Marisa
Andrew
1
Lecture 3: Jim Crow
In college courses, US history is often divided in half. At Saddleback, we offer a class called
Hist 22 (Basic US history), which pretends to cover “all” of US history in one semester. We also
divide US history in half and offer two different courses: Hist 16 (US history to 1876) and Hist
17 (US history since 1876). Why is 1876-77 a dividing point?
The previous lecture looked at the year 1876—a national centennial and the Little Bighorn battle.
This lecture will start with 1877—why is that year significant?
But first this message from our sponsor:
Saddleback College—stay in the saddle!
Did you survive Week 1? Did you read both lectures, participate in both discussions, read both
chapters and write answers to all four questions? Yes? Fantastic! Now do this again for seven
more weeks. No? Uh, oh. Better have a long talk with the boss (you) and decide if you are up
to this. Maybe online classes are not for you. Maybe college classes are not for you. (That’s
okay. Having a college degree will probably allow you to earn much more money over the
length of your career, but it won’t necessarily make you a better person. There are other ways to
proceed in life without going to college.) Or maybe you just need to start taking your formal
education seriously. You can do it! Stay in the saddle!
Remember, if you have questions regarding class assignments, send me an email.
Now, onward to 1877. Backward to 1877. Why 1877?
2
For historians, the major event in the 19th-century US history was the War of Secession. [This is
usually called the “Civil War,” but that sounds to me like a euphemism and an oxymoron, seeing
how civil (polite or kind) is the opposite of war.] After the War of Secession (1861-65),
historians talk about Reconstruction (1865-77). So, in the middle of US history is a period called
“Civil War and Reconstruction” when the country was divided in half. But it ended in 1877
when the country reunited and things returned to “normal.” Thus, 1877 is significant because it
is seen as the end of an unusual period in US history.
Before we go any further, we should have a brief understanding of Reconstruction.
In 1861, the state governments in the South voted to leave the USA and create their own country,
the Confederate States of America (CSA). The Southern politicians voted to leave the USA
because they feared that the US government would end slavery. The Southern economy and
society was based upon the brutal enslavement of African Americans.
Wealthy white
Southerners did not want this to end. But when they voted to secede (separate) from the USA,
Northern politicians, led by Pres. Abraham Lincoln, rejected their decision. When CSA soldiers
began attacking a US fort in South Carolina, Lincoln declared the South “in rebellion” and built
an army to destroy the rebel army. After four years of warfare (1861-65), the rebel army
surrendered to Lincoln’s Union army. One key reason the rebellion failed was because many
African Americans used the opportunity to flee slavery and support the Union Army.
3
At the end of the war, the Union Army occupied the South as conquered territory and began the
process of reconstructing the Union. In other words, bringing the South back into the US
political system after wealthy slave owners had rejected that system. One of the biggest issues
was the status of the slaves. After the war, Congress enacted three constitutional amendments.
-13th: no slavery
-14th: anyone born in the US is a citizen (even blacks), and states must give all citizens
the “equal protection of the laws”
-15th: states cannot deny the right to vote based on “race, color or previous condition of
servitude”
Simply put, slavery was outlawed, blacks were now equal citizens, and black men could vote.
Hurrah! With the Union Army occupying the South to enforce US law, former slaves (called
“freedmen”) now had a chance to create new lives for themselves. They could acquire land,
build schools, and support their families, even run for office and vote (if they had the proper
male genitalia).
Southern whites resisted these changes. The wealthy landowners wanted to maintain a black
labor force that was poor, uneducated, scared, immobile, and politically powerless. They created
a terrorist organization called the Ku Klux Klan to keep blacks too scared to challenge white
authority. Poor whites also lacked education and power, but they told themselves, “At least
we’re superior to blacks.” White supremacy was a big part of their identity and self-esteem.
4
In 1876, the presidential election was marred by fraud, most obviously in the South, where
whites prevented black men from voting. The election was disputed and finally resolved by the
Compromise of 1877. In this political bargain, the Republicans (a Northern party) were allowed
to claim victory for their presidential candidate, Rutherford Hayes. In exchange, the Democrats
(with strong Southern white support) wanted the new president to withdraw Union soldiers from
the South. That’s the big moment in 1877: US forces left the South, Reconstruction was
over. Southern whites were now free to repress Southern blacks. Back to normal.
