1877-1965

Jim Crow Era

Radical Reconstruction Gains

13th Amendment Makes slavery illegal

14th Amendment Provided citizenship for naturalized

15th Amendment Male suffrage

Political Success African American Senators- Hiram Revels and Blanche Bruce

Who was Jim Crow?

The term Jim Crow is believed to have originated around 1830 when a white minstrel performer Thomas "Daddy" Rice,

blackened his face with charcoal and danced while singing the lyrics to the song "Jump Jim Crow." Rice created the character

after seeing a elderly black man 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."

Who was Jim Crow?

Rice incorporated the skit into his minstrel act, and by the 1850's the "Jim Crow" character had become a standard part of the minstrel show scene. The Jim Crow idea was one of the many stereotypical images of black inferiority in the popular culture of the day- along with Sambos,

Coons and Zip Dandies. 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 towards blacks were often referred to as Jim Crow laws and practices.

DisfranchisementKlu Klux Klan Intimidated black voters

Literacy Tests Southern voters had to pass difficult tests to gain right to vote

Poll Taxes Southern voters had to pay tax to gain right to vote

Grandfather ClauseExempted southerns who had a

relative who voted in elections prior to the Civil War from literacy tests

and poll taxes

0

35000

70000

105000

140000

1890 1900 1910

130,334

7305,320

African American Voter Registration in Louisiana 1890-1910

Legalized Segregation

Homer Plessy

• Homer Plessy denied a seat on a first class train car because he was legally black (1/8)

• Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896) "separate but equal" doctrine

I, Too, Sing AmericaI, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.They send me to eat in the kitchen

When company comes,But I laugh,

And eat well,And grow strong.

Tomorrow,I'll be at the table

When company comes.Nobody'll dare

Say to me,"Eat in the kitchen,"

Then.

Besides, They'll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed—

I, too, am America.

Langston Hughes