Is Jim Crow Back— and More Powerful
than Before?
CURRICULUM: Responsibility to Others: People Not Like You & Me
Summary: For 1 in 7 or 8 Americans—the proportion of Black Americans has been constant since the Civil War—prejudice, abuse and fear of violence is often a way of life. Despite political and social advances, and the success of the Civil Rights movement for some, many Black Americans struggle with poverty, fear of law enforcement, incarceration, chronic unemployment, and difficult family situations. America’s Latino population suffers from some of these issues, but the history, constancy and intensity of Jim Crow and its successors set American Black issues apart.
Basic Understanding:
-
1870 - 85% of American Black people lived in the South
Now: 50% in South; 25% in northern industrial Great Migration “receiver” states
-
Jim Crow history: oppressive laws based upon belief—Black as inferior “race”
Restricted freedom, property, schooling, jobs, access, voting, more
Abuse, arrest, beatings, forced labor, lynching, more
Lynch Laws imposed by white law enforcement: 1882-1968 - 4,730 known lynchings.
Issues largely unknown by (non-Southern) White America until 1950s
-
150 years of change: Freedman’s Bureau; Black Codes; President Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction; 15th Amendment (right to vote unimpeded by “race, color, or previous condition of servitude”) and obstructions (poll taxes, literacy tests); economic deprivation, Great Migration, life in northern cities; Civil Rights movement; Affirmative Action; EEO; MORE (MODERN)
-
Evolving concepts of equality: Plessy v. Ferguson; Brown vs. Board of Education; MORE
-
Today’s hard realities (50% of U.S. population is White (1 in 2), 14% is Black (1 in 7 or 8)
Welfare: 38.8% of recipients are White; 39.8% are Black
Poverty: 13% White, 35% Black; Unemployment: 6.7% W, 13.4% B; Prison: 2.6% W, 9% B
Literacy: 89% Non-Black, 47% Black; 89% all others; H.S. graduation: 75% White, 54% Black
Issues:
-
Combination of racial profiling, harsh laws, dubious law enforcement practices, confusion of Federal vs. State jurisdiction, high levels of incarceration target Black population (and others)
-
Long-term (lifetime) impact on those who have been incarcerated and their families
-
Massive public expense to support current practices; different approach, different allocations?
-
Constant threat of violence (remains contemporary issue)
Open Questions:
-
Blacks established pattern for activism and results; changes in treatment for women, Latinos, American Indians, other ethnicities, Americans with disabilities, LGBT; will they remain in place?
-
Comfort level with racial quotas, fair pay, EEO, etc. “to level the playing field”
Fair pay; equal opportunity;
3. U.S. policies compared with other nations: targeted populations, history, incarceration, correction
-
Incarceration: U.S. compared with other nations
Conversation Pit: Possible Topics
-
“Slavery by another Name” PBS Documentary overview of laws enacted in Southern states to ensure slavery was abolished[1]
-
Michelle Alexander on Fresh Air— Slavery still exists in America[2]
-
US HUD housing pamphlet
-
Bill O’Reilly on Affirmative Action
Notebook Contents
-
ADD MORE
Examples of Web Assets
-
Original news article from 1866 discussing the perilous situation of freed slaves having to stay and work for their former masters[3]
-
Death penalty convictions are higher for people of color— fact sheet[4]
-
Debate on Supreme Court decision on Affirmative Action
-
Vice article about disproportionate targeting of African-Americans in War on Drugs/War on Weed
-
Two minute explanation of the Black Codes[5]
Scholars, Books, Other Sources
-
Gunnar Myrdal (1944): “White prejudice and discrimination keep the Negro low in standards of living, health, education, manners and morals. This, in its turn, gives support to white prejudice. White prejudice and Negro standards thus mutually "cause" each other.”
-
Michelle Alexander, associate professor, civil rights advocate and author of “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.” Does new Jim Crow aim to keep Blacks segregated by incarceration and in-system for massive numbers of Black Americans?
-
Reggie Shuman, TITLE, Pennsylvania ACLU, expert on (inequality and incarceration)
-
ADD MORE
Creative / Educational Opportunities
-
ADD MORE
[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s8ccKepCms
[2] http://www.npr.org/2012/01/16/145175694/legal-scholar-jim-crow-still-exists-in-america
[3] http://www.thenation.com/article/moral-memphis-riots