“Jim Crow” refers to the laws, traditions, and practices used by Southern whites to repress
blacks after slavery was outlawed. For Southern white supremacists, the challenge was how to
violate the Constitutional rights of blacks without bringing back the federal government and US
soldiers. Got that? Southern white landowners, politicians, lawmakers, and law enforcers
were trying to figure out how much violence and segregation they could get away with.
Voting
As soon as US soldiers left a region, Southern whites used terrorism to intimidate black men so
that they wouldn’t run for office or try to vote. Terrorism was also used against whites who
voted for Republicans (the party of Lincoln). Quickly, the Democrats regained control of
Southern governments and began making laws to repress blacks. They would have liked to ban
black voting, but that would violate the 15th Amendment and draw federal attention. Instead,
they created poll taxes (making it too expensive for blacks to vote) and literacy tests (which
were applied selectively and were impossible to pass).
5
Try this test:
Look at no. 4, then send me an email saying what you would circle. Seriously.
Labor
Because of the 13th Amendment and the threat of US forces, the white landowners couldn’t
reestablish slavery. But they found other means to maintain a labor force that was poor,
uneducated, scared, immobile, and politically powerless. Former slaves couldn’t afford to buy
land and didn’t have the cash to rent land, so they entered into sharecropping—which meant
giving the landowner a share (like 25% or more) of the cotton crop. In order to start farming,
they had to buy supplies (seed, tools, clothing, food) on credit from stores, which charged very
high interest rates (like 25% or higher).
6
The result was that many former slaves were so deep in debt that they could never get ahead.
Black folks were no longer bought and sold, they no longer had a brutal overseer pushing them
in the field, but they were doing the work and someone else was making the profits. This is
called “debt peonage.” It is also de facto slavery. De jure means by law. De facto means in
reality. By law, this wasn’t slavery. In reality, it was close.
But look at the 13th Amendment:
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the
party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place
subject to their jurisdiction.
So that’s cool: if we can convict you of a crime, then we can enslave you. Hurray! In the Jim
Crow South, the lawmakers, policemen, judges, and jurors were all whites. Racist whites.
Blacks didn’t have a chance. In fact, whites passed laws creating harsher sentences for theft and
arson (“black” crimes) than for rape and murder (“white” crimes). Blacks were convicted by
white juries and stuck on prison chain gangs—back to slavery. Convicted felons were denied
the right to vote forever. [This still exists in some Southern states.]
(chain gang street sweepers, Washington DC, 1909)
Segregation
In the Southern cities and town, blacks and whites interacted across racial lines. For whites, it
was important to constantly tell blacks that they were inferior. It was important for white selfesteem and it was important for keeping blacks too insecure to challenge the racist system. One
way of teaching inferiority was through segregation, which means separation—like preventing
black children from attending school with white children.
7
(Charlottesville, Virginia)
When Congress enacted the 14th Amendment, there was some discussion of outlawing all racial
discrimination. However, that would mean no school segregation and no bans on interracial
marriage, so many Northern whites (they were racist too!) were opposed to such a sweeping law.
Instead, the language agreed upon was “equal protection of the laws.” This is intentionally
vague language. What is “equal protection”? Whatever the courts say it is.
The segregation of public transportation was of particular concern to white supremacists. If
black people could afford a first-class ticket on a train or bus and sit next to a white person, they
were essentially equal while traveling together. This couldn’t be tolerated. State governments
passed laws requiring trains to have cars for whites and cars for blacks. The train companies,
which were usually headquartered in the North, didn’t want to provide separate cars, so they
supported a challenge to these laws, as did Southern blacks. The famous case is Plessy v.
Ferguson (1896).
POP QUIZ: Which of these fine fellows was arrested for riding a train while black?
a)
b)
c)
8
Here’s a hint: two of those guys were US presidents, the other was arrested.
The fact is, white guys with full beards all look alike.
As further evidence, take a look at this photo of your professor:
Here’s the answer: c
a) Pres. Rutherford Hayes
b) Pres. James Garfield
c) Homer Plessy
Plessy’s skin was pale, but he had a grandmother who was “black,” so, according to Louisiana
law, he was 1/8 black, therefore black. Today, we call this the “one-drop rule.”
