JIM CROW LAWS*PowerPoint Adapted from the

Library of Congress Collection

What was life like for African Americans under Jim Crow laws?

PowerPoint Resource 12C

WHAT WERE JIM CROW LAWS?

•Jim Crow laws came about as southern states tried to keep African Americans and white people separate and to limit the rights of African Americans.

•Segregation (separation of African Americans and white people) denied African Americans:

equal rights in politics by denying them the right to vote.education.economic opportunities through job discrimination.

• African Americans found “Jim Crow” to stand for the many kinds of discrimination they faced in America:

Discrimination in housing and jobs was encouraged by practice, public pressure, and often violence.

African Americans often had to endure offensive and insulting names, like “colored,” from white people.

•Jim Crow laws established norms for separate schools, restaurants, and even separate water fountains for black people and white people.

•From Delaware to California, and from

North Dakota to Texas, many states (and cities, too) imposed legal punishments on people for mingling with members of another race.

•It wasn't until about 50 years ago that Jim Crow laws were removed.

As you look closely at each picture, think about and discuss the following with a partner:

•What you notice in the picture

•What the effect would have been on African Americans

At the bus station, Durham, North Carolina, 1940

Bus terminal, Memphis, Tennessee, 1943

A rest stop for bus passengers on the way from Louisville, Kentucky, to Nashville, Tennessee, with

separate entrance for African Americans, 1943

Cafe, Durham, North Carolina, 1939

A sign at bus station, Rome, Georgia, 1943

Restaurant, Lancaster, Ohio, 1938

A highway sign advertising tourist cabins for African Americans, South Carolina, 1939

Drinking fountain on the courthouse lawn, Halifax, North Carolina, 1938

Water cooler in the streetcar terminal, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1939

15 Library of Congress

Movie theater’s "Colored" entrance, Belzoni, Mississippi, 1939

Sign above movie theater, Waco, Texas, 1939

Beale Street, Memphis, Tennessee, 1939

African-American School House

Colored School at Anthoston, Henderson County, Kentucky.

School for African Americans at Anthoston, Henderson County, Kentucky

Library of Congress

Kerrick School, an all-white school, in Jefferson County, Kentucky

A classroom in an all-white school

Think about the pictures you just viewed:

• On the back of your survey, make a

list of examples showing how Jim Crow

laws denied individuals rights.