Jim Crow Laws & Scottsboro Boys Trial

TKAM Background

Jim Crow Laws-Background Jim Crow was the name of the racial

caste system that operated in the southern states between 1877 and the mid 1960’s.

Under Jim Crow, African Americans were referred to as second-class citizens

Many Christian Ministers taught that whites were the chosen people, blacks were cursed to be servants, and that God supported segregation.

Beliefs

Whites were superior to blacks in important ways.

Sexual relations between whites and blacks would produce a mongrel race that would destroy America.

Violence must be used to keep blacks at the bottom of the hierarchy.

A rest stop for bus passengers on the way from Louisville, Kentucky to Nashville, Tennessee, with separate entrance for Blacks. 1943.

Etiquette Norms

A black male could not shake hands with a white male because that would mean that they are socially equal.

A black male could not touch any part of a white female (even if she was in danger) because he would risk being accused of rape.

Blacks and whites could not eat together. If they were in the same restaurant, whites must be served first.

A black male could never offer a light to a white female, this implied intimacy.

A sign at bus station, Rome, Georgia. 1943.

Etiquette, cont’d

Blacks could not show affection to one another in public because it offended whites.

Blacks were always introduced to whites, never the opposite.

Whites did not use Mr., Mrs., Miss, Sir, or Ma’am, when referring to black people; they were called by their first name. Blacks must use courtesy titles when referring to whites.

If a black person rode in a car with a white person, they must sit in the back.

White motorist had the right of way at all intersections.

Restaurant, Lancaster, Ohio. 1938

Rules of Conversation

Never say that a white person is lying

Never suggest that a white person is inferior

Never curse a white person Never laugh at a white person Never comment on the appearance

of white female

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

Daily Life

Jim Crow Signs were placed above water fountains, door entrances, and in front of public restrooms.

There were separate hospitals, prisons, schools, churches, cemeteries, and restrooms.

Georgia-No colored barber shall serve white girls or women.

Georgia-Distinct arrangements should be made in mental hospitals so that no whites and blacks share a hall

Georgia-People that are licensed to sell beer or wine may not sell to two races within the same room

The Rex theater for colored people, Leland, Mississippi. June 1937.

If these laws were broken… Blacks risked losing their homes, jobs, and even

their lives. Whites could physically punish blacks. There was no help from the legal system because

all judges, policemen, and juries were white. The most extreme form of violence were

lynchings: Most victims of the lynch law were hanged or hot, but

some were beaten with clubs, burned at the stake, castrated, or dismembered.

This all took place in public. The lynch law believed that lynchings were necessary

to protect white women from black rapists.

The Scottsboro Boys (TKAM trial based on this case)

9 black young men accused of rape by two white women in 1931

The men were nearly lynched before being brought to court.

They were not provided with a lawyer until the first day of the trial.

The women were rumored to be prostitutes (they eventually recanted their testimony)

Scottsboro, cont’d

Despite medical testimony that the women had not been raped, the all-white jury found all of the men guilty and sentenced all but the youngest (a 12 year old) to death.

Trials and retrials lasted over seven years Convictions eventually overturned due to

lack of evidence All but one man was freed The Scottsboro case left a deep impression

on the young Lee, who would use it later as the rough basis for the events in TKAM.