The “one-drop rule” shows you the prevalence and ridiculousness of racism in US society, even
today. Biologically, there are no races, just the human race. Race is a social construct based
on white imaginations. (If you don’t understand this, ask in the Discussion Board. Don’t be
afraid to ask. It’s okay if you don’t yet understand. Asking is the first step toward learning.)
9
Most “black” folks in the US probably have “white” ancestors (in part, because white slave
owners, like Thomas Jefferson, raped slave women). But in the white imagination, any person
with a little “black” blood is automatically “black.” They’ve been tainted. So we talk about
“light-skinned blacks” but not “dark-skinned whites.”
People with naturally tan skin are
frequently asked, “What are you?” People in US society are obsessed with race and want to
know what category to put you in, black or white or something else, because they think “race”
(mostly identified by skin color and facial features) tells us something about character.
Discussion Question: Have you ever noticed the “one-drop rule” in use today?
10
Back to Homer Plessy. In 1892, the Comité des Citoyens (Committee of Citizens) of New
Orleans recruited the 30-year-old shoemaker to challenge train segregation because he could pass
as white. Plessy boarded a “whites-only” train car without any interference. Here’s what
happened next:
Conductor: Good afternoon, sir. Ticket?
Plessy: Yessir. Right here. By the way, I’m colored.
Conductor: Beg pardon?
Plessy: That’s right. I’m a colored man in the whites-only carriage.
Conductor: Quit playing.
Plessy: My French grandfather entered into holy matrimony with a Haitian woman.
Conductor: Yer colored?
Plessy: So I’m told, mon ami.
Conductor: You look like the president.
Plessy: Perhaps he’s colored too.
Conductor: Y’all pranking me, right? Am I on camera?
Plessy: On ne sait jamais.
Conductor: I don’t speak no French.
Plessy: People say I’m seven-eighths white.
Conductor: You mean one-eighth Negro?
Plessy: N’importe quoi.
Conductor: Well, that makes you colored. Y’all don’t sound colored.
Plessy: Word, dawg. My daddy’s mama, she be black, yo.
Conductor: STOP THE TRAIN!
Plessy: That’s what I’m talkin’ about!
Conductor: CALL THE SHERIFF!
Plessy: Hey, get off me!
(FIN)
11
Yo, it didn’t go down like that. The conductor was required by law to ask the passenger if he
was a “colored man.” Plessy admitted that he was but refused to move to the “colored” car.
Plessy was arrested on under the Louisiana Separate Car Act, which required “all railway
companies [to] provide equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored
races.”
The law stated that “any passenger insisting on going into a coach or
compartment to which by race he does not belong, shall be liable to a fine of twenty-five
dollars, or in lieu thereof to imprisonment for a period of not more than twenty days in
the parish prison.”
Plessy’s arrest had been carefully planned in advance by the Comité des Citoyens, with support
of the train company. They wanted a case that would force the federal courts to strike down the
law. Instead, in Plessy v Ferguson (1896), the US Supreme Court—a bunch of white men—
ruled that the 14th Amendment was obeyed if state law required the train company to provide
“separate but equal” accommodations. In other words, “equal protection of the laws” could
mean “equal but segregated.” Equal train cars for black and for white.
In other words, the federal government was going to look the other way while Southern whites
totally segregated the South, keeping blacks separate. Which they did. Laws and customs soon
segregated buses, trains, taxis, restaurants, stores, hotels, brothels, schools, drinking fountains,
restrooms, parks, ticket windows, work entrances, graveyards, churches, neighborhoods,
swimming pools, beaches, and just about any other public space.
Of course, when separate facilities were provided for blacks, they were almost never equal. For
example, white school boards made sure that the black children went to schools that were
inferior in every way: quality of buildings, quality of books, quality of teachers’ salaries. Like
this poor schoolhouse:
12
So that was Jim Crow segregation, enforced by law and terrorism, and it wasn’t outlawed until
the 1960s. Here’s a general timeline:
-race-based slavery, 1619-1865
-law-enforced segregation, 1619-1968
-de facto segregation, 1968-present (our society is still segregated by race, though no
longer legally enforced)
Lynching
Lynch means “to kill a person for some supposed offense without due trial.” In the early 20th
century, whites lynched blacks, often by hanging, as a way to enforce Jim Crow. By lynching a
black person, whites kept entire black communities scared to challenge the status quo. If whites
had wanted to punish blacks for crimes, lynching was hardly necessary. They could just arrest
them and hand them over to the courts, where they stood no chance of justice. Lynching wasn’t
about punishing crime, it was about maintaining total white supremacy.
