JIM CROW in Oklahoma

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JIM CROW in Oklahoma
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The term Jim Crow originated in a song performed
by Daddy Rice, a white minstrel show entertainer
in the 1830s. Rice covered his face with
charcoal to resemble a black man, and then sang
and danced a routine in a silly caricature of a
black person.
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The "Jim Crow" figure was a fixture of the
minstrel shows that toured the South a white man
made up as a black man sang and mimicked
stereotypical behavior in the name of comedy.
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Sheet music cover illustration with caricatures
of ragged African-American musicians and dancers.
pub. C1847
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How it became a term synonymous with the brutal
segregation and disfranchisement of African
Americans in the late nineteenth-century is
unclear. What is clear, however, is that by
1900, the term was generally identified with
those racist laws and actions that deprived
African Americans of their civil rights by
defining blacks as inferior to whites, as members
of a caste of subordinate people.
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Emergence of segregation in the South actually
began immediately after the Civil War when the
formerly enslaved people acted quickly to
establish their own churches and schools separate
from whites. At the same time, most southern
states tried to limit the economic and physical
freedom of the formerly enslaved by adopting laws
known as Black Codes.
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These early legal attempts at white-imposed
segregation and discrimination were short-lived.
During the period of Congressional
Reconstruction, which lasted from 1866 to 1876,
the federal government declared illegal all such
acts of legal discrimination against African
Americans.
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African-Americans came to newly-opened lands of
Oklahoma for opportunities to establish their own
communities near
Stillwater, 1891

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Moreover, the passage of the Fourteenth and
Fifteenth Amendments, along with the two Civil
Rights Acts of 1866 and 1875 and the various
Enforcement Acts of the early 1870s, curtailed
the ability of southern whites to formally
deprive blacks of their civil rights.
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Some southern states, for example, moved to
legally impose segregation on public
transportation, especially on trains. Blacks were
required to sit in a special car reserved for
blacks known as "The Jim Crow Car," even if they
had bought first-class tickets.
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Philadelphia, 1889 Removing an African American
from a Philadelphia Railway car--after the
implementation of Jim Crow
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Some states also passed so-called miscegenation
laws banning interracial marriages. These bans
were, in the opinion of some historians, the
"ultimate segregation laws." They clearly
announced that blacks were so inferior to whites
that any mixing of the two threatened the very
survival of the superior white race.
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The effects of Jim Crow laws were devastating
over half the blacks voting in Georgia and South
Carolina in 1880, for example, had vanished from
the polls in 1888. Of those who did vote, many
of their ballots were stolen, misdirected to
opposing candidates, or simply not counted.
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In the 1890s, starting with Mississippi, most
southern states began more systematically to
disfranchise black males by imposing voter
registration restrictions, such as literacy
tests, poll taxes, and the white primary.
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Poll Tax receipt, Fort Worth, Texas, 1903.
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The Supreme Court's sanctioning of segregation
(by upholding the "separate but equal" language
in state laws) in the Plessy v. Ferguson case
in 1896 and the refusal of the federal
government to enact anti-lynching laws meant that
black Americans were left to their own devices
for surviving Jim Crow.
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In most cases, southern blacks tried to avoid
engaging whites as much as possible as the best
means of avoiding their wrath. These efforts at
avoiding whites meant supporting their own
schools and community-based support groups as
much as possible.
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Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1921 Smoke billowing over
Tulsa, Oklahoma during 1921 race riots.
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Many southern blacks actually preferred
segregated schools, especially their all-black
colleges, as a means of local autonomy and
independence--even though they had little choice
in the matter after 1890. Many of these
colleges became the primary centers of black
resistance to Jim Crow
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Atlanta, Georgia, 1900 African-American baseball
players from Morris Brown College, with boy and
another man standing at door.
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What did JIM CROW look like in Oklahomas
laws and statutes?
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Following the pattern of states bordering the
Confederacy, Oklahoma strongly supported
separation of the races with 18 Jim Crow laws
passed between 1890 and 1957. For example, an
Oklahoma City ordinance passed in 1925 made it
illegal for black bands to march with white bands

