12.2 The Jim Crow Laws

​^Turn and talk to your partner about a time that you think you were treated unfairly. Be prepared to share what your partner told you.

​personal

​^Talk to someone else about a person or group you know that did something to fight against unfair treatment. It can be personal or from history.

​the wider world

​the jim crow laws

1877-1965​

I know many of the ways that African-Americans were discriminated against ​after the civil war until the 1960s.

Multiple Choice

What were the Jim Crow laws?

• Laws that improved educational opportunities for African-Americans.

• Laws that were created by a man called Jim Crow.

• Laws that made it easier for African-Americans to vote.

• Laws that meant African-Americans were treated differently from white Americans.

^How would you feel ​if you were treated differently from others because of your race?

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​Separate drinking fountains for blacks and whites.

​The Jim Crow laws were laws based on race in parts of the south of the United States. they enforced segregation, or separation, of black people and white people in various public places.

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Multiple Choice

The Jim Crow Laws and segregation in the South were mainly based on...

• gender

• race

• religion

• age

​Under Jim Crow, blacks & whites were segregated in many places, such as schools, buses, trains, restaurants, theaters, pool halls and bathrooms.

Multiple Choice

Think logically: Which of the below statements is not true? There is only one.

• Blacks and whites couldn't buy the same newspapers.

• Blacks and whites couldn't use the same drinking fountains.

• In some places, blacks and whites couldn't live in the same neighborhoods.

• Blacks and whites couldn't watch movies in the same theater together.

• Blacks and whites couldn't wait in the same room at train stations.

​in some southern states, african americans had to pass a literacy test in order to be allowed to vote.

​The effect was that many Black people couldn't pass reading tests, which meant they weren't allowed to vote.

Because​ educating African-Americans had been illegal or discouraged in many places during the time slavery was illegal, even by 1900 it was estimated that 50% of Black men couldn't read.

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Multiple Select

What were TWO ways or reasons the Jim Crow laws made it difficult for African-American men to vote, even though in theory they should have had the same right to vote as white men?

• They were not told where to go to vote.

• Many lacked education because they had been slaves before, and hadn't gone to school.

• The literacy tests were purposely designed to make them almost impossible to pass.

• Their voting paper would be thrown in the trash once they left the place they had cast their vote.

​eleven states in the south required citizens to pay a poll tax before they could vote. because many african-americans were poor, they simply couldn't afford to pay this extra tax.

Fill in the Blank

In 1896, a man named Homer A. Plessy sued the state of Louisiana after he purposely sat in a railroad car that was reserved for white passengers. The Supreme Court ruled against Plessy, saying that it was legal to separate races, as long as facilities were

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The Jim Crow laws were unfair and discriminatory against African-Americans. Rather than just accepting the fact that ​in reality citizens were not 'separate but equal,' many people fought for equal opportunities in different ways.

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​We'll now learn about four African-American leaders who bravely fought to end the Jim Crow laws.