Racial attitudes in the 'Deep South' in the 1950s Flashcards
Can you list the states in the Death South?
Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas
What were the Jim Crow Laws?
Jim Crow was a (supposedly funny) lazy, stupid black character played by a white comedian. ‘Black code’ laws enforcing segregation were given the nickname ‘Jim Crow’. The laws varied from state to state, but they all separated black and white people.
How are laws passed in the USA? How did Southern states use this to their advantage?
Federal laws are laws that apply to the whole country. State laws only affect one state. A state can pass its own laws, but the Supreme Court can overrule them.
Southern states could pass laws enforcing segregation.
How was was law enforcement biased against black people?
The police and the law courts in the South were full of racist white officials who did not support complaints by black people.
In the Deep South many policemen were members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).
Black people were regularly beaten up to get them to confess to crimes they did not commit.
Black people were imprisoned for no reason and often represented in court by white lawyers who made no effort to defend them.
What were living conditions like for black people?
Black people usually had the worst-paid jobs so had to live in the poorest parts of towns and cities, called ‘ghettos’. People were crowded together in buildings that were not well maintained and had poor facilities.
What were working conditions like for black people?
Black people usually had the worst-paid jobs.
Few black people in southern towns could find work in factories, even in the lowest-paid jobs.
Black people were called ‘boy’ and ‘girl’ even as adults.
Most black people worked on farms or as domestic servants.
What was it like for white Southerners who objected to discrimination?
The few white southerners who objected to discrimination faced the same violence that black Americans faced.
What were many Southern white people brought up to think?
Many southern white people were brought up to see black people as inferior, childlike, lazy and unintelligent.
Why was it unlikely for white southerners to shake hands with black people?
Because that was a sign of equality.
What would happen if a black person killed another black person?
It was often dismissed and not investigated.
