Guitar Timeline Scavenger Hunt

Warm Up: S. read website: (http://invention.si.edu/invention-electric-guitar/p/35-invention) and answer the following questions on your own paper. You may work in groups.

What is the Smithsonian Institution?

What is the National Museum of American History?

What is the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation?

How do we know the websites created by these institutions are reliable sources of information?

What are some of the ways you can judge the reliability of a website?

Questions About the History of the Electric Guitar

Directions: Use the website “The Invention of the Electric Guitar,” provided by the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the Smithsonian Institution, to discuss and answer the questions below with your group. You should be able to answer all the questions using the website.

1. The website notes that “the electric guitar may be the most important and popular instrument of the last half-century in American music.” Why was it so important?

2. What are some of the reasons performers in the late 19th century and early 20th century might have wanted their guitars to make louder sounds?

3. What were some of the techniques used to make guitars louder in the years before the invention of the electric guitar?

4. How did the popularity of Big Band music in the 1920s impact the kinds of guitars musicians played?

5. What is a “hollow-body” electric guitar? What were some of the problems associated with these instruments?

6. The website notes that “during the early years of its existence, the electric guitar's viability as a ‘true’ instrument was frequently debated. The instrument's detractors often claimed it did not produce a pure, ‘authentic’ musical sound.” Why do you think they may have felt this way? Do you think their objections were justified? Why or why not?

7. How did the electric guitar pioneers of the 1930s and 1940s influence the kinds of sounds a musician could make with a guitar? 

8. In what ways were electric guitars innovative? What could musicians do with them that they could not do with an acoustic guitar? 

9. Why was the electric guitar so important to the development of Rock and Roll? 

10.What are the differences between how acoustic, electric-acoustic, solid body and Hawaiian/steel guitars make sounds? 

11. Which type of electric guitar has had the greatest impact on Rock and Roll? Why? 

12.Compare and contrast the sounds made by an acoustic guitar with those of amplified hollow body and solid-body electric guitars. (Use the links found under “How Guitars Work.) How are these sounds different? How do they create different moods and different musical effects?

Now we will work in groups to find info on five of the early electric guitars. Then we will compile this info into a timeline on the development of the electric guitar.

• Rickenbacker Frying Pan
• Gibson ES-150
• Les Paul “Log”
• Fender Telecaster
• Gibson Les Paul

You will need to use internet sources (tablet or phone) to find the information about each guitar. You must tell what your sources are and if they are reliable sources. Please see reliable resources page to decide if your website is reliable or not.

http://www.library.illinois.edu/ugl/howdoi/webeval.html

Share your results with the class on Friday.

The Electrification of the Guitar

Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker was a critically acclaimed American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who was an influential pioneer and innovator of the jump blues and electric blues sound. Wikipedia

Think of an object that is powered by electricity that you use everyday.

Now imagine how that task could be accomplished without electricity.

With a partner discuss the advantages of electricity for this particular tool or gadget. Does it have any disadvantages?

Share your ideas with a partner. Share with the class.

Guided Practice:

1     1)    T. hand out listening questions. Listen to each song and         

        answer questions identifying characteristic of each song.

       2 )    After each song, T. chooses volunteers to share their answers.

\

Group discussion: What are the best attributes of each song?

Scrapbook Project Cheat Sheet

Use this guide to help you create your project...

Map: You may draw or print this. It must include Jackson, Mississippi and the surrounding area.

Historical Statement: 200 word report about what it was like to be an African American who had to be a sharecropper. I have listed many ideas below to help you out. DO NOT JUST ANSWER THE QUESTIONS AND LIST THINGS. THIS MUST BE IN PARAGRAPH FORM!!! : )

Key term: Sharecropping. Find information on sharecropping and summarize it. Things to write about: What crop did sharecroppers mostly grow? What pest (insect) was a problem and why? How did this make the farmers feel? Did effect their Blues Music? Also, use your knowledge from class to tell what their life was like. Were they rich or poor? Were they happy?

Next, tell how this was shown in their music: The Blues. Key terms: Blues Music. Look up blues music. Describe what blues music was about. Explain how the economic conditions of sharecroppers led to creating the Blues Music.

