"Teaching Jim Crow"
By Richard Pierce
"I could never adjust to the separate waiting rooms, separate eating places, separate rest rooms, partly because the separate was always unequal, and partly because the very idea of separation did something to my sense of dignity and self-respect."-Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dr. King's words echoed the sentiments of many African-Americans living in the Jim Crow Era, a time when blacks frequently occupied the lowest rungs of political, economic, and social life. This nation's highest court crystallized racial segregation through its ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), making segregation a legal fact until 58 years later. Jim Crow's roots were in a legal system committed to white power and consequently, black denigration. Yet the structure that gave Jim Crow its staying power tells only part of a very complex story.
African-American adults entangled in a Jim Crow society had the daunting task of rearing children in an environment committed to their subjugation. This put African-American parents in an especially compromising position, as they had to explain to their children, on the one hand, why they were restricted from certain public facilities, while, on the other, trying to instill a sense of worth and dignity. These struggles, inextricably intertwined in the enigma of Jim Crow America, extended to the entire community as raising children was often a collective task shared by African-American teachers, pastors, and community members.