 Divide between blacks and whites  Avoiding interracial marriages—especially black men and white women

 Many of the discriminatory Jim Crow laws were enacted to support racial segregation in everyday life. They required black and white people to use separate water fountains, public schools, public restrooms, restaurants, public libraries, buses and rail cars

 “Jump Jim Crow”, a song-and-dance caricature of blacks performed by the white actor Thomas D. Rice in blackface, first surfaced in 1832 to satirize Andrew Jackson’s populist policies.  As a result of Rice’s fame, “Jim Crow” had become an expression synonymous with “Negro” by 1838  When the southern legislatures passed laws of racial segregation—directed against blacks—they became known as Jim Crow Laws

 The Jim Crow Laws justified and perpetuated the use of lynching against African Americans, particularly by groups such as the Klu Klux Klan (KKK).

 KuKlux- means ‘circle’ in Greek  Klan- group or club

Founded by former Confederate soldiers after the Civil War (1865), the Ku Klux Klan used violence and intimidation to prevent blacks from voting, holding political office, and attending school.

 14 year old African American visiting relatives in the Mississippi Delta  August 24, 1955—incident (whistling) from Till towards the white 24 year old Carolyn Bryant  The story spread quickly around town

 Emmett was abducted and found 3 days later in the river  He was shot in the head, eyes gouged out, let go into the lake with a fan tied around his neck with barbed wire  There was an open casket at his funeral to show the brutality  This event sparked action in the Civil Rights Movement

 k k

 1929, “Black Tuesday”, the stock market crashed, meaning the value of money had lost its worth  Businesses could no longer afford to pay their workers and began laying off hundreds of thousands of people  Because people had no money, harvesting and manufacture of new crops and products slowed drastically  Rural, southern towns were hit hard because they were largely reliant on agriculture

 In towns like Maycomb, communication with outlying houses depend on dirt roads, and all country inhabitants (whether professional or farmers) are poor  The Cunningham family in TKAM pays Atticus for legal work in crop or other goods instead of money