Also, African Americans had to deal with Segregation. Key terms to look up: Jim Crow Laws, Segregation. Tell what segregation and Jim Crow were. Explain a little bit about life for African Americans who lived with segregation and the Jim Crow laws.

Three Visuals: Three pictures, you can print them or draw them. Ideas for pictures: farming, blues musicians, cotton, boll weevil, segregation images.

Lyrics: Print three sets of lyrics and tell how they relate to the life of African Americans during segregation. You can look up new Blues songs or use the ones we discussed in class.

Scrapbook Guidelines:

After you have visited both stations and examined the artifacts, you will create a scrapbook to commemorate your journey and illustrate what you have learned about the socioeconomic conditions that led to the rise of the Country Blues.

The following elements should be included in your scrapbook:

• Map (from the opening part of the lesson)
.
• Historical Statement: Write a statement of about 200 words summarizing the economic conditions confronting southern African-Americans in the early part of the 20th century. Your statement should discuss the relationship among these economic conditions, racial attitudes in the South, and the Country Blues music of this time and place.

• Three Visuals: Collect three images of important artifacts drawn either from the lesson or independent research. These may be illustrations or photographs. Each visual must have a caption that identifies the subject and explains its significance.

• Three Blues Lyrics: Present at least one set of lyrics from each of the stations. These lyrics must be presented in a way that clearly and specifically connects them to specific places or images and/or to your historical statement.

Your scrapbook will be assessed based on

(1) 25% Depth of intellectual engagement;
(2) 25% Incorporation and sophistication of Blues lyric analysis; (3) 25% Selection of visual material;
(4) 25% Seriousness of effort to render a creative, visually compelling scrapbook.

Due Friday Sept. 18th

A Road Trip Through Mississippi

Imagine what is happening in this picture and write about what it was like for the people who lived through it...

In this lesson you will take an imagined road trip through Mississippi to visit two sites where you will learn about African-American life in the South in the early part of the 20th century, and how that life was reflected in Country Blues music.

You will visit three stations where you will examine a series of artifacts including film clips, photographs, visual art, and readings. Next, answer a series of questions about these artifacts.

Answer questions as we watch, observe, listen...

● Station 1: Indianola, Mississippi

• Film: The BluesWere Born
• Dictionary + Film: My Back PorchGuitar
• Song: Hard Time Killin’ Floor Blues (Skip James, 1931)

Skip James – Hard Time Killing Floor Lyrics

• Hard time's is here
  An ev'rywhere you go
  Times are harder
  Than th'ever been befo'
  
  Um, hm-hm
  Um-hm
  Um, hm-hm
  Um, hm-hm-hm
  
  You know that people
  They are driftin' from do' to do'
  But they can't find no heaven
  I don't care where they go
  
  Um, hm-hm
  Um-uh-hm
  Mm-hm-hm
  Um, hm-hm-hm
  
  People, if I ever can get up
  Off a-this old hard killin' flo'
  Lord, I'll never get down
  This low no mo'
  
  Um, hm-hm-hm
  Hm, um-hm
  Hm, hm-hm
  Hm, hm-hm-hm
  
  Well, you hear me singin'
  This old lonesome song
  People, you know these hard times
  Can't last us so long
  
  Hm, hm-hm
  Hmm, hmm
  Hm, hm-hm
  Hm, hm-hm, oh Lord
  
  You know, you'll say you had money
  You better be sho'
  But these hard times gon' kill you
  Just drive a lonely soul
  
  Um, hm-hm
  Umm, hmm
  Umm, hm-hm
  Hm, hm-hm-hm
  
  (guitar)
  
  Umm-hm
  Hmm-hm-hm
  Umm-hm
  Hm-hm-hm
  Hmm, hm-hm-hm
  
  (guitar to end)

● Station 2: Yazoo City in the Mississippi Delta. Poor southerners, black and white alike, lived in the shadow of natural disaster. Examine songs, paintings, and imagery to learn about the floods, pestilence, and drought that threatened the lives of southern field workers. The resources for this station are:

