Essay on The Strange Career of Jim Crow

In today’s modern world, many people would be surprised to find out that there is still a racial caste system in America. After witnessing the election of a black president, people have started believing that America has entered a post-racial society. This is both a patently false and dangerous mindset. The segregation and stigma of race is still very much alive in our society. Instead of a formalized institution such as slavery or Jim Crow, America has found a new way to continue the marginalization of blacks by using the criminal justice system. In Michelle Alexander’s book “ The New Jim Crow”, she shows how America’s “ War on Drugs “ has become a tool of racial segregation and how the discretionary enforcement of drug laws has

The Jim Crow laws were local and state laws that were supposedly “separate but equal,” but instead blacks were inferior to the whites due that to the social, educational, and economical disadvantages that they caused. In Woodward’s greatly influential book, The Strange Career of Jim Crow, he shows supporters of segregation that this was not the way that it had always been, but instead segregation took time to develop after the Civil war and that the acceptance of the Jim Crow laws was not just because of race, but also included politic aspects. Woodward proves his thesis by showing how the state between the two races was right after the race the war and how slavery required interaction between blacks and whites. Woodward continues to

C. Vann Woodward illuminates one of the “ugliest” aspects of American societal history in his book The Strange Career of Jim Crow. His book is an overview of the development of the Jim Crow system, a set of racist laws put in place around the turn of the nineteenth century. Interestingly his book tracks the evolution of racism throughout American history. He not only shows where and when racism is developing but the different ways that the racism manifested itself in the North and South.

The Strange Career of Jim Crow by C. Vann Woodward explains the development of Jim Crow Laws starting in the period of Reconstruction until its legal demise in 1965. The book puts an argument against the question whether or not segregation had been around before the civil war, and argues that segregation had not always been that way. Before the Civil War, a close proximity was crucial between the societies in the South to maintain white supremacy above blacks. After the Civil War, a period known as Reconstruction began the physical separation of the blacks and whites to maintain white supremacy by keeping blacks and whites separated in physical facilities like schools, bathrooms, and all types of transportation. Although there was a physical separation between blacks and whites, there was not any kind of social strife between the races until the Compromise of 1877 and the forcible integration of the races. The period after Reconstruction began the push to set in laws known as Jim Crow Laws to legally separate the races, but because of the certain laws poor whites were also affected by things like literacy tests and poll taxes. The total effect of the Jim Crow Laws only benefited white elites like before the Civil War. Woodward breaks up his book between the different phases Jim Crow went through and explains the different reactions people took towards the growing segregation.

C. Vann Woodward wrote The Strange Career of Jim Crow for a purpose. His purpose was to enlighten people about the history of the Jim Crow laws in the South. Martin Luther King Jr. called Woodward’s book, “the historical Bible of the civil rights movement.” (221) Martin Luther King Jr.’s quote revealed the true importance of Woodward’s book. Woodard’s book significance was based on it revealing the strange, forgotten facets of the Jim Crow laws. Assumptions about the Jim Crow’s career have existed since its creation. Woodward tried to eliminate the false theories as he attempted to uncover the truths. Woodward argued the strangest aspects of Jim Crow’s career were, it was a recent innovation and not created in the South

Prior to the 1950s, very little research had been done on the history and nature of the United States’ policies toward and relationships with African Americans, particularly in the South. To most historians, white domination and unequal treatment of Negroes were assumed to be constants of the political and social landscapes since the nation’s conception. Prominent Southern historian C. Vann Woodward, however, permanently changed history’s naïve understanding of race in America through his book entitled The Strange Career of Jim Crow. His provocative thesis explored evidence that had previously been overlooked by historians and gave a fresh foundation for more research on the topic of

To begin with, Southern Whites were technically still above African Americans, placing restrictions, and manipulating African Americans to do the Southern Whites’ bidding. Through the black codes, living areas for African Americans were separated from whites, and were restricted. “No negro shall be allowed to come within...limits of...town...without special permission from...employers...No negro shall be permitted to rent or keep...house within...limits of...town...No public meetings of negroes...be allowed within...limits of...town...without...permission of...mayor or president of...board of police” (Doc B). The African Americans were given set boundaries, as if they were still slaves, and were not able to have meetings without permission. They were forced into following these rules under the control of whites that still have

The author of this report is asked to answer to a series of specific questions as it relates to a certain book written about Jim Crow and the wider historical and social significance of the same. The Supreme Court decision that involved Jim Crow and the separation of blacks and whites is to be discussed as well as a general reaction to the book. All of this and more will be covered. The Woodward work is recognized as one of the most hard-hitting and honest historical reviews of slavery and state-sanctioned racism in the United States law and general practice.

What do you think of when you hear ‘Jim Crow’? Do you think of something no one cares about? Well, back in the years of 1876 to 1965, everyone knew what the Jim Crow laws were. Following the Jim Crow laws, African Americans were downgraded to the position of second class citizens. Jim Crow represented the legitimization of anti-black racism. (Pilgrim, 1)

White Americans considered African Americans not a part of the white race and therefore they were treated as inferior (second class citizens). This method that white Americans used was really cruel, because they gave rights to African Americans, but in the same time those rights were only a “paper thing”. There were separate pubs, separate schools, separate trains etc. It was a taboo to see an African American and white American sitting together, or even just having a normal conversation with each

Comer Vann Woodward studied wrote about the American South and race relations. He was born in 1908 in eastern, rural Arkansas. When he first enrolled into higher education he went to Henderson-Brown College. However, he transferred to Emory University and graduated. After Woodward graduated, he was an English professor at Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Teach). In 1931, he continued his education with graduate school at Columbiana University. There he received a Master of Arts. In 1947, he received his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in history from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Then he taught at Johns Hopkins University. He made the achievement of becoming Sterling Professor of History at Yale University from 1961 to 1977.

In his enormously influential work, The Strange Career of Jim Crow, C. Vann Woodward examines the history of Jim Crow laws and discusses the gradual development of racial segregation in the post-Civil War in American south. This classic work first emerged out of a series of lectures delivered in 1954 by Woodward at the University of Virginia in front of a number of unsegregated audiences and has attempted to expose the great lie of segregationists that the South always demonstrated. With arguments, which proceed along related subjects and events arranged in order of time line, Woodward assumed that the time of the end of slavery did not result in racial segregation and racial segregation came into view after a period of experimentations and

Today in society a majority of people are treated equally, however, in the early 20th century people were treated a lot differently. In the book, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, some of the characters were isolated because of their gender, and race, and physical capabilities. African Americans were not allowed to vote until 1928 and when they did vote in 1932 many voted for the candidate from the democratic party, Franklin D. Roosevelt because a majority of Republicans had anti-black views. In the early 1930’s half of the African Americans were out of work since many businesses, especially in the south, preferred to hire white employees. African Americans were segregated in states across America including some of the northern states.

African Americans were viewed as considerably less than their white “superiors”. Many rights were not granted to them simply because the skin on their bones had a darker pigmentation than that of the general population of the time. Even respected Black men who were free and lived in the North were not safe. Many were mislead, kidnapped, and sold into

This set the foundation for racist treatment and policies for African Americans. But by 1863, slavery was abolished, and the Reconstruction period began, effecting the Dred Scott decision. Resulting in postwar racism, the white people would describe black men as large beasts who were always lusting for white women (82). Resulting from anger for the abolition of slavery, the South began segregating based on a person’s skin color. People were segregated in the movie theaters, schools, restaurants, bathrooms, and water