Life+in+Jim+Crow+America+5.7.2012


 * 1) 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?  The Fourteenth Amendment grants citizenship to anyone born in the United States and denies any abridging of rights, immunities, and privileges of citizens of the US. This includes Due Process of Law and equal protection of law. This means that someone who is African American, like me, gets the same trial, jury and ruling as a person of any other color. It also means that I get the same protection of any law that may apply to the situation. **


 * 2) 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? In 1892 Homer Plessy was jailed for sitting in the "White Car" on a train in LA. Even though Plessy was only 1/8 Black, he was considered African American by LA law. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which said that seperate facilities were constitutional as long as they were "equal". **


 * 3) 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 was a character in a skit performed by Thomas Dartmouth Rice, a white man in the late 1820s, who used blackface makeup in his skits. Jim Crow became a racial slur by about 1838 and later was used in reference to the laws that oppresed African Americans. **

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 * 4) What are some specific examples of the Jim Crow laws from southern states? How did the laws affect you? Which on edo you feel is the worst? Some particularly terrible laws were those that made interracial marriage illeagal, my cousin, Dan, wanted to marry a white woman and had to uproot his entire life and move North to be able to leagally marry his wife. **


 * 5) What did Jim Crow America look like in the 1900s? What are some images that can help explain the realities of the time? **


 * 6) What happened in the Scottsboro Case? How did it make you feel as an African American in the South? The Scottsboro Case was a horrible trail, pursued by two white women, dressed as men, were afraid of the consequences their own sexual activity aboard a frieght train would bring, accused nine African American boys of rape. There was no proof that the boys had done this, and it made me feel that I was betrayed by the court of my own country. **


 * 7) Why should anyone care about your life during Jim Crow America? Life in Jim Crow America was about more than just the laws that segregated Blacks and Whites. Living in Jim Crow America was living in fear, in desolation, and in deprevation. My friends and I could not recieve the same education or service that White people could. If we set our sights too high, became to confident or sucessful, the White man looked upon it as a reason to prosecute, harass, and assault someone of African descent. **