• Video: Bessie Smith, “Homeless Blues” (1927)
• Video: Charley Patton, “Bo Weavil Blues” (1929)
• Video: Son House, "Death Letter Blues" (1968)
• Image: Paintings of Jacob Lawrence from the Great Migration Series, Panel 8, Panel 9 
• 
  
• Image: Photo of destruction from the 1927 Mississippi River flood

● Station 3: Hillhouse, Mississippi. Even though slavery was abolished after the Civil War, African-American and white tenant farmers lived a life of grinding poverty under the rules of sharecropping. Students will examine texts to learn about this economic system. The resources are:

• Video: Lightnin’ Hopkins, “Cotton” (1959)
• Handout: Explanation of Sharecropping (from PBS, "Sharecropping in Mississippi")
• Image: Paintings of Jacob Lawrence from the Great Migration Series, Panel 17
• Images: Dorothea Lange, Photographs of Sharecroppers (c. 1937)
  • Cotton sharecroppers. Greene County, Georgia, 1937
  • Poor mother and children, California, 1936
  • Sharecropper's cabin and sharecropper's wife, ten miles south of Jackson, Mississippi, 1937
  • Thirteen-year old sharecropper boy near Americus, Georgia, 1937

The Jim Crow Era and The Blues

What is happening in this picture. Write your thoughts down and be ready to share...

Have you heard of the Jim Crow Laws? 

Today we learn about the Blues which was first invented

during the Jim Crow Era by poor black people.

The Jim Crow Laws were created in 1876 simply to segregate black people from the white population. Some English Dictionaries define ‘Jim Crow’ as the name for an implement that can straighten or bend iron rails; or, along with ‘Jim Crowism’, systems or practices of racial discrimination or segregation.  The American English Dictionary suggests that the name only emerged in dictionaries in 1904, but it was clearly used generally in 1876, at least. - See more at: http://www.historyinanhour.com/2013/09/23/the-jim-crow-laws-brief-summary/#sthash.K5Or4Ol7.dpuf

ESSENTIAL QUESTION

How do the Country Blues reflect the challenges of sharecropping, racial injustice, and rural poverty in early 20th-century African-American life?

OVERVIEW

“As I began to get into the history of the music,” writes Amiri Baraka (writing under the name LeRoi Jones) in his book Blues People, “I found that this was impossible without, at the same time, getting deeper into the history of the people. [The Blues] was the history of the Afro-American people as text, as tale, as story, as exposition, narrative… the music was the score, the actually expressed creative orchestration, reflection, of Afro-American life.”
In the beginning, the Blues was a music performed by poor African Americans for audiences of poor African Americans, and a reflection of their common experiences in the Jim Crow South. The Blues were one of the few forums through which poor, rural African Americans of the late 19th and early 20th centuries could articulate their experiences, attitudes, and emotions. They made music about heartbreak, about the challenges of their lives as sharecroppers, about the relentless Mississippi River floods, about the harsh mastery of white landowners.
This lesson focuses on the music through which those hardships were expressed and on the daily lives of southern blacks in the sharecropping era. It is structured around an imagined road trip through Mississippi. Students will “stop” in two places: Yazoo City, where they will learn about the sorts of natural disasters that periodically devastated already-struggling poor southerners, and Hillhouse, where they will learn about the institution of sharecropping. They will study a particular Country Blues song at each “stop” and examine it as a window onto the socioeconomic conditions of the people who created it. Students will create a scrapbook of their journey, in which they will record and analyze what they have learned about the difficulty of eking out a living in the age of sharecropping.

---

Bill Tatnall in Frederica, Georgia, 1935     |     Credit: Alan Lomax

Read this text and answer questions below:
 

"[The Blues] was the history of the Afro-American people as text, as tale, as story, as exposition, narrative... the music was the score, the actually expressed creative orchestration, reflection, of Afro-American life."

1)    Discuss in your groups: 

  What does Baraka mean in this quote?

How does Howlin' Wolf embody this?

How would you put Baraka's ideas into your own words?

Does “Bridging the Gap” support Baraka’s thesis?

What specific examples can you identify?

