Life+in+Jim+Crow+America

The 14th Amendment gave African Americans like me the right to vote, as well as giving us due process and equal protection of the laws, meaning we are protected in the same ways by the laws that everyone else is protected by, and we were guaranteed our life, liberty, and property unless we did anything that could take those freedoms away from anyone. I remember simply how unfair the people opposing Plessy’s views were. They think that African Americans don’t deserve to be treated equally, but the amendments only had to do with protection of the law. This is somewhat correct, but the amendments made it seem as though African Americans would finally be socially equal to other races, but yet again we were turned down and are still discriminated against. **3) The laws developed in the South became known as Jim Crow laws. Who was this Jim Crow fellow? Did he write the laws?[|Jim Crow LINK] ** Jim Crow was a character that a man named Thomas Dartmouth “Daddy” Rice wrote a song about and went around acting as a black person named Jim Crow, and made fun of African Americans. Jim Crow then became a racial slur to describe black people, and after the era it was used to describe the horrible laws and acts that oppressed them. **4) What are some specific examples of the Jim Crow laws from southern states? How did the laws affect you? [|Jim Crow Laws LINK 1] /[|Jim Crow Laws LINK 2] / [|Jim Crow Laws LINK 3] ** The main example I remember quite clearly that affected me the most was segregation absolutely everywhere. Whites and blacks had different bathrooms, different waiting rooms, went to different schools, and so on. The list goes on forever. We were forced to be separated from the whites, and we always ended up with things that weren’t as good as what they had, such as horrible, messy bathrooms in comparison to new, clean ones for the whites. **5) What did Jim Crow America look like in the 1900s? What are some images that can help explain the realities of the time? [|Jim Crow Images LINK 1] / [|Jim Crow Images LINK 2] ** Jim Crow America was divided into two parts in the 1900’s: white and black. Everything was segregated. Blacks and whites were separated in almost all situations, and were even forced to give up seats on the bus to white people. All the images that say “colored” this or “colored” that prove my point; we were forced to be separated from whites.  The all-white jury declared nine black youths guilty of raping two white women. This is just outrageous, as the nine black youths were actually innocent, and it was the women who were just trying to cover up what they had actually been doing on the train. This makes me feel horrible being an African American in the South, because something like this could happen to me! I could be convicted of something simply because someone says something about me and because of my race, I will almost definitely be charged even if I did absolutely nothing. **7) Why should anyone care about your life during Jim Crow America?** [|**Why should I care? Link**] People should care because everyone should know about the horrible things that went on during the time of Jim Crow America. The racism during the time was unbelievable, and I hope that people will learn from the past so racism like this never becomes a huge problem ever again.
 * 1) Right after the Civil War, the 14th Amendment was ratified. What did the 14th Amendment provide for African Americans? What does “due process” and “equal protection of the laws” mean?  [|14th LINK] **
 * 2) Unfortunately, your equal rights were challenged by the Supreme Court in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson. What do you remember about the facts, decision, and impact of this case?  [|Plessy LINK] **
 * 6) What happened in the Scottsboro Case? How did it make you feel as an African American in the South?  [|Scottsboro LINK] **