Jim Crow Laws and Segregation

Jim Crow Laws
and Segregation
This presentation was prepared by Fedor Babenko
(10B Class)
An important topic in
United States history
For a long time, I went through the
history of the 13 colonies in class. We
learned a lot about the period in
America when people used slaves and
the Civil War. Today I would like to
address a very important topic that
affected the rights of African
Americans at that time, namely Jim
Crow Laws and segregation.
Our goal for today
We need to understand who

Jim Crow was and what his laws
did at that time. We must
understand how this was
related to the segregation of
blacks and whites in the United
States of America and why this
is such an important period for
all black people.
Who is Jim Crow?
This is quite an interesting name,

which was very common in those
days. You might think that Jim
Crow was a famous figure who
created the segregation laws that
were later passed in the United
States. In fact, this is not the case at
all and now we will find out why.
The Origins
of Jim Crow
Jim Crow was just a comic
character that first appeared in
the song "Jump Jim Crow" that
Thomas Rice liked to sing. Before
the number, he painted his face
in black paint, depicting a black
slave. In the performance of the
artist, the slave was dumb,
illiterate and lazy.
Definition of Jim Crow
The name "Crow" meant a dark

crow. This is how black people have
been called in America since the
beginning of the 18th century.
After some time, the name "Jim Crow"

became a household name. This is
how they began to call any poorly
dressed and illiterate black person.
It was in honor of this character that the era of
System of systemic discrimination was named, which deeply
affected American society and left deep wounds
discrimination that can be felt every time we remember this
period. Let's talk about it in more detail.
Jim Crow laws were heavily enforced in the South and
Hard way border states during the period from 1877 to the mid-
1960s. Jim Crow was not just a harsh set of laws
of life against blacks, but their way of life. The laws officially
placed blacks in the category of second-class citizens.
A massive humiliation
Believing Christians claimed that white
people are the chosen ones, and black
people should be ordinary servants. At
the same time, they also said that God
himself supports racial segregation.
People advocated that the mixing of
different races was dangerous and
should not happen. They said that
blacks were inferior in intelligence to
white people.
Official racism
White people did everything they could
to show their hatred of blacks. Only
because of the color of their skin, they
became people from whom you need to
separate yourself away. Various news
outlets officially promoted such an
opinion and called blacks different
offensive words. Now we can understand
how difficult it was for afroamericans in
those days when humiliation was not only
allowed, but also right in the opinion of
the states.
Jim Crow etiquette
• A black man could not offer his hand or any other part of his body
to a white woman because he risked being accused of rape.
• Black and white people were not supposed to eat together. If
they ate together, the white people had to be served first, and
some kind of partition had to be placed between them.
• Under no circumstances should a black man offer to light a
cigarette for a white woman — a gesture that implied intimacy.
• Black people were not allowed to publicly show affection to each
other, especially kissing, because it offended white people.
Jim Crow etiquette
• Jim Crow etiquette dictated that blacks meet whites, not

whites meet blacks.
• White people did not use polite honorific titles. Black
people were called by name.
• If a black person was riding in a car driven by a white
person, the black person would sit in the back seat or bed
of the truck.
• White motorists had the right of way at all intersections.
Stetson Kennedy, author of the Jim Crow Guide, proposed the
following simple rules that black people were expected to observe
when interacting with whites:
Rule 1 Never assert or even intimate that a white person is lying.
Rule 2 Never impute dishonorable intentions to a white person.
Rule 3 Never suggest that a white person is from an inferior class.
Rule 4 Never lay claim to, or overly demonstrate, superior knowledge or intelligence.
Rule 5 Never curse a white person.
Rule 6 Never laugh derisively at a white person.
Rule 7 Never comment upon the appearance of a white female.

Separate, but
equal
The United States Supreme Court laid
out its "separate but equal" legal
doctrine regarding institutions for
afroamericans. The legal principle of
"separate but equal" racial segregation
was extended to public facilities and
transportation, including intercity
trains and buses. White people
constantly tried to separate blacks in
order to show that they were better
than blacks.
Jim Crow Signs
Jim Crow stated that the laws
passed strictly regulated social
interactions between races.
Jim Crow signs were posted
above water fountains,
doorways and exits, and in
front of public facilities.
Places for black people
There were separate hospitals for
blacks and whites, prisons, public
and private schools, churches,
separate public toilets and public
facilities. In most cases, the facilities
for blacks were much worse - as a
rule, they were old and kept in less
good condition.
Black people voting
Blacks were not allowed to vote.

Formally, there was no such ban, but in
order for a black person to vote, he
had to pass a literacy test, which was
stipulated by the legislation of each
state. And you yourself understand
that it was impossible for an
afroamerican to get a good education
in the conditions of segregated
education and discrimination.
Violence against black people
Jim Crow laws were backed up by violence, real and threatened.

Black people who violated Jim Crow norms, such as drinking from a
white water fountain or trying to vote, risked their homes, their
jobs, and even their lives. White people could physically beat blacks
with impunity. Black people had little legal recourse against these
attacks because the Jim Crow criminal justice system was all white:
police, prosecutors, judges and prison officials. Violence was a big
part of Jim Crow.
Just imagine that some 58 years ago in one of the
most developed and most democratic (according to
Unreasonable the Americans themselves) countries, real racism was
segregation legalized, which is impossible to explain. There is no
reason to separate white and non-white citizens from
each other with walls and reservations.
Conclusion
After reading all the information, we can understand how important

this period was. White Americans thought black people were inferior
in everything for no reason and decided to simply separate them
using segregation and the harsh laws of Jim Crow. For a long time, all
African Americans were officially subjected to racism and humiliation.
We will remember this for a long time, because it caused its
consequences in our present. I hope that in the future we will not do
such cruel things for no reason, so as not to harm each other. In my
opinion, we should judge each other by our actions, not by the color
of our skin, origin or appearance.

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Jim Crow Laws

We need to understand who

This is quite an interesting name,

The name "Crow" meant a dark

After some time, the name "Jim Crow"

• Jim Crow etiquette dictated that blacks meet whites, not

Rule 1 Never assert or even intimate that a white person is lying.

Rule 2 Never impute dishonorable intentions to a white person.

Rule 3 Never suggest that a white person is from an inferior class.

Rule 5 Never curse a white person.

Rule 6 Never laugh derisively at a white person.

Rule 7 Never comment upon the appearance of a white female.

Blacks were not allowed to vote.

Jim Crow laws were backed up by violence, real and threatened.

After reading all the information, we can understand how important

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