  

Answer on your own paper, individually.....
 
Writing: What were the Jim Crow Laws and how did they influence the Blues?

The Jim Crow Laws were created in 1876 simply to segregate black people from the white population. Some English Dictionaries define ‘Jim Crow’ as the name for an implement that can straighten or bend iron rails; or, along with ‘Jim Crowism’, systems or practices of racial discrimination or segregation.  The American English Dictionary suggests that the name only emerged in dictionaries in 1904, but it was clearly used generally in 1876, at least. - See more at: http://www.historyinanhour.com/2013/09/23/the-jim-crow-laws-brief-summary/#sthash.K5Or4Ol7.dpuf

The Jim Crow Laws were created in 1876 simply to segregate black people from the white population. Some English Dictionaries define ‘Jim Crow’ as the name for an implement that can straighten or bend iron rails; or, along with ‘Jim Crowism’, systems or practices of racial discrimination or segregation.  The American English Dictionary suggests that the name only emerged in dictionaries in 1904, but it was clearly used generally in 1876, at least. - See more at: http://www.historyinanhour.com/2013/09/23/the-jim-crow-laws-brief-summary/#sthash.K5Or4Ol7.dpuf

The Jim Crow Laws were created in 1876 simply to segregate black people from the white population. Some English Dictionaries define ‘Jim Crow’ as the name for an implement that can straighten or bend iron rails; or, along with ‘Jim Crowism’, systems or practices of racial discrimination or segregation.  The American English Dictionary suggests that the name only emerged in dictionaries in 1904, but it was clearly used generally in 1876, at least. - See more at: http://www.historyinanhour.com/2013/09/23/the-jim-crow-laws-brief-summary/#sthash.K5Or4Ol7.dpuf

The Jim Crow laws – a brief summary

Posted on September 23, 2013 by History In An Hour

The Jim Crow Laws were created in 1876 simply to segregate black people from the white population. Some English Dictionaries define ‘Jim Crow’ as the name for an implement that can straighten or bend iron rails; or, along with ‘Jim Crowism’, systems or practices of racial discrimination or segregation.  The American English Dictionary suggests that the name only emerged in dictionaries in 1904, but it was clearly used generally in 1876, at least.

Origins
The origin of Jim Crow goes back to the 1820s and is credited to a song-and-dance man, Thomas Dartmouth ‘Daddy’ Rice.  He implied that he had seen a limping black slave singing the following verse:

‘Come listen all you galls and boys

I’m going to sing a song

My names is Jim Crow

Weel about and turn around and do jis so,

Eb’ry time I weel about and jump Jim Crow.’

In 1828 Rice was the first man to blacken his face, dress as a plantation slave and perform such a routine, using his own compositions.  As he gained fame he expanded his repertoire and gradually penned forty-four verses, most of them extremely insensitive.  Indeed, his mockery of black people grew to the extent that his derogatory Jim Crow verses helped deepen the gulf between black and white communities.  In 1838, the Southern States passed various laws of racial segregation, focused against the black sectors.  By the turn of the century those laws were called the Jim Crow laws, both north and south.
Segregation
Between the 1880s and the 1960s the laws expanded. Many cities and states were able to impose legal punishments on people, for example, on those who were deemed to be consorting with or marrying with other races.
In the southern states, in particular, the authorities were extremely strict. In white hospitals for example, only white nurses could tend white patients.  There were different sectors for whites and blacks: trains, buses, restaurants, schools, mental hospitals, parks, cemeteries, and many more.
Early attempts
In 1875 an attempt to revert the Jim Crow laws to give black people equal rights as the whites in the southern states was passed but had very little effect. In 1883 the Supreme Court repealed the 1875 act as it was deemed unconstitutional.  In essence, Congress wanted complete control over corporations and people in the private spheres of the Southern States.  Since Congress consisted primary of whites; they had the power to rebuff any prospective changes in the Jim Crow laws, and did so again in 1892 and 1908.
The Jim Crow laws were finally abolished on 2 July 1964 when President Lyndon Johnson historically signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It invoked the commerce clause, outlawing discrimination in public accommodations.  The Voting Rights Act followed in 1965; effectively giving black people the vote.
Stella Milner
See also Stella’s article on the Rev Ralph Abernathy.

This entry was posted in American History, Black history, Blog and tagged Black History, Civil Rights by History In An Hour. Bookmark the permalink.

- See more at: http://www.historyinanhour.com/2013/09/23/the-jim-crow-laws-brief-summary/#sthash.K5Or4Ol7.dpuf

The Jim Crow Laws were created in 1876 simply to segregate black people from the white population. Some English Dictionaries define ‘Jim Crow’ as the name for an implement that can straighten or bend iron rails; or, along with ‘Jim Crowism’, systems or practices of racial discrimination or segregation.  The American English Dictionary suggests that the name only emerged in dictionaries in 1904, but it was clearly used generally in 1876, at least. - See more at: http://www.historyinanhour.com/2013/09/23/the-jim-crow-laws-brief-summary/#sthash.K5Or

The Jim Crow Laws were created in 1876 simply to segregate black people from the white population. Some English Dictionaries define ‘Jim Crow’ as the name for an implement that can straighten or bend iron rails; or, along with ‘Jim Crowism’, systems or practices of racial discrimination or segregation.  The American English Dictionary suggests that the name only emerged in dictionaries in 1904, but it was clearly used generally in 1876, at least. - See more at: http://www.historyinanhour.com/2013/09/23/the-jim-crow-laws-brief-summary/#sthash.K5Or4Ol7.dpuf

The Jim Crow laws – a brief summary

Posted on September 23, 2013 by History In An Hour

The Jim Crow Laws were created in 1876 simply to segregate black people from the white population. Some English Dictionaries define ‘Jim Crow’ as the name for an implement that can straighten or bend iron rails; or, along with ‘Jim Crowism’, systems or practices of racial discrimination or segregation.  The American English Dictionary suggests that the name only emerged in dictionaries in 1904, but it was clearly used generally in 1876, at least.

Origins
The origin of Jim Crow goes back to the 1820s and is credited to a song-and-dance man, Thomas Dartmouth ‘Daddy’ Rice.  He implied that he had seen a limping black slave singing the following verse:

‘Come listen all you galls and boys

I’m going to sing a song

My names is Jim Crow

Weel about and turn around and do jis so,

Eb’ry time I weel about and jump Jim Crow.’

In 1828 Rice was the first man to blacken his face, dress as a plantation slave and perform such a routine, using his own compositions.  As he gained fame he expanded his repertoire and gradually penned forty-four verses, most of them extremely insensitive.  Indeed, his mockery of black people grew to the extent that his derogatory Jim Crow verses helped deepen the gulf between black and white communities.  In 1838, the Southern States passed various laws of racial segregation, focused against the black sectors.  By the turn of the century those laws were called the Jim Crow laws, both north and south.
Segregation
Between the 1880s and the 1960s the laws expanded. Many cities and states were able to impose legal punishments on people, for example, on those who were deemed to be consorting with or marrying with other races.
In the southern states, in particular, the authorities were extremely strict. In white hospitals for example, only white nurses could tend white patients.  There were different sectors for whites and blacks: trains, buses, restaurants, schools, mental hospitals, parks, cemeteries, and many more.
Early attempts
In 1875 an attempt to revert the Jim Crow laws to give black people equal rights as the whites in the southern states was passed but had very little effect. In 1883 the Supreme Court repealed the 1875 act as it was deemed unconstitutional.  In essence, Congress wanted complete control over corporations and people in the private spheres of the Southern States.  Since Congress consisted primary of whites; they had the power to rebuff any prospective changes in the Jim Crow laws, and did so again in 1892 and 1908.
The Jim Crow laws were finally abolished on 2 July 1964 when President Lyndon Johnson historically signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It invoked the commerce clause, outlawing discrimination in public accommodations.  The Voting Rights Act followed in 1965; effectively giving black people the vote.
Stella Milner

- See more at: http://www.historyinanhour.com/2013/09/23/the-jim-crow-laws-brief-summary/#sthash.K5Or4Ol7.dpuf

The Jim Crow laws – a brief summary

Posted on September 23, 2013 by History In An Hour

The Jim Crow Laws were created in 1876 simply to segregate black people from the white population. Some English Dictionaries define ‘Jim Crow’ as the name for an implement that can straighten or bend iron rails; or, along with ‘Jim Crowism’, systems or practices of racial discrimination or segregation.  The American English Dictionary suggests that the name only emerged in dictionaries in 1904, but it was clearly used generally in 1876, at least.