Lynching was done with impunity—the murderers went unpunished—because the legislators,
governors, judges, police, jurors, and prosecutors were almost entirely racist whites who
supported the Jim Crow system. Lynching was a way of saying we can torture and kill you at
any time, in public, in front of dozens of witnesses and captured on film, just because we want
to. Your survival depends on our mercy. We own you. De facto slavery.
13
White males were particularly obsessed with the possibility of romance between black men and
white women. This was for several reasons. Southern white men had been raping black women
for centuries and they (wrongly) assumed that black men would reciprocate. As we’ve already
seen, Southern whites were obsessed with blood “purity,” so they viewed sexual relations
between a black man and white women as particularly dangerous. Furthermore, the ideology of
white superiority and blacks as subhuman would be exposed as a fraud if a white woman
expressed love and affection toward a black man. Interracial marriages were outlawed in the
South and in some Northern states. Lynching was used to intimidate anyone even considering
interracial romance. A black male who touched a white woman, even accidentally, or looked at
her the “wrong” way or talked “fresh” was liable to be murdered. The killers often accused their
victims of “rape.” The cartoons illustrates white fears of black males (which still exists today).
(from Raleigh, NC, 1900)
14
Lynching was most common in the South, a carryover from slavery. Most victims were black.
Lynchings: By State and Race, 1882-1968 *
State
White
Black
Total
Alabama
48
299
347
Arizona
31
0
31
Arkansas
58
226
284
California
41
2
43
Colorado
65
3
68
Delaware
0
1
1
Florida
25
257
282
Georgia
39
492
531
Idaho
20
0
20
Illinois
15
19
34
Indiana
33
14
47
Iowa
17
2
19
Kansas
35
19
54
Kentucky
63
142
205
Louisiana
56
335
391
Maine
1
0
1
Maryland
2
27
29
Michigan
7
1
8
Minnesota
5
4
9
Mississippi
42
539
581
Missouri
53
69
122
Montana
82
2
84
Nebraska
52
5
57
Nevada
6
0
6
New Jersey
1
1
2
New Mexico
33
3
36
New York
1
1
2
North Carolina
15
86
101
North Dakota
13
3
16
Ohio
10
16
26
Oklahoma
82
40
122
Oregon
20
1
21
Pennsylvania
2
6
8
South Carolina
4
156
160
15
South Dakota
27
0
27
Tennessee
47
204
251
Texas
141
352
493
Utah
6
2
8
Vermont
1
0
1
Virginia
17
83
100
Washington
25
1
26
West Virginia
20
28
48
Wisconsin
6
0
6
Wyoming
30
5
35
Total
1,297
3,446
4,743
*Statistics provided by the Archives at Tuskegee Institute.
As you might expect, most lynchings
were in the South, where whites were
trying to keep blacks oppressed.
But why so many lynchings in
Montana? That was whites killing
Chinese railroad workers.
Please stand as we sing
the national anthem.
Ever heard of Betsy Ross? Her grandson claimed that his aunt had told him that Betsy had sewn
the first US flag, in 1776. In 1870, he told this family story in public. With the 1876 centennial
celebration coming on and white citizens looking for national heroes, the tale of Betsy Ross and
the flag caught on. Perhaps you learned it in elementary school: Betsy Ross made the first flag.
Even if it is true, who gives a flying fish?
16
Teacher: Boys and girls, Betsy Ross sewed the first “Stars and Stripes.”
Student: Is it true?
Teacher: Of course. I wouldn’t lie to you.
Student: How do you know it’s true?
Teacher: Uh…it’s just one of those things that everyone knows.
Student: Why are you telling us about Betty Rose?
Teacher: Betsy Ross. She’s important.
Student: Why?
Teacher: She made the first flag and gave it to George Washington.
Student: Couldn’t we learn about more interesting women?
Teacher: There’s Dolly Madison. When British troops burned the presidential mansion, she saved George
Washington’s portrait.
Where are my slaves?
Shouldn’t they be doing this?
They done gone over to
the British, ma’am. British
promising freedom.
Betsy Ross and Dolly Madison. Yawn! And teachers wonder why students hate history class.
Ever heard of I …
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