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City Hall, OKC, 1958
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1908 Railroads StatuteAll railroad and
streetcar companies had to provide separate
coaches for white and black passengers.Penalty
Railway companies that violate the law fined 100
to 1,000.
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Black waiting room area at Oklahoma City bus
station
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1897 State Education Statuterequired a
separate district to be established for colored
children wherever there are at least eight black
children. It was unlawful for any white child
to attend a school for black children (or vice
versa).
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Segregated School House, Oklahoma, 1955
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In 1950, G.W.McLaurin won a court order to end
segregation at the University of Oklahoma, the
first time in the nations history that
universities were forced to desegregate their
classes 
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1907 The Voting Rights Statuterequired
electors to read and write any section of the
state Constitution. Declared unconstitutional
in 1915 this provision for literacy was upheld.
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Almost every city in Oklahoma designated housing
areas in which blacks could not own or rent
property.
Drumright City Codes, 1950.
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Black housing district of east Oklahoma City
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1908 Miscegenation StatuteUnlawful for a
person of African descent to marry any person not
of African descent. Penalty Felony-
punishable by a fine of up to 500 and
imprisonment from one to five years in the
penitentiary.
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For most southern blacks, Jim Crow was not an
easy or acceptable condition for them to
tolerateFor tens of thousands of African
Americans, Jim Crow was met with resistance and
determination to win back the civil rights that
had been stolen from them. Often this resistance
took the form of individual acts of defiance, and
often it took the form of organized challenges.
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Whites launched a vicious, illegal war against
blacks In most places, whites carried out this
war under the cover of secret organizations such
as the Ku Klux Klan.
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The costumes and rituals of the new Ku Klux Klan
became symbols of terror in America during the
first three decades of the twentieth century.
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Thousands of African Americans were killed,
brutalized, and terrorized in these bloody years.
The federal government attempted to stop the
bloodshed by sending in troops and holding
investigations, but its efforts were far too
limited.
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Oklahoma was not exempt from these brutalities
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The lynching of Laura Nelson and her son, several
dozen onlookers. May 25, 1911, Okemah, Oklahoma.
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It is impossible to know, for example, how many
of the nearly 4,000 (recorded) African Americans
lynched (mutilated and burned alive) from 1882 to
1968, were men and women who had challenged Jim
Crow by some overt act of defiance.
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Perhaps the single most shocking event reflecting
the racist attitudes of white Oklahomans occurred
in 1921 when the city of Tulsa broke out in a
race riot, resulting in an estimated 300 deaths,
800 injuries, and untold property damage
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On May 31, 1921, Tulsa's pace as a progressive,
booming, civilized city was halted. The riot had
its roots in a rumor involving a young black man
and a white female elevator operator in the
Drexel Building at Third and Main Streets. It
was alleged by the woman that the man grabbed her
by the arm in the elevator and she struck him
about the head with her purse. He was arrested
that afternoon by city police.
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That night rumors began flying in the downtown
area that the young man was to be lynched and
many whites began gathering at the courthouse.
Newspaper reports of that period state that an
open touring car occupied by several black men
drove up to the courthouse and a shot or two was
fired. That was the spark that ignited the city
into a mass of ugly people turning against each
other.
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Newspapers reported that blacks made an armed
attack against the downtown district. Whites
responded by breaking into every store in the
downtown area, such as sporting goods and
hardware stores, grabbing rifles, pistols,
shotguns and ammunition.
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Tulsa's police force was small and not able to
halt the rioters, so Mayor T.D. Evans asked the
governor to send in the National Guard. Shortly
after midnight, Guard units from Oklahoma City
were sent to Tulsa by special train. While the
Guard was on it's way, the white mob running amok
in the Tulsa streets turned to arson.
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At dawn on June 1, 1921, smoke hung over the
north end of Tulsa. Since the previous midnight,
the white rioters had burned 35 blocks of north
Tulsa to the ground. Piles of bricks and rubble,
a few chimneys and columns standing here and
there in the ruins, was all that remained of the
black area.
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The black group then surrendered. They were
disarmed and marched in columns to Convention
Hall .
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Nationwide, joining with the NAACP in contesting
Jim Crow in the 1920s and 1930s were an array of
other political organizations like the National
Urban League, the National Negro Congress, and
more radical groups such as the Communist Party.

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Detroit 1944 NAACP Detroit branch "Parade for
Victory."
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Progressive Party pamphlet, 1948.
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The Jim Crow conditions in Oklahoma would face
the same demise as Jim Crow across the nation
during the Civil Rights movements of the 1960s
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JIM CROW in Oklahoma
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Created by Pam Merrill, Edmond Public Schools