“Jim Crow” Segregation in the South1875 -1954

Southern Segregation• Segregation means

to separate.• After the end of

slavery African Americans were segregated from whites in the US South

Segregated South

Southern States• The states with

segregation were in the south, where slavery once existed.• They included 16

states including Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia

Jim Crow Laws• In the southern

states passed a series of laws separating blacks and whites.• These were called

“Jim Crow” laws• In the South

“Colored” meant African American

Schools Segregated• In southern states

black children could not attend school with white children.• African American

schools were not as good as white schools

Buses and Streetcars• In the South, African

Americans could only choose seats on the back of the bus• Whites rode in front,

and black passengers had to give up their seats to whites if asked

“White Only”• “White Only” signs

meant that restaurants would not serve African Americans• Swimming pools

were for whites only• Black children could

not go to many libraries or parks

“Colored” signs• African Americans

had to go to lunch counters, bathrooms, drinking fountains, and bus facilities marked “ colored”• “Colored” was a term

used to mean African American

Plessey v. Ferguson - 1896• Homer Plessey

challenged the Louisiana law that made Blacks sit separately on rail cars• But the Supreme

Court ruled in favor of segregation, saying that facilities could be “separate but equal”

20th Century Discrimination• African Americans

faced discrimination from 1875 until 1954.• Blacks could not play

baseball with whites in the major leagues.• Black soldiers had

segregated units.• Jim Crow laws

remained until the 1950’s and 1960’s.

The End of Jim Crow• Segregation in schools

was first made illegal by the 1954 court decision Brown v Board of Education• Jim Crow laws were

ended with the success of the Civil Rights Movement and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

20th Century Discrimination

These images of schools for black students show that facilities were separate but never equal.

Separate…

But

not

equal

Black Progress

• After the Civil War, during Reconstruction, African Americans made progress.

• Several black representatives were elected in the south

• Some former slaves received land or learned a trade

• Many African Americans attended schools for the first time

White ReactionWhite southerners sought to

regain their control over the freed slaves.

• Ku Klux Klan – secret white organization terrorized free blacks.

• Southern States passed“Black Codes” to racially segregate blacks from whites.

• “Jim Crow” laws, forced blacks to use separate facilities in schools, buses, and lunch counters.

First Freedoms

• After the Civil War in 1865 three Constitutional amendments were passed to grant newly freed African Americans legal status:

• The 13th Amendment abolished slavery

• The 14th amendment provided citizenship to former slaves

• The 15th amendment guaranteed formers slaves the the right to vote.