After the Thirteenth amendment abolished slavery in the
United States of America, Jim Crow laws took over and established legal
outlines for how racial discrimination was to be carried out. Although there were legal battles being
fought to advance the social and economic standing of American black people,
the U.S. Supreme Court, by way of a decision on the Plessy vs. Ferguson case
(1896), upheld the ability for public spaces to be segregated based on race, so
long as they were “separate but equal.”
This segregation, in general terms, elevated race tension and produced a
multitude of racial responses, many violent and cruel.
Despite the severity of the legal basis of segregation, it
was simply an idea. However, it was implemented and perpetuated because of the continuing racial distrust and violence
of ordinary American citizens.
In the opening words of Remembering
Jim Crow, noted theologian Howard Thurman powerfully summarizes the purpose
of racial segregation- “all this in
order to freeze the place of the Negro in society and guarantee his basic
immobility.” White people simply did not
want black people as their equal and many were going to fight to see that it didn’t
happen. Conversely, black people earned
their rights and were challenging their communities to push back against the
unjust grasp of racial discrimination and to begin establishing themselves as
educated, worthy, and capable citizens.
Understanding the intense racial tension Jim Crow laws
brought to American culture, predominantly in the American South, I expected to
find violence, intimidation, cruelty, and inhumanity in the words of the
primary sources provided to us in the work Remembering
Jim Crow. So, as I read, I was on the lookout for how white people continued to perpetuate
the institution of segregation. However, I was surprised to find such harrowing
examples of racial hatred and violence immediately within the first pages of the
work. I was particularly struck by the
story retold by Stine George.
This is a story that presents the violent response of two
white brothers outraged at a humble attempt made by a black family to establish
their equality and better their lives.
William George, a hard-working black man, earned the ability to purchase
coveted farmland and to build a house where he and his family could live, but
more importantly, an asset that would allow them to improve their economic
standing. In this case, William George
and his family saw landownership as a perfect opportunity to express their newfound
freedom, while his white neighbors saw it as earthshakingly threatening and wrong. In response, the brothers, in an act of
terrorism, burned the house to the ground and killed two innocent black
children in the fire.
Even more horrific than the act itself was the way this
crime was received in the community.
According to Stine George, “white folks came around and they were
talkative, but nobody ever tried to apprehend anybody who committed the crime”
(p13). This is a tragic example of how violence and fear perpetuated the suppression
of black equality in the American South and struck me hard. In reading this, I was forced to grapple with
the reality that white supremacist communities endorsed racial violence, even
if that meant turning the other way.
What stories of white violence resonated with you when
reading Remembering Jim Crow? What do
these examples of violence from the Jim Crow American South tell us about
segregation and discrimination?
One example of violence that stands out to me is in Chapter 5 of Remembering Jim Crow, where Ralph Thompson recounts growing up in the Jim Crow South. Thompson describes how white bus drivers would purposefully drive the buses through puddles or over piles of gravel so that water and rocks would hit the black children walking to and from school. I found this act so disturbing because it was a direct form of violence of white adults against black children. I have usually thought of the violence that whites inflicted on African Americans as only between adults or only between children, but this account shows that racism was not restricted to people of the same age. Furthermore, the actions of the school bus drivers and so many other whites show that segregation and discrimination were ways to instill control over an increasingly autonomous black community, and violence was the extreme manifestation of this power struggle.
ReplyDeleteThe more I thought about it, however, the more I realized that the Jim Crow laws of segregation in public schools also directly affected black children, even though it was not a form of violence inflicted by whites. These laws were made by white adults and were meant to restrict African American children from learning everything that the white schoolchildren learned. Thus, segregation ensured that white children would have a competitive edge for getting into the best colleges and finding the best jobs. Although racism did not always take the form of violence, all Jim Crow laws were intended to reduce the chances of African Americans to create a place for themselves in a society dominated by white interests.
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ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, Remembering Jim Crow was the most insightful read in our African American History class thus far because it gave numerous first-hand accounts from a variety of blacks in America and how segregation personally affected their lives. However, it was also an extremely graphic read. While reading the book, I had to take breaks because my emotions were getting the best of me. I was on an emotional rollercoaster from story to story.
ReplyDeleteOne account I have thought about over and over again is Stine George’s (page 14-15). Stine and his sister were young children riding on a wagon going to visit their uncle. Some older white guys acted as if they just wanted to ride with them but decided to kidnap Stine’s sister and rape her. She was nine years old. Although Stine is telling the story, my focus was on that little girl and how terrified she must have been. After reading this story, I had to put the book down because I begin crying hysterically. I am not a victim of rape nor do I know any victims of rape but I was once a nine year old girl and I know several nine year old girls.
Remembering Jim Crow did not tell me anything I did not already know about segregation but it did give a face to segregation which bought out emotions that I did not expect to be there. After reading the stories of black dealing with segregation, I felt as if I personally knew them. I was angry with them. I wanted to cry with them. I wanted to fight with them. I wanted to do something.
I would have to agree with Asia, concerning the most interesting reads of the semester. Remembering Jim Crow is one of the most thought provoking books I’ve read in any of my classes. It sets the scene at the beginning of the chapter, and then it lets the interviews speak for themselves. I also find this text interesting, because rather than the likely altered, boring documents found in Soul by Soul this text seems to almost resurrect these horrific events that occurred. Though this text is wrought with violence, one thing that I found strange was that pharmacies would only sell Pepsi products to African Americans. If a black man asked for a Coke, he would simply be handed a Pepsi. I thought this was interesting because the chapter was mostly about violence, rape, and confiscation of land. I think that the editors included this example because it shows how racial oppression wasn’t confined to land, intimidation, and violence. It also encompasses things as petty as what brand of soft drink you can buy.
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