Jim Crow Laws
Your job is to become an expert on the history of the Jim Crow Laws. Click on the links below to learn about what these laws were, why they were put into place, and the effects they had on society and its people during this time period. When you are finished, answer the questions provided to you. Be sure to read carefully because you will be teaching your classmates everything you know about the Jim Crow Laws.
http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/1-segregated/detail/jim-crow-signs.html
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/
http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/origins.htm
Questions:
1. Where did the term "Jim Crow" come from? How is the origin of this term offensive?
2. What were some of the Jim Crow laws? Give at least examples by state. What was the law concerning intermarriage, bathrooms, and nurses?
3. Legally, African-Americans had the right to vote. How was their right to suffrage compromised (made nearly impossible) with the Jim Crow laws?
4. How did the Plessy v. Ferguson case uphold Jim Crow laws? What effect did this have on the lives (transportation, education, social implications, etc.) of southern blacks?
5. How did some African-Americans "fight back" against Jim Crow laws and other discrimination?
6. Under Jim Crow, black facilities were often of far poorer quality than those reserved for whites; therefore, separate rarely meant equal. If blacks and whites had received equal (but still separate) treatment, would Jim Crow laws have been fair? Why or why not?
7. What role might the Jim Crow laws play in To Kill a Mockingbird? Knowing that the father in the story is a lawyer, how might this come into play as well?
1. Where did the term "Jim Crow" come from? How is the origin of this term offensive?
2. What were some of the Jim Crow laws? Give at least examples by state. What was the law concerning intermarriage, bathrooms, and nurses?
3. Legally, African-Americans had the right to vote. How was their right to suffrage compromised (made nearly impossible) with the Jim Crow laws?
4. How did the Plessy v. Ferguson case uphold Jim Crow laws? What effect did this have on the lives (transportation, education, social implications, etc.) of southern blacks?
5. How did some African-Americans "fight back" against Jim Crow laws and other discrimination?
6. Under Jim Crow, black facilities were often of far poorer quality than those reserved for whites; therefore, separate rarely meant equal. If blacks and whites had received equal (but still separate) treatment, would Jim Crow laws have been fair? Why or why not?
7. What role might the Jim Crow laws play in To Kill a Mockingbird? Knowing that the father in the story is a lawyer, how might this come into play as well?