The Jim Crow Era in America “A Raisin in the Sun”.

The Jim Crow Era in America

“A Raisin in the Sun”

Anticipation Guide: Choose a response for each of the following statements and then explain in 3-4 sentences why you answered the way that you did.

1. Everyone should have equal rights according to the law, no matter their race, religion, or sexuality.

Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree2. You should sacrifice one individual for the good of the many, even if

they do not want to sacrifice themselves. Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree3. Everyone is prejudice in some way. Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree4. Parents have the right to choose what is best for their children’s lives, if it is good for them, even if the child does not agree. Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree5. Men should get paid more than women in the workplace. Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree6. If someone has proven themselves untrustworthy, they should never be

given a chance to redeem themselves. Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree

1862-1880: The Civil War and After

• The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by president Abraham Lincoln after the battle of Antietam during the Civil War

• 1865: 13th Amendment abolishing slavery is passed• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWpMt2-Z-fc• Even though the war was over, and slavery was

ended, a new era enslaving African American’s was inducted into American History: The Jim Crow Era.

1862-1880: The Civil War and After

• April 1865, Abraham Lincoln is assassinated• Reconstruction period between 1865-1877: Period

after the Civil War when the country tried to rebuild itself

• 1866: The Klu Klux Klan was created in opposition to the end of slavery

• 1868: 14th Amendment granting former slaves the right to become citizens of the United States

• 1870: the 15th amendment granting blacks the right to vote is passed

1881-1900: After the Reconstruction• Jim Crow Laws ruled the south from 1863-1950’s. Jim Crow

Laws stated whites and blacks were “separate but equal.” In the south, laws were implemented preventing whites and blacks from eating together, going to the movies together, going to school together. Signs indicating where whites/blacks could and could not go were placed in public areas.

• http://video.pbs.org/video/2178294876/• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzL2Brhg9aQ• 1881: Tuskegee Institute founded by Booker T Washington in

Tuskegee, Alabama• 1896: Plessey verse Fergusson: June 7, 1892, Homer Plessey

was jailed for sitting in a white only train car even though he identified himself as black.

1901-1920: Fighting Jim Crow

• 1909: The NAACP is founded.• 1915: The Birth of a Nation movie is released,

glorifying the KKK and the pre Civil War south• 1917: The United States enters World War I• 1919: The Red Summer, referring to the riots

the occurred all over the country between whites and black (started by whites), most violently in Washington D.C., Chicago and Elaine, Arkansas

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM7XTg2tSo

1921-1938: Fighting Jim Crow• 1921: Tulsa Race Riot occurs when a young black man is

accused of raping a white woman• 1929-1939: The Great Depression plunges America into

economic ruin• 1931: The Scottsboro Case rivets the country. 9 black boys

are accused of raping 2 white women. The 2 women were on a train dressed as men and allegedly had sexual relations with white men on the train. When they were caught, they lied and said the black men raped them. An all white jury convicted all 9 black boys and all but one, who was 12 years old, were sentenced to death. The convictions were later over turned for the majority of the 9 convicted. This trial inspired Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, written in 1960.

1939-1950’s

• 1941: United States enters World War 2• 1947: Jackie Robinson becomes the first black

major league baseball player.• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H69szHCEl

cE• 1954: Brown verses Board of Education ends

public schools segregation• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTGHLdr-i

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The Little Rock 9• The U.S. Supreme Court issued its historic Brown v. Board of Education of

Topeka, Kansas, 347 U.S. 483, on May 17, 1954.• In Little Rock, the capital city of Arkansas, the Little Rock School Board

agreed to comply with the high court's ruling. Virgil Blossom, the Superintendent of Schools, submitted a plan of gradual integration to the school board on May 24, 1955, which the board unanimously approved.

• The plan would be implemented during the fall of the 1957 school year, which would begin in September 1957.

• By 1957, the NAACP had registered nine black students to attend the previously all-white Little Rock Central High, selected on the criteria of excellent grades and attendance. These 9 students were nicknamed “The Little Rock Nine.” Ernest Green, one of the Little Rock Nine, was the first African American to graduate from Central High School.

• Their enrollment was followed by the Little Rock Crisis, in which the students were initially prevented from entering the racially segregated school by Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas. They then attended after the intervention of President Eisenhower.