"What Was Jim Crow?"

On Tuesday, we'll discuss Wright's "The Ethics of Living Jim Crow" (posted to T-Square). I've found a few potentially useful online resources that will provide some context and insight into Jim Crow.

The first is the website for the PBS documentary, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow. Look over the interactive maps.

I found the site for the Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University to be thorough and concise. The pages "What Was Jim Crow?" and "Who Was Jim Crow?" will be particularly useful: the former offers a brief overview of the laws and culture of segregation, while the latter explains the origins of the term.

A brief overview: "Jim Crow," according to the site, "was the name of the racial caste system which operated primarily, but not exclusively in southern and border states, between 1877 and the mid-1960s. Jim Crow was more than a series of rigid anti-Black laws. It was a way of life."

The name was derived from a minstrel tune from the mid-to-late 1820s; "Jim Crow" soon became a familiar character in minstrel shows.

"JIM CROW" -- Thomas Dartmouth "Dandy" Rice

"Come listen all you galls and boys,
I'm going to sing a little song,
My name is Jim Crow.
Weel about and turn about and do jis so,
Eb'ry time I weel about I jump Jim Crow."