Evaluating Reconstruction through Jim Crow primary sources

• Introduction
• Task
• Process
• Evaluation
• Conclusion
• Credits


• Teacher Page

Process

1.  Read this background information taken from here:

Black Codes

No sooner had the Civil War ended than most Southern states adopted what came to be known as Black Codes or Black Laws. These codes were aimed at limiting the economic and physical freedom of former slaves. While early attempts to confer inferior status to Southern blacks were blocked by legislation and prevented by federal troops, it eventually proved impossible to protect the civil rights of African Americans. The violence and terrorism that swept over the South in the 1860s and 1870s convinced African Americans that though the law of the land gave them equality, the reality of white supremacy denied them their rights.
With the Compromise of 1877, political power was returned to Southern whites in nearly every state of the former Confederacy. The federal government abandoned attempts to enforce the 14th and 15th amendments in the South. By 1890, when Mississippi added a disfranchisement provision to its state constitution, the legalization of Jim Crow had begun.

Jim Crow 

Thomas "Daddy" Rice, a white minstrel show performer of the 19th century, was famous for blackening his face with makeup and dancing a crazy jig while singing the song "Jump Jim Crow." Twenty years later, in the 1850s, the Jim Crow character had become a standard figure in U.S. minstrel shows. Jim Crow was one of many terms and iconic images that inferred black inferiority in the popular culture of the time. By the end of the century, instances of racial discrimination toward blacks were often referred to as Jim Crow practices.
In the period from 1890 to 1910, aided by crucial Supreme Court decisions, Southern states began to systematically create laws that ensured a subordinate social position for African Americans. Blacks and whites were separated in all public places, and black men were prevented from exercising their right to vote. The signs we associate today with Jim Crow- "Whites Only," "Colored"– appeared at water fountains and rest rooms, as well as at the entrances and exits to public buildings. Jim Crow remained the law of the South for decades.

2.  Decide whether to be Junior Editor 1, 2, or 3

Negros to Ride

Rev. Albert Jim Crowed

Oliver Scott's Refined Negro Minstrels

Junior Editor #2- Use these three sources to complete the primary source analysis form (located below)

Jim Crow Law Must Go

Jim Crow Cars

What a Colored Man Should Do to Vote

Junior Editor #3- Use these three sources to complete the primary source analysis form (located below)

Airship with a Jim Crow Trailer

Arkansas Official to File Test Case

Jim Crow Law Upheld

3.  Fill out the Primary Source Analysis Form 

Primary Source Analysis Form

4.  Fill out the Decision Form

Decision Form

Choose two of these sources that you believe will do the best job showing that Reconstruction failed.

I choose___________________________ and_________________________ because:

And not____________________________ because:

5.  Proposal to your senior editor (ie: your teacher)

Now it is time to put your sources in the text book, however you've just been told there is only room for three total sources in the Reconstruction section.  Your team of three junior editors must bring the two sources you've each chosen for the text book together and decide which three will ultimately be used.  Once you've decided, you must present your decision to the senior editor.  Complete the proposal form below: