Jim Crow Laws Black Codes

1
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes)

• Following the Civil War (1861 1865) and the
  passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865 abolishing
  slavery, the Constitutional question remained
• Are African Americans citizens of the state
  within which they reside, and the United States?

2
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes)

• This question was answered with a
  forceful YES with
  the passage of the 14th Amendment,
  ratified July 28, 1868, and
  sometimes referred to today as the Magnificent
  14th.

3
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) - The Magnificent
14th

• Section 1
• All persons born or naturalized in the United
  States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,
  are citizens of the United States and of the
  State wherein they reside. No State shall make or
  enforce any law which shall abridge the
  privileges or immunities of citizens of the
  United States nor shall any State deprive any
  person of life, liberty, or property, without due
  process of law nor deny to any person within its
  jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

4
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) - The Magnificent
14th

• Section 2
• Representatives shall be apportioned among
  the several States according to their respective
  numbers counting the whole number of persons in
  each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when
  the right to vote at any election for the choice
  of electors for President and Vice President of
  the United States, Representatives in
  Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of
  a State or the members of the Legislature
  thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants
  of such State being twenty-one years of age and
  citizens of the United States, or in any way
  abridged, except for participation in rebellion,
  or other crime, the basis of representation
  therein shall be reduced in the proportion which
  the number of such male citizens shall bear to
  the whole number of male citizens twenty-one
  years of age in such State.

5
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) - The Magnificent
14th

• Section 3
• No person shall be a Senator or Representative
  in Congress, or Elector of President and Vice
  President, or hold any office, civil or military,
  under the United States, or under any State, who,
  having previously taken an oath, as a member of
  Congress, or as an officer of the United States,
  or as a member of any State legislature, or as
  an executive or judicial officer of any State, to
  support the Constitution of the United States,
  shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion
  against the same, or given aid or comfort to the
  enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of
  two-thirds of each house, remove such disability.

6
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) - The Magnificent
14th

• Section 4
• The validity of the public debt of the United
  States, authorizing by law, including debts
  incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for
  services in suppressing insurrection or
  rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither
  the United States nor any State shall assume or
  pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of
  insurrection or rebellion against the United
  States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation
  of any slave but all such debts, obligations and
  claims shall he held illegal and void.

7
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) - The Magnificent
14th

• Section 5
• The Congress shall have power to enforce, by
  appropriate legislation, the provisions of this
  article.

8
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) - The Magnificent
14th

• It is Section 1
• of the
• 14th Amendment
• that is
• our focus
• during Unit 8

9
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) - The Magnificent
14th

• All persons born or naturalized in the United
  States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,
  are citizens of the United States and of the
  State wherein they reside. No State shall make or
  enforce any law which shall abridge the
  privileges or immunities of citizens of the
  United States nor shall any State deprive any
  person of life, liberty, or property, without due
  process of law nor deny to any person within its
  jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

10
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes)

• However, from the 1870s into the 1960s, a
  majority of American states enforced segregation
  through the Black Codes, but often better known
  as Jim Crow laws (named for a black-face
  character in minstrel shows).

11
Images of Jim Crow - Minstrel Shows

• The term Jim Crow is believed to have
  originated around 1830 when a white minstrel show
  performer, Thomas "Daddy" Rice, blackened his
  face and danced a ridiculous jig while singing
  the lyrics to the song, "Jump Jim Crow."

12
Images of Jim Crow
13
"Jump Jim Crow"

• Chorus
• Weel about and turn about and do jis so,
• Eb'ry time I weel about and jump Jim Crow.
• (written and performed by whites, the words are
  intended to show black pronunciation.)

14
Images of Jim Crow - Minstrel Shows
15
Images of Jim Crow - Minstrel Shows
16
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes)

• From Delaware to California, from North
  Dakota to Texas, many states (and cities, too)
  imposed legal punishments on people for
  consorting with members of another race. The most
  common types of laws forbade intermarriage, while
  others ordered business owners and public
  institutions to keep their black and white
  clientele separated.

17
Images of Jim Crow
18
Images of Jim Crow
19
Images of Jim Crow
20
Images of Jim Crow
21
Images of Jim Crow
22
Images of Jim Crow
23
Images of Jim Crow
24
Images of Jim Crow
25
Images of Jim Crow
26
Images of Jim Crow Plessey v. Ferguson

• Mr. Justice Brown delivered the opinion of the
  Court....
• The object of the Fourteenth amendment was
  undoubtedly to enforce the absolute equality of
  the two races before the law, but in the nature
  of things it could not have been intended to
  abolish distinctions based on color, or to
  enforce social, as distinguished from political
  equality, or a commingling of the two races upon
  terms unsatisfactory to either. Laws permitting,
  and even requiring, that separation in places
  where they are liable to be brought into contact
  do not necessarily imply the inferiority of
  either race to the other, and have been
  generally, if not universally, recognized as
  within the competency of the state legislatures
  in the exercise of their police power.

27
Images of Jim Crow Plessey v. Ferguson

• Legislation is powerless to eradicate
  racial instincts or to abolish distinctions based
  upon physical differences, and the attempt to do
  so can only result in accentuating the
  difficulties of the present situation. If the
  civil and political rights of both races be
  equal, one cannot be inferior to the other
  civilly or politically. If one race be inferior
  to the other socially, the Constitution of the
  United States cannot put them upon the same
  plain....
• The judgment of the court below is, therefore,
  Affirmed.

28
Images of Jim Crow
29
Images of Jim Crow
30
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) - Texas

• Education
• 1866 All taxes paid by blacks to go to
  maintaining African schools. Duty of the
  legislature to encourage colored schools.
• 1925 Required racially segregated schools.
• 1958 No child can be compelled to attend schools
  that are racially mixed. No desegregation unless
  approved by election. Governor may close schools
  where troops used on federal authority.

31
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) - Oklahoma

• Education
• 1897 A separate district will be established for
  colored children wherever there are at least
  eight black children. Unlawful for any white
  child to attend a school for black children (or
  vice versa).
• 1921 Misdemeanor for a teacher to teach white
  and colored children in the same school. Penalty
  Cancellation of teaching certificate without
  renewal for one year.

32
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) Missouri

• Education
• 1865 Provides education for all children as long
  as white children are sent to separate schools
  from black children.
• 1887 A school for Negro children to be
  established in districts where there are more
  than fifteen children of required age. In
  districts with less than fifteen children, they
  may attend school in another district with a
  separate school for Negro children.
• 1889 Unlawful for any black child to attend any
  white public school, or for any white child to
  attend a school for black children.

33
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) Missouri

• Education
• 1870 Prohibited white and colored children from
  being taught in the same school.
• 1882 White and colored children shall be taught
  in separate schools. The determination as to who
  is a colored person lies with the board of
  education.

34
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) Maryland

• Education
• 1870 Taxes paid by colored people shall be set
  aside for maintaining schools for colored
  children.
• 1872 Schools to be established for colored
  children. No colored school shall be established
  in a district unless the colored population
  warrants.
• 1924 Required racially segregated schools.

35
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) Virginia

• Education
• 1870 Prohibited white and colored children from
  being taught in the same school.
• 1882 White and colored children shall be taught
  in separate schools. The determination as to who
  is a colored person lies with the board of
  education.
• 1958 Upon enrollment of members of both races,
  schools must close control transferred to
  governor.

36
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes)

• North vs. South
• or
• de jure vs. de facto

37
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) de jure vs. de facto

• In the South, people tended to live together in
  their communities. To keep the races separated
  in their interactions within that community,
  the South wrote laws de jure that segregated
  the races.
• de jure segregation by law

38
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) de jure vs. de facto

• In the North, people tended to live, work, and
  interact in their own communities. The races
  were separated from much interaction with each by
  these natural boundaries de facto making it
  unnecessary to separate the races by law de
  jure.
• de facto segregation in fact

39
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) de jure vs. de facto

• Why did northern states tend to feel superior
  when the Supreme Court began to demand an end to
  segregation by law de jure segregation?
• Which type of segregation is harder to write laws
  against?

40
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) de jure vs. de facto

• What ended
• de jure segregation
• of public education?