Origins
The origin of Jim Crow goes back to the 1820s and is credited to a song-and-dance man, Thomas Dartmouth ‘Daddy’ Rice.  He implied that he had seen a limping black slave singing the following verse:

‘Come listen all you galls and boys

I’m going to sing a song

My names is Jim Crow

Weel about and turn around and do jis so,

Eb’ry time I weel about and jump Jim Crow.’

In 1828 Rice was the first man to blacken his face, dress as a plantation slave and perform such a routine, using his own compositions.  As he gained fame he expanded his repertoire and gradually penned forty-four verses, most of them extremely insensitive.  Indeed, his mockery of black people grew to the extent that his derogatory Jim Crow verses helped deepen the gulf between black and white communities.  In 1838, the Southern States passed various laws of racial segregation, focused against the black sectors.  By the turn of the century those laws were called the Jim Crow laws, both north and south.
Segregation
Between the 1880s and the 1960s the laws expanded. Many cities and states were able to impose legal punishments on people, for example, on those who were deemed to be consorting with or marrying with other races.
In the southern states, in particular, the authorities were extremely strict. In white hospitals for example, only white nurses could tend white patients.  There were different sectors for whites and blacks: trains, buses, restaurants, schools, mental hospitals, parks, cemeteries, and many more.
Early attempts
In 1875 an attempt to revert the Jim Crow laws to give black people equal rights as the whites in the southern states was passed but had very little effect. In 1883 the Supreme Court repealed the 1875 act as it was deemed unconstitutional.  In essence, Congress wanted complete control over corporations and people in the private spheres of the Southern States.  Since Congress consisted primary of whites; they had the power to rebuff any prospective changes in the Jim Crow laws, and did so again in 1892 and 1908.
The Jim Crow laws were finally abolished on 2 July 1964 when President Lyndon Johnson historically signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It invoked the commerce clause, outlawing discrimination in public accommodations.  The Voting Rights Act followed in 1965; effectively giving black people the vote.
Stella Milner

- See more at: http://www.historyinanhour.com/2013/09/23/the-jim-crow-laws-brief-summary/#sthash.K5Or4Ol7.dpuf

The Jim Crow laws – a brief summary

Posted on September 23, 2013 by History In An Hour

The Jim Crow Laws were created in 1876 simply to segregate black people from the white population. Some English Dictionaries define ‘Jim Crow’ as the name for an implement that can straighten or bend iron rails; or, along with ‘Jim Crowism’, systems or practices of racial discrimination or segregation.  The American English Dictionary suggests that the name only emerged in dictionaries in 1904, but it was clearly used generally in 1876, at least.

Origins
The origin of Jim Crow goes back to the 1820s and is credited to a song-and-dance man, Thomas Dartmouth ‘Daddy’ Rice.  He implied that he had seen a limping black slave singing the following verse:

‘Come listen all you galls and boys

I’m going to sing a song

My names is Jim Crow

Weel about and turn around and do jis so,

Eb’ry time I weel about and jump Jim Crow.’

