Chief characteristics of Jim Crow

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Austen Mitchell
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1 Lecture 3: Jim Crow

2 Chief characteristics of Jim Crow Ø A violent and oppressive period in American race relations, Ø Characterized by legalized segregation, lynch mobs, and white supremacy Ø White men viewed black men as a threat to their manhood Ø Exploitative labor and penal systems v Examples: the sharecropping, crop-lien, debt peonage, and convict labor systems

3 Political Disfranchisement «Designed by white southern Democrats to suppress voter turnout among blacks, who tended to vote for the Republican Party o Since Republicans are strong in North and West, Democrats must secure the solid South «What specific techniques did they pursue? o Created barriers to voter registration o Charged a poll tax o Disqualified voters with a criminal record o Implemented educational qualifications v Someone else decides if you can understand a clause v Literacy tests intent is to disfranchise blacks, but it also disfranchises poor, illiterate white voters Ø Whites get around it through grandfather clause

4 Example: Louisiana State Literacy Test, Test: Answer 30 Questions in 10 minutes To Pass: MUST get EVERY answer correct Here s a sample of some of the tricky questions: 1. Draw a line around the number or letter of this sentence 5. Circle the first, first letter of the alphabet in this line. 15. In the space below write the word noise backwards and place a d over what would be the second letter should it have been written forward 21. Print the word vote upside down but in correct order. 27. Write right from the left to the right as you see it spelled here. 28. Divide a vertical line in two equal parts by bisecting it with a curved horizontal line that is straight at the point of bisection of the vertical 29. Write every other word in the first line and print every third word in the same line, but capitalize the fifth word that you write. If you failed, what would that prove? That you are illiterate? This is designed to fail you! 1960s wasn t that long ago there are plenty of people alive today who remember this era

5 Almost 4,000 African Americans were lynched in the 12 southern states, (more than the number of 9/11 victims)

6 Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) At issue was the 14 th Amendment s guarantee of equal protection of the laws In 7-1 decision, the Supreme Court endorsed state laws requiring separate facilities Established doctrine of separate but equal Ø Black schools are not truly equal Ø Not overturned until Brown v. Board of 1954 Larger picture: segregation not just in transportation also housing, education, restaurants, armed forces, and government jobs

7 The Case for Reparations u Article by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Atlantic Magazine (May 2014) u Only 6% of white Americans support reparations. Why? Ø Slavery was a long time ago ; we passed civil rights Ø We have a black president Ø My ancestors also endured exploitation and oppression u So what is Coates s response? Ø Conditions are not truly equal with abolition of slavery in 1865 Ø Centuries of unpaid labor and exploitation accumulate over time u Racism and inequality resulted from deliberate policies Ø The state is a very powerful actor think defense, taxation Ø If racism is state-sponsored, then it is hard to blame individuals exclusively for bad choices

8 Examples of state-sponsored discrimination in 20 th cent. Social Security, 1935 denial of benefits for agricultural and domestic workers GI Bill after WWII housing and educational benefits often denied to blacks Federal Housing Policy FHA created in 1934 ² Allowed for expansion of suburbia in 1950s and 60s ² Discrimination through redlining ² Why is housing policy important? o A house is a common means of wealth accumulation o It is passed down over the generations through inheritance o Segregated housing leads to underfunded schools, which function as a pipeline to prisons

9 What is the New Jim Crow? Alexander argues that the criminal justice system in the United States perpetuates a caste system reminiscent of slavery and the Jim Crow era

10 Evidence for the New Jim Crow Felonies lead to lifetime bans from voting, public housing, food stamps, serving on juries, educational opportunities these are exclusions from citizenship Ø Florida and Kentucky still have lifetime voting bans for exfelons, and these are left over from the Jim Crow era Ø Some Jim Crow policies never went away entirely Harsher penalties for crack cocaine versus powder Three-strikes law and mandatory minimum sentencing US has 5% of world s population, but 25% of the world s prisoners (more than China, Russia, and Iran) High imprisonment of people of color NOT LINKED to higher drug use or criminality

11 The Prison-Industrial Complex Much of this is due to the war on drugs

12 Statistical evidence for disproportionate impact of punishment on non-white peoples

YEARS LATER. Commemorating the Voting Rights Act of 1965

YEARS LATER. Commemorating the Voting Rights Act of 1965 50 YEARS LATER 965 Commemorating the Voting Rights Act of 1965 History of the Voting Rights Act Although the 15th Amendment granted African Americans the right to vote, there were literacy tests, poll