Jim Crow America’s Post-Reconstruction Legacy

“Jim Crow” refers to laws, prejudices, stereotypes, and attitudes in society about African-Americans –Segregation, “separate but equal” –Lack of equal rights –African-Americans were not allowed to serve on juries in some counties/states –Discrimination in voting Poll taxes, literacy tests, violence Blacks portrayed as unintelligent and animal-like –Black men portrayed as dangerous to white women –Discrimination in employment

The "Jim Crow" figure was a fixture of the minstrel shows that toured the South; a white man made up as a black man sang and mimicked stereotypical behavior in the name of comedy.

Sheet music cover illustration with caricatures of ragged African- American musicians and dancers. pub. C1847

1866: One of a number of highly racist posters issued as part of a smear campaign against PA Republican gubernatorial nominee John White Geary by supporters of Democratic candidate Hiester Clymer. Indicative of Clymer's white-supremacy platform, the posters attack postwar Republican efforts to pass a constitutional amendment enfranchising blacks. Artist: Reynolds NY “They are rich, and want to make the Negro the Equal of the Poor White Man, and then rule them both.”

Another in a series of racist posters attacking Radical Republican exponents of black suffrage, issued during the 1866 PA gubernatorial race.

1898 Russell Morgan Print for Oliver Scott's Refined Negro Minstrels.

1898 Russell Morgan Print for Al W. Martin's mammoth production of Uncle Tom's cabin.

The most recognizable trademark in the world by 1900, Bull Durham tobacco ads and trading cards typically depicted caricatures of foolish looking or silly acting blacks to draw attention to its product. Each ad has a green bull somewhere in the image.

Two foolish looking black hunters have all the equipment for the hunt, but no match with which to light their cigarettes. The hunters are exaggerated images of blacks trying to imitate white people at sport.

Removing an African American from a Philadelphia Railway car-- after the implementation of Jim Crow, the integration imposed by Reconstruction was stripped away by new laws.

Sign in Virginia, posted in the 1920s. This sign gives one origin of the term "Lynch law.“ Note the use of the word “justice.”

"The Agony of Lynching" by Laurence Foy. Block print originally published in the 1920s.

Rocky Ford, Mississippi: September Arrow (in red) points to the victim, JP Ivy, a timber cutter who was burned to death by a mob from Union and Lee Counties. Ivy was accused of assaulting a white girl.

In the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan again grew.

Illustration (1891) by I. Garland Penn. Ida B. Wells ( ) was born a slave in Holly Springs, Mississippi. She raised her four orphaned brothers and then became a schoolteacher in Memphis, Tennessee, where she purchased and edited a newspaper, the Memphis Free Speech. Wells was an outspoken and courageous opponent of lynching.

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper ( ) An author and lecturer, fought for equal rights.

Booker T. Washington Thought that the key to equal rights was to prove to white society that blacks were “worthy” of respect. Believed in a slow, gradual approach to creating equality. Helped to found the Tuskegee Institute

Tuskegee Institute

January 1914: An authors evening for suffrage.

"Every Saturday morning there was a matinee at these movies, and we would pay 15 cents... but we were separated; we went upstairs, the white kids went downstairs.“ Willie Wallace, Eyewitness Narrative, Natchez, MS

Leland, Misssissippi, 1939

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, July 1939: "Colored" water fountains were fixtures throughout the South during the Jim Crow era.

“We hold these truths to be self evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” -Declaration of Independence, 1776