Colleen Worrell's List: Teaching Jim Crow

Jim Crow in America
Primary Source Set

Segregation and Violence

Protection of American Citizens
Pamphlet - "The Black Laws"
by Bishop B. W. Arnett

Mob-violence and Anarchy, North and South
Pamphlet - "Lynch Laws in Georgia"
by Ida B. Wells-Barnett "

PBS Teachers' Domain Resources on Jim Crow

Includes video clips, lesson plans, activities

"Hidden stories: A three-part lesson in African American history, research, and children’s literature

In this high school lesson plan, students will create a timeline of African American history, review a work of children's literature, and then create their own works of children's literature drawing on a primary source document pertaining to the life of an ordinary African American.

A lesson plan for grades 11–12 English Language Arts

This interdisciplinary lesson consists of three parts, integrating literary analysis, composition, and social studies. In the first part, students conduct research on a particular era of African American history. In the second, students review children’s literature in four different genres. And in the final part, students draw on what they’ve learned in the first two parts of the lesson to produce their own piece of children’s literature based on African American history.

Jim Crow and segregation

This is an integrated lesson plan that incorporates both eighth grade language arts and history. Using Internet research, literary analysis, and persuasive technique, students will practice reading and writing skills while analyzing the impact of Jim Crow Segregation on African Americans living in North Carolina and elsewhere.

A lesson plan for grade 8 English Language Arts and Social Studies"

National Park Service site with information on Jim Crow Laws from various states.





From the 1880s into the 1960s, a majority of American states enforced segregation through "Jim Crow" laws (so called after a black character in minstrel shows). From Delaware to California, and from North Dakota to Texas, many states (and cities, too) could impose legal punishments on people for consorting with members of another race. The most common types of laws forbade intermarriage and ordered business owners and public institutions to keep their black and white clientele separated. Here is a sampling of laws from various states."

Jim Crow Laws: American RadioWorks

Starting in the 1890s, states throughout the South passed laws designed to prevent Black citizens from improving their status or achieving equality. These statutes, which together were known as Jim Crow, were in place and enforced until the 1950s and 60s. Here is a sampling of those laws, grouped by topic.


EDUCATION

Florida: The schools for white children and the schools for negro children shall be conducted separately.

Kentucky: The children of white and colored races committed to reform schools shall be kept entirely separate from each other.

Mississippi: Separate schools shall be maintained for the children of the white and colored races.

Mississippi: 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.

New Mexico: Separate rooms shall be provided for the teaching of pupils of African descent, and such pupils may not be admitted to the school rooms occupied and used by pupils of Caucasian or other descent.

North Carolina: School textbooks shall not be interchangeable between the white and colored schools, but shall continue to be used by the race first using them. "

Companion website to book.

Summary of focus: For much of the 20th Century, African Americans in the South were barred from the voting booth, sent to the back of the bus, and walled off from many of the rights they deserved as American citizens. Until well into the 1960s, segregation was legal. The system was called Jim Crow. In this documentary, Americans—black and white—remember life in the Jim Crow times.

This resource (prepared for a workshop) gives a nice overview of Jim Crow, approaching it from a thematic and chronological perspective.

Duke University site for research project that produced the book project/radio series Remembering Jim Crow.

Companion website to PBS series. Contains lesson plans, assignments, interactive maps, links to online resources, and more.

Website of the Jim Crow Museum; contains links to other online resources as well as essays, and collection of racist memorabilia to promote critical understanding of this history and its lingering impact.

PBS companion site to documentary series. Contains links to sources on history, geography, and literature of Jim Crow along with educator resources (including timeline, lesson plans, simulations, narratives, an image gallery, and encyclopedia).

Website that catalogues the lynching of African Americans from 1865-1965.

DISCLOSURE: This website contains graphic images of violence against African Americans and their white allies.

Searching through America's past for the last 25 years, collector James Allen uncovered an extraordinary visual legacy: photographs and postcards taken as souvenirs at lynchings throughout America. With essays by Hilton Als, Leon Litwack, Congressman John Lewis and James Allen, these photographs have been published as a book "Without Sanctuary" by Twin Palms Publishers . Features will be added to this site over time and it will evolve into an educational tool. Please be aware before entering the site that much of the material is very disturbing. We welcome your comments and input through the forum section.

Lesson plan created by UNC for teaching Jim Crow to Middle School students.

Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird: Profiles in Courage

Lesson Plan for Grades 9-12

Smithsonian Site with essays and resources on segregation as premise for understanding the significance and context of the Brown decision.

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry: Judging the Accuracy of Historical Fiction

Resources and lessons for using young adult literature to understand the plight of African Americans during the Great Depressions.

"Designed for high school and college teachers and students,
History Matters serves as a gateway to web resources and offers
other useful materials for teaching U.S. history."

Search this site for Jim Crow resources -- especially rich primary source documents.