In 1828 Rice was the first man to blacken his face, dress as a plantation slave and perform such a routine, using his own compositions.  As he gained fame he expanded his repertoire and gradually penned forty-four verses, most of them extremely insensitive.  Indeed, his mockery of black people grew to the extent that his derogatory Jim Crow verses helped deepen the gulf between black and white communities.  In 1838, the Southern States passed various laws of racial segregation, focused against the black sectors.  By the turn of the century those laws were called the Jim Crow laws, both north and south.
Segregation
Between the 1880s and the 1960s the laws expanded. Many cities and states were able to impose legal punishments on people, for example, on those who were deemed to be consorting with or marrying with other races.
In the southern states, in particular, the authorities were extremely strict. In white hospitals for example, only white nurses could tend white patients.  There were different sectors for whites and blacks: trains, buses, restaurants, schools, mental hospitals, parks, cemeteries, and many more.
Early attempts
In 1875 an attempt to revert the Jim Crow laws to give black people equal rights as the whites in the southern states was passed but had very little effect. In 1883 the Supreme Court repealed the 1875 act as it was deemed unconstitutional.  In essence, Congress wanted complete control over corporations and people in the private spheres of the Southern States.  Since Congress consisted primary of whites; they had the power to rebuff any prospective changes in the Jim Crow laws, and did so again in 1892 and 1908.
The Jim Crow laws were finally abolished on 2 July 1964 when President Lyndon Johnson historically signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It invoked the commerce clause, outlawing discrimination in public accommodations.  The Voting Rights Act followed in 1965; effectively giving black people the vote.
Stella Milner
See also Stella’s article on the Rev Ralph Abernathy.

This entry was posted in American History, Black history, Blog and tagged Black History, Civil Rights by History In An Hour. Bookmark the permalink.

- See more at: http://www.historyinanhour.com/2013/09/23/the-jim-crow-laws-brief-summary/#sthash.K5Or4Ol7.dpuf

The Jim Crow laws – a brief summary

Posted on September 23, 2013 by History In An Hour

The Jim Crow Laws were created in 1876 simply to segregate black people from the white population. Some English Dictionaries define ‘Jim Crow’ as the name for an implement that can straighten or bend iron rails; or, along with ‘Jim Crowism’, systems or practices of racial discrimination or segregation.  The American English Dictionary suggests that the name only emerged in dictionaries in 1904, but it was clearly used generally in 1876, at least.

Origins
The origin of Jim Crow goes back to the 1820s and is credited to a song-and-dance man, Thomas Dartmouth ‘Daddy’ Rice.  He implied that he had seen a limping black slave singing the following verse:

‘Come listen all you galls and boys

I’m going to sing a song

My names is Jim Crow

Weel about and turn around and do jis so,

Eb’ry time I weel about and jump Jim Crow.’

In 1828 Rice was the first man to blacken his face, dress as a plantation slave and perform such a routine, using his own compositions.  As he gained fame he expanded his repertoire and gradually penned forty-four verses, most of them extremely insensitive.  Indeed, his mockery of black people grew to the extent that his derogatory Jim Crow verses helped deepen the gulf between black and white communities.  In 1838, the Southern States passed various laws of racial segregation, focused against the black sectors.  By the turn of the century those laws were called the Jim Crow laws, both north and south.
Segregation
Between the 1880s and the 1960s the laws expanded. Many cities and states were able to impose legal punishments on people, for example, on those who were deemed to be consorting with or marrying with other races.
In the southern states, in particular, the authorities were extremely strict. In white hospitals for example, only white nurses could tend white patients.  There were different sectors for whites and blacks: trains, buses, restaurants, schools, mental hospitals, parks, cemeteries, and many more.
Early attempts
In 1875 an attempt to revert the Jim Crow laws to give black people equal rights as the whites in the southern states was passed but had very little effect. In 1883 the Supreme Court repealed the 1875 act as it was deemed unconstitutional.  In essence, Congress wanted complete control over corporations and people in the private spheres of the Southern States.  Since Congress consisted primary of whites; they had the power to rebuff any prospective changes in the Jim Crow laws, and did so again in 1892 and 1908.
The Jim Crow laws were finally abolished on 2 July 1964 when President Lyndon Johnson historically signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It invoked the commerce clause, outlawing discrimination in public accommodations.  The Voting Rights Act followed in 1965; effectively giving black people the vote.
Stella Milner
See also Stella’s article on the Rev Ralph Abernathy.

This entry was posted in American History, Black history, Blog and tagged Black History, Civil Rights by History In An Hour. Bookmark the permalink.

- See more at: http://www.historyinanhour.com/2013/09/23/the-jim-crow-laws-brief-summary/#sthash.K5Or4Ol7.dpuf