41
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) de jure vs. de facto

• Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka 1954
• Chief Justice Earl Warren
• A landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, it
  overturned earlier rulings going back to Plessey
  v. Ferguson in 1896, by declaring that state laws
  which established separate public schools for
  black and white students denied black children
  equal educational opportunities.
• The Court's unanimous (9-0) decision stated that
  "separate educational facilities are inherently
  unequal." As a result, de jure segregation was
  ruled a violation of the Equal Protection Clause
  of the 14th Amendment.

42
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) - Texas

• Miscegenation
• 1915The penalty for intermarriage is
  imprisonment in the penitentiary from two to five
  years.
• 1925 Miscegenation declared a felony. Nullified
  interracial marriages if parties went to another
  jurisdiction where such marriages were legal.
• 1951 Unlawful for person of Caucasian blood to
  marry person of African blood. Penalty Two to
  five years imprisonment.

43
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) - Oklahoma

• Miscegenation
• 1908 Unlawful 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.
• 1921 Prohibited marriage between Indians Native
  Americans and Negroes.

44
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) - Missouri

• Miscegenation
• 1866 Prohibited all marriages between whites and
  Negroes.
• 1879 Persons with one-eighth or more Negro blood
  were prohibited from marrying white persons. The
  jury could determine the amount of Negro blood
  from appearance.
• 1909 Marriages between white persons and
  Negroes, or white persons and Asians prohibited.

45
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) - Virginia

• Miscegenation
• 1873 White persons who married Negroes would be
  jailed for at least one year, and fined a minimum
  of 100. Those who performed such ceremonies
  faced fines of 200, of which one-half would go
  to the informer.

46
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) - Virginia

• Miscegenation
• 1930 Originally entitled A bill to preserve the
  integrity of the white race, the law tightened
  miscegenation provisions. The definition of
  whiteness was narrowed to state no trace
  whatever of non-white blood allowed. Nullified
  interracial marriage if parties went to another
  jurisdiction where such marriages were legal.
  Prohibited marriage between whites and Asians and
  other non-white non-Negroes. Penalty Felony for
  both parties if found guilty. Punishable by
  confinement in the penitentiary for between one
  and five years.

47
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) - Virginia

• Loving v. Virginia In 1958, a couple was
  convicted under Virginia's miscegenation law.
  They were "exiled" from Virginia for 25 years,
  although they could have received a 5 year
  prison term.
• The judge in his ruling stated

48
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) Loving v. Virginia

• Almighty God created the races white, black,
  yellow, Malay and red, and he placed them on
  separate continents. And but for the interference
  with his arrangement there would be no cause for
  such marriages. The fact that he separated the
  races shows that he did not intend the races to
  mix.

49
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) Loving v. Virginia

• The couple appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court,
  which overturned the Virginia miscegenation law
  and those of 15 other states in 1967.
• Chief Justice Earl Warren said that Virginia's
  "white supremacy" marriage law and like laws
  violated the 14th Amendment.

50
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) - Texas

• Voting Rights
• 1876 Required electors to pay poll tax.
• 1922 . . . in no event shall a Negro be
  eligible to participate in a Democratic party
  primary election held in the State of Texas...
  Overturned in 1927 by U.S. Supreme Court in Nixon
  v. Herndon.
• 1951 Required electors to pay poll tax.

51
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) - Oklahoma

• Voting Rights
• 1907 Indigent persons housed in a poorhouse at
  public expense excluded from voting. Exception
  made for Federal, Confederate, and Spanish
  American veterans.
• 1907 Required electors to read and write any
  section of the state Constitution. Exempted those
  who were enfranchised on January 1, 1866, and
  lineal descendants of such persons. Declared
  unconstitutional in 1915 however, provision for
  literacy was upheld.

52
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) - Virginia

• Voting Rights
• 1950 Required electors to pay poll tax.
• What is a poll tax?

53
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes)

• A poll tax was a tax that had to be paid by an
  individual in order exercise their right to vote.
  
• It emerged in some US states, many Southern,
  after the right to vote was extended to all
  African American males by the 15th Amendment.
• These laws often included a grandfather clause
  that allowed any adult male whose father or
  grandfather had voted in a specific year prior to
  the abolition of slavery to vote without paying
  the tax.
• These laws achieved the desired effect of
  disenfranchising African and Native Americans, as
  well as poor whites who immigrated after the year
  specified.

54
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes)

• What ended the practice
• of using poll taxes?

55
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes)

• 24th Amendment to the Constitution (1964)
• The right of citizens of the United States to
  vote in any primary or other election for
  President or Vice President, for electors for
  President or Vice President, or for Senator or
  Representative in Congress, shall not be denied
  or abridged by the United States or any State by
  reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other
  tax.

56
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) - Texas

• Public accommodations
• 1889 Railroad companies required to maintain
  separate coaches for white and colored
  passengers, equal in comfort. Penalty Passengers
  refusing to sit where assigned were guilty of a
  misdemeanor, and could be fined between 5-20.
• 1907 Required all streetcars to comply with the
  separate coach law passed in 1889.
• 1909 Depot buildings required to provide
  separate waiting areas for the use of white and
  Negro passengers.
• 1914 Negro porters shall not sleep in sleeping
  car berths nor use bedding intended for white
  passengers.

57
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) - Texas

• Public accommodations
• 1919 Ordered that Negroes were to use separate
  branches of county free libraries.
• 1925 Separate branches for Negroes to be
  administered by a Negro custodian in all county
  libraries.
• 1943 Ordered separate seating on all buses.
• 1950 Separate facilities required for white and
  black citizens in state parks

58
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) - Oklahoma

• Public accommodations
• 1908 All railroad and streetcar companies to
  provide separate coaches for white and black
  passengers, equal in all points of comfort and
  convenience. Penalty Railway companies that
  violate the law fined 100 to 1,000. Passengers
  who fail to comply can be charged with a
  misdemeanor punishable by a fine from 5 to 25.
  Conductors could be fined 50 to 500 for failing
  to enforce the law.

59
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) - Oklahoma

• Public accommodations
• 1915 Required telephone companies to maintain
  separate booths for white and colored patrons.
• 1921 Required maintenance of separate
  accommodations for colored persons in public
  libraries in cities with a Negro population of
  1,000 or more.

60
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) Virginia

• Public accommodations
• 1900 Railroads required to offer separate cars
  for white and colored passengers. Conductors
  given the authority to judge the race of each
  passenger if a passenger refuses to disclose his
  race.
• 1900 Call for the separation of white and
  colored passengers on steamboats while sitting,
  eating and sleeping.
• 1901 Alexandria streetcars required to have
  separate compartments for white and black
  passengers.

61
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) Virginia

• 1912 An act, noting that the preservation of
  the public morals, public health and public
  order, in the cities and towns of this
  commonwealth is endangered by the residence of
  white and colored people in close proximity to
  one another, authorized cities that adopted the
  provision to be divided into districts known as
  Segregation districts. City councils ordered to
  prepare a map showing the boundaries of all such
  districts, detailing the number of white persons
  and colored persons residing within such
  segregation districts. One year from the passage
  of the ordinances adopting the provision of this
  act, unlawful for any colored person, not then
  residing in a district so defined and designated
  as a white district, to move into and occupy as a
  residence any building or portion thereof in such
  white district. Also unlawful for a white person
  to move into a colored district.

62
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes) Virginia

• Public accommodations
• 1930 Required segregation in every theater,
  movie theater, opera house or other place of
  public entertainment which accepts both white and
  colored audiences.
• 1960 . . . no athletic team of any school shall
  engage in any athletic contest of any nature
  within the state of Virginia with another team on
  which persons of any other race are members.

63
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes)

• What is generally considered to have caused the
  death of Jim Crow?

64
Jim Crow Laws (Black Codes)-Civil Rights Act of
1964

• The Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Landmark legislation that outlawed segregation in
  US public schools and public places.
• It also started the Equal Employment Opportunity
  Commission, a federal agency tasked with ending
  employment discrimination in the United States.
  It can bring suit on behalf of alleged victims of
  discrimination against private employers.
• Once the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was
  implemented, its effects were far reaching and
  had tremendous long-term impacts on the whole
  country. It prohibited discrimination in public
  facilities, in government, and in employment,
  invalidating the Jim Crow laws in the South. It
  became illegal to compel segregation of the races
  in schools, housing, or hiring.