HIST 610 Jim Crow - Summary The Strange Career of Jim Crow PDF

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The Strange Career of Jim Crow

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The Strange Career of Jim Crow presented an analysis of the history of the Jim Crow laws, offering evidence that segregation in the South ceased in the 1890s. The preface of the book states the objective is to “turn a few beams of light into a twilight zone and, if possible, light up a few of its corners.” The “twilight zone” under consideration presented information about the origin of Jim Crow laws and analyzed the processes involved in their development. C. Vann Woodward described Jim Crowism as a “social movement with a slow and doubtful origin.” The objective, to unify the whites and blacks in both the North and South, saw the cooperation of many churches, propaganda organizations, and the Supreme Court who took part in the social movement. At the same time, opposition worked to alienate negroes and whites, especially in the south. For the negro, the process of opposition prevailed, resulting in the initiation of Jim Crow legislation, which made them inferior in the eyes of the law. Many leaders in the south fought against the movement from the beginning and continued to express those opinions as it progressed. Those against the movement considered it unchristian, unnatural, undemocratic and contrary to the principles of Americanism. However, the Jim Crow laws managed to change the minds of many who believed in equality of the races, to those who did not. The creation of initiations and organizations of counter-movements combated the segregation and discrimination of the newly changed minds. Furthermore, Jim Crowism was not as prevalent in the early Reconstruction period. Social contact between races was friendly, possibly a carryover from slavery time. Foreign travelers observed less bitterness in interracial relations, and newer states in the southwest adopted a more liberal quality, which quickly spread to other southern states. However, social

classes in and since Reconstruction saw the antebellum aristocrats outdated by so-called liberals, and extremists turned to radicalism. The majority population consisted of poor whites, which spawned the bitterness and emersion of Jim-Crowism, to reduce Negroes as nearly as possible to their former slave restrictions. Woodward suggested the existence of two "reconstructions" in the South. The first occurred at the end of the Civil War, with the occupation of radical Republican forces, who pushed for the emancipation and equal rights Amendments to the Constitution. This reconstruction lasted until 1877 when the Great Compromise allowed the peaceful election of a President. The removal of all Northern occupational forces from the South permitted them to establish a large body of codified statutes, named Jim Crow, to forcefully separate whites and blacks. The second reconstruction began with the desegregation of a few institutions and a series of Supreme Court decisions that provided integration of public facilities, including state-operated public schools. As black and white liberals pushed for the implementation of new laws and court decisions, an independent, stubborn South fought back. The resulting conflict between Southern state governments and forced integration, supported by the federal government, opened old wounds, and periods of violence and backlash ensued. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, officially marked the end of Jim Crow. Amidst the various versions of The Strange Career of Jim Crow, the conclusion depended on the period. The first with a glimmer of hope for change in the future, and in later editions, African-Americans themselves must choose the extent and means of integration into white society. Thus, amid the competing desires for integration and separation, Woodward argues the strange career of Jim Crow looked to get stranger before it came to its final retirement....