The Jim Crow Laws and Racism in United States History (3 page)

Whites kept blacks from voting, oppressed them through the legal system, and abused them in many different ways. They cheated blacks out of their earnings. This was easy to do, considering that poorly educated blacks had little ability to read or negotiate fair contracts. Whites also assured that they would have a labor supply by passing vagrancy laws that could imprison blacks on trivial charges. Whites tried to justify this treatment by claiming that they knew what was best for blacks.

Those who defied white oppression faced blacklists, court charges, or vigilante “justice.” “The laws were so rigid no one could ever think you could break them,” recalled black journalist Vernon Jarrett.
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“There were to be
no
[black] victories.”
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Knowing One’s Place

A set of written and unwritten rules governed relations between whites and blacks in the South. These were intended to keep a black person in his or her place—in a social position below that of a white person.

Black and white children often played together in the South. But by the teenage years, their carefree friendships ended. From then on, the white person would be dominant, the black submissive. Blacks were expected to address whites as “mister,” “missus,” or “miss.” Whites addressed blacks as “boy” or “girl.” Older blacks were called “uncle” or “auntie.”

If white people walked along a sidewalk, blacks had to step aside and let them pass. Black drivers could not pass whites who were driving a buggy. A black man was expected to take off his hat when a white person came near. He did not start a conversation with a white person.

Southern blacks learned early in life to curb their ambitions. “I could never aspire to be President of the United States or governor of my state,” wrote author Alben Hosley. “I knew that front doors of white homes in my town were not for me to enter, except as a servant.”
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Many Southern whites resented any kind of black success. They accused blacks who appeared well-to-do of being “uppity.” Civil rights leader Benjamin Mays recalled that a white man struck him when he was young for “trying to look too good.”
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Many blacks hid their prosperity. Some did not paint their houses even though they could afford to do so. They bought items from mail order catalogs, so local white merchants would not find out about their prosperity. Industrious black Southerners who bought cars risked having them destroyed by jealous whites.

Any black man caught, or suspected of, having sexual relations with a white woman would almost certainly die. Death might be the sentence of a court as a result of rape charges, or it might come at the hands of a lynch mob. White men, on the other hand, had little fear of the law after attacking a black woman.

One man who posed a huge threat to whites was Jack Johnson. The African-American boxer defeated a white Australian to win the heavyweight championship in 1908. Two years later, white promoters found a “great white hope” to challenge Johnson.
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They lured former boxing champion James J. Jeffries out of retirement. Johnson pummeled the out-of-shape Jeffries to retain the title. The fight created such racial tension that there were race riots in some cities.

Johnson’s victories were a blow to whites’ pride. But the black fighter added insult to injury. He was cocky, arrogant, and disrespectful of his white opponents. Worst of all, in the eyes of Southern whites, he openly traveled with a white woman.

To black America, Jack Johnson was a hero. Many whites detested him. Although Southern blacks rejoiced among themselves at Johnson’s success, they knew better than to mention the fighter’s name near a white man. White disgust with Johnson became so great that Congress outlawed transporting boxing films between states in the hopes of preventing black Southerners from viewing their hero in action.

“This Plantation Is a Place for Me to Make a Profit”

After the Civil War, newly freed blacks likely dreamed of “forty acres and a mule.”
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During Reconstruction, Republican government officials had briefly offered former slaves parcels of land to help them become free workers. The reality was far different—and far harsher. For most blacks, the independence and land ownership they craved turned out to be an illusion.

Blacks had few employment options other than farm work. Industries such as textiles, furniture, and paper were growing in the South. But whites kept blacks from those industries. Many slaves had learned the skills to become successful artisans. White craftsmen, however, openly discouraged black competition for what they considered “White men’s work.”
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African Americans did not have the choice of not working. Every Southern state passed vagrancy laws, which punished those who had no job. Although the laws themselves were color-blind, enforcement was not. An unemployed white man might be the lovable town loafer. An unemployed black might find himself in jail.

For black farm workers, life was a series of crises. Thunderstorms, tornadoes, or floods could ravage the land. In the early 1910s, an insect called the boll weevil entered the South from Mexico. The weevil devoured crops and did millions of dollars’ worth of damage. But the greatest problems blacks faced were human-made, not natural ones.

Black workers after the Civil War were not slaves. But in many ways, their conditions differed little from those of slavery. Whites forced blacks to sign labor contracts every year. The contracts usually forced blacks to work from sunrise to sunset six days a week. Workers could not leave the plantation for any reason without the planter’s permission. Employers could enter a worker’s home at any time. Workers could be fined for being absent or for anything the employer considered misbehavior.

White planters and businessmen were the ones who totaled the money. More often than not, they cheated the blacks. If a black person earned a substantial sum for his or her labor, whites would claim that the black owed additional expenses. These costs would take away the rest of the black person’s money. Black workers took their lives in their hands if they protested unfair white accounting.

African-American women in the Southern states worked at least as hard as men did. Many toiled alongside their husbands or fathers in the cotton fields, in addition to doing household chores. Other women worked as domestic servants in white people’s homes, where they prepared meals, cleaned house, and washed clothes and dishes. If they were lucky, they could return home before dark and do their own chores there. In most cases, the black workers also had families of their own to care for.

“Three Days for Stealing, Eighty-seven Days for Being Colored”

Farm life was hard, but the usual alternative was much worse. Every year, thousands of African Americans were arrested, convicted, and imprisoned.

“Equal justice under the law” was a joke in Southern courts. It was said that more blacks went to jail for stealing a farm animal than whites did for killing a black man. Blacks, particularly young men, often found themselves arrested for gambling, vagrancy, or other minor charges. A New Orleans newspaper claimed that a black defendant received ninety days in jail: “three days for stealing, eighty-seven days for being colored.”
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The sentence might depend less on what the accused did than on whom he or she knew. If the black defendant had a white sponsor who would speak for him or her, the defendant might escape with little or no punishment. If there were no such sponsor, the convicted person might end up on a prison farm.

Convict labor was more than a means of punishment for black (and some poor white) prisoners. It became a profitable business for the Southern states. They leased prisoners to white employers for use as plantation and factory workers. In the 1880s, Tennessee and Alabama each received about $100,000 for their inmates’ services, a huge sum at the time. States made money from these prisoners in many ways. In Tennessee, state officials sold the urine of inmates to tanneries. Unclaimed bodies of deceased black prisoners often went to universities for research by medical students.

Few convicts who were sentenced to ten or more years survived their terms. Planters and business owners had no reason to treat the prisoners well. A dead prisoner could easily be replaced. If there were a shortage of convict workers, local police would round up young, powerless blacks on petty charges. They became the new convict labor force.

Lynching

Those who were merely jailed were sometimes the lucky ones. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, thousands of innocent blacks paid for white racism with their lives.

Whites lynched hundreds of African Americans every year. Lynching means killing without first holding a trial, as punishment for an alleged offense. In 1910, 846 lynchings were recorded. From 1890 until 1917, on average, two to three blacks in the South were illegally hanged, burned, or otherwise murdered every week.
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Often, these killings took place off quiet roads in the country. At times, however, the executions became public events. Trains sometimes brought spectators to an execution. Vendors sold ice cream and lemonade at hangings.

Lynchings took place with little or no objection from white authorities. Any sheriff who tried to arrest a lyncher knew he would face strong opposition at election time. Besides, even if a lyncher were arrested, there would likely be no witnesses willing to come forward. Blacks, fearing a similar fate, were afraid to testify against someone charged with lynching. Those whites who opposed lynching feared the wrath of their neighbors. Even white ministers hesitated to speak out against lynching.

Sometimes a minor crime would lead to a lynching. More often, though, the victims had somehow violated an unwritten racial code. Owning too much property, trying to register to vote, demanding full value for one’s labor—any of these “offenses” could lead to the wrong end of a noose.

Lynch mobs sometimes executed people other than those they were seeking. To many, the victim’s identity was of little importance. A black person was executed as a warning to others, not as a means of justice.

Birth of a Nation

Negative feelings about blacks were not confined to the South. A 1915 film brought racial issues before the entire nation. Southerner D. W. Griffith produced
Birth of a Nation
in 1915. Film historian Donald Bogle described it as “a legendary classic. . . . Technically innovative and sweeping.” Bogle also called it “a racist masterpiece.” He claimed “the treatment of its black characters has also made this the most controversial American film ever released.”
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Set during Reconstruction,
Birth of a Nation
glorified Southern whites and demeaned blacks. The black characters were scheming politicians or physical brutes. They drank whiskey, made foolish laws, and threatened white women. Finally, when all appeared lost for the whites, hope appeared. The Ku Klux Klan came to the rescue.

Birth of a Nation
was a huge success. White audiences, in the North as well as the South, cheered the hooded raiders. Thanks largely to the movie, the Klan saw a revival in the 1920s. It gained substantial membership in states as far north as Indiana. The revived Klan was no less ruthless than the original.

“A Private Inner Dignity”

How did blacks survive day after day, year after year, despite continual physical, mental, and spiritual abuse? They endured thanks to resources in their own community. First and foremost were their families and the black churches. Pastors in these churches did more than preach. A minister might be a teacher, job counselor, recreational director, babysitter, and informal legal advisor.

Whites seldom let blacks into their clubs, so blacks formed their own. Religious, social, and fraternal societies sprung up in the South. These groups performed services for the black community and served as a source of community pride.

A rich tradition of oral communication preserved a distinctive African-American culture. Blacks expressed thoughts, hopes, and opinions in many different ways. They relayed the horrors of slavery and the humor of life in folk tales. They made labor more bearable with work songs. Religious feelings flowed through gospel songs and sermons.

Black creativity surfaced in many forms of music. But perhaps no form was more expressive than the blues. A blues song could be sad, joyful, or thoughtful. Blues could deal with any subject—work, lost loves, gambling, religion, liquor, politics, boll weevils, racism, floods, and music itself. Blues music survives today. Its influence can be seen in such musical forms as country and rock and roll.

Most of all, blacks survived with inner powers that defied explanation. “Servants maintained a private inner dignity despite a life that was saturated with indignity,” claimed Vernon Jarrett. “My father spent his whole life being considered a second-class citizen. Yet he and my mother taught for a combined one hundred years. People like them radiated pride. I’ve never had so much admiration for spiritual strength.”
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Chapter 4

“SEPARATE BUT EQUAL”