Jim Crow Laws Informational Reading and Activities dives into an impactful time in American history. This resource examines the discriminatory Jim Crow laws enacted after the Civil War through an engaging informational text written at a 7th-grade reading level. Students will apply content vocabulary terms and comprehension strategies as they read. The reading packet can be used flexibly for whole-group instruction, small-group work, or independent assignments in social studies or ELA. Format options include paper copies and Google Classroom-compatible digital versions for in-person or remote settings. Multiple choice questions, graphic organizers, and constructed response activities allow learners to analyze the content and demonstrate understanding. Answer keys are provided for all reproducible materials in this Black history teaching resource. Jim Crow Laws Reading Packet + Distance Learning
Jim Crow law, any of the laws that enforced racial segregation in the U.S. South from the end of Reconstruction to the mid-20th century. The segregation principle was codified on local and state levels and most famously with the Supreme Court’s ‘separate but equal’ decision in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).
Civil Rights in AmericaWhat were the Jim Crow Laws in America? Who was Jim Crow? Why did this fictional character significantly impact on American society, especially in the south in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries? What happened if you did not adhere to these laws?These questions and more ar...
Graphic Art
Alabama's anti-immigration law looks eerily familiar.
Fifty years ago, the Voting Rights Act targeted the laws and practices of Jim Crow. Here’s where the name came from.
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Segregated Coca-Cola Dispensing machine. The Help grossed over $26 million its first weekend making it seem that just about every reading-movie-going person in America has read the book by Kathryn Stockett or seen the movie. Based on the attendance at the theater where I saw the movie, certainly most aware Southerners have seen it. For a person like me who grew up in the South, the story and the characters ring true. I clearly remember "Colored" and "White" signs on bathroom doors, over water fountains, and in train/bus waiting rooms. In the small Florida town where I lived, the city closed the one public pool rather than allow anyone who was not White to swim there. Public restaurants were open only to Whites. The phone book had separate listings for "Colored" and "White" taxis. We had one movie theater in town. The balcony was reserved for "Coloreds" and Whites sat downstairs on the main floor. The only work available for nonwhites was for women to serve as a maid and manual labor for men. The social climate was extremely oppressive if you were not White. There was no opportunity and little chance to succeed. In the African-American community, which was on the outskirts of town, a few Blacks had their own businesses, entertainment establishments and bars. I used to wonder what mothers told their children. How did they explain to a child that he/she could not go to the bathroom if there was not a door marked "Colored." This was the way of life accepted by most people in my little town and in the South. There was kindness, of course, and helpfulness, but basically, the African-American was made to feel lowly and inferior. Why did they tolerate this treatment? One word, FEAR. Jim Crow and Law enforcement protected Whites and encouraged, even demanded demeaning treatment of the African-American. Jim Crow was not an actual person, but a stereotype made popular in songs and black-face musical acts. In The Help when Skeeter comes across a booklet "Compilation of Jim Crow Laws of the South" she finally understands the consequences of interviewing the maids and of even being alone in their company. The Jim Crow caste system operated between 1877 and 1960, and it was not exclusively a Southern thing. The laws justified most any treatment of the African-American. Christian ministers preached that God supported racial segregation. Newspapers and magazines used "nigger," "coons," "darkies" without apology. Jim Crow dictated not only law but etiquette norms. For example, a black man could not offer his hand to shake with a white man. Blacks and whites were not supposed to eat together. Black couples could not show affection to each other in public because it might offend whites if they saw them. Whites did not use titles such as Mr. or Mrs. when referring to Blacks. Blacks were called by their first names. If a Black person rode in a car driven by a White person, he had to sit in the back seat. White motrorists had the right of way at all intersections. A few typical Jim Crow laws compiled by the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site Interpretive Staff: * All passenger stations shall have separate waiting rooms and separate ticket windows. * The White and "Colored" militia shall be separately enrolled and shall never be compelled to serve in the same organization. * Any Colored person shall not be buried on ground set apart for White persons. * White convicts shall have separate apartments for both eating and sleeping from Negro convicts. * Any instructor who teaches in any school or college where members of the White and Colored race are enrolled as pupils shall be deemed guilt of a misdemeanor. There are many, many more such laws. What was the punishment if they were violated? beatings, burning of property, lynchings, arrest. This was the reason the women in The Help were so scared of being caught giving information to Skeeter. Even though she was White, she was in the same danger. Thankfully, through long and painful events, society has changed, but understanding Jim Crow restrictions, gives a more complete view of the book and movie, The Help. Information from: "Who Was Jim Crow? "What Was Jim Crow?" by Dr. David Pilgrim, Ferris State University The penalty for voting
Racist politicians and judges used everything from poll taxes to literacy tests to prevent African Americans from voting in the Jim Crow era. Some say Republicans are using similar tactics today.
The Green Book offered travel guidance to African Americans about safe places to eat, stay, and buy gas during the long era of Jim Crow laws.
"Jim Crow" refers to a five-part system developed in the late 1800s and early 1900s to support white supremacy and oppress black citizens. Although there were laws that discriminated against African Americans throughout the country, the Jim Crow system existed only in the South. This exhibit briefly describes the five oppressions of the Jim Crow system.
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The U.S. House of Representatives issued an unprecedented apology to black Americans on Tuesday for the institution of slavery and subsequent Jim Crow laws that for years discriminated against blacks. Rep. Steve Cohen, a Democrat from Tennessee, drafted the resolution and explains its timing.
Separate but equal," the legal doctrine established in the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court case, became the standard justification for upholding Jim Crow laws. This unjust system…
Most people know about Rosa Parks and the 1955 Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott. Nine months earlier, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat on the same bus system.
Irene Morgan was born in 1917 in Baltimore, Maryland, and was raised as a Seventh-day Adventist. She became a native of Gloucester County, Virginia, and often would travel back to Maryland. In 1944, Morgan was traveling by Greyhound bus from the Old Hayes Store in the county to Baltimore, Maryland. A short time after riding other passengers began ...
By playing the race card in summarily dismissing Colin Powell’s endorsement of President Barack Obama for President of the United States, chief Romney surrogate, John Sununu, reveals the Romn…
When it comes to white supremacy, Stevenson says he doesn't view recent trend as a resurgence, but an outcome of our practiced denial around America's past.
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