Jim+Crow+Life

The Fourteenth granted citizenship to people once enslaved, like me. Due process means to deny to any person within their jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
 * 1) **Right after the Civil War, the 14th Amendment was ratified. What did the 14th Amendment provide for African Americans? What does “due process” and “equal protection of the laws” mean?**

Equal protection of the laws are the following - -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.

**2) Unfortunately, your equal rights were challenged by the Supreme Court in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson. What do you remember about the facts, decision, and impact of this case?** A 30 year old man was found sitting in a “white” car, when he was supposed to be in the “colored” car. Plessy deliberately sat in the white section; he was arrested and the case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court. Plessy's lawyer argued that the Separate Car Act violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth amendments. The Supreme Court said that the act in Louisiana was constitutional. This case showed that people we still against blacks and they were not equal.

**3) The laws developed in the South became known as Jim Crow laws. Who was this Jim Crow fellow? Did he write the laws?**  ﻿ ﻿﻿The Jim Crow laws were another name for segregation laws. The name Jim Crow came from a song. People would call african american people, Jim Crow. The Jim Crow laws were the black codes.  **4) What are some specific examples of the Jim Crow laws from southern states? How did the laws affect you?** These laws affected me because we had to go way out of our way to do things that were legal, for us blacks, and we couldn’t do a lot of the things the whites could, which was hard.
 *  It shall be unlawful for a negro and white person to play together or in company with each other in any game of cards or dice, dominoes or checkers.
 *  Separate free schools shall be established for the education of children of African descent; and it shall be unlawful for any colored child to attend any white school, or any white child to attend a colored school.
 *   A black man could help a white woman in anyway.
 *   Different races couldn't marry. Black people couldn't show affection in front of white people.
 *   Different schools, hospitals, cars, trains, jails, windows, and other things.

**5) What did Jim Crow America look like in the 1900s? What are some images that can help explain the realities of the time?** Jim Crow America was very segregated. People were very split between white and blacks. Some places were "whites only" and "colored people" had to go to sit in a different place or drink from a different water fountain just because of their skin color. The places to sit and water fountain  where "colored people" had to use were usually lesser in quality and not as nice as the ones that white people had to use.

This is a picture of a place where "colored people" had to wait in a different waiting room as white.

<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Arial; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">**6) What happened in the Scottsboro Case? How did it make you feel as an African American in the South?** In the 1930s, 9 african american men were accused of raping 2 women but it was untrue. The men were on a train when they got in a fight with some white men. The white men were thrown off the train. The train stopped at the nearest stop and the 9 men were forced out of the train and into jail. The 9 boys were going to be charged with assault but they found 2 women dressed as men hiding in the train. There was no evidence but the women told the judge that they boys rape them because the women didn't want to get charged for sexual activity on the train. This would make me feel unsafe because I would feel that I could be accused for anything. Since those boys were convicted for something that the people had no evidence on, i would feel very scared of doing anything wrong or a chance of doing anything wrong.

**7) Why should anyone care about your life during Jim Crow America?** <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Arial; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">We should care about my life during this time because a single gesture, a movement, an expression, or a question could be regarded as a violation of the Jim Crow laws. And also, this time period was nearly the worst time period of segregation for blacks ever in history. These laws limited us to do so many things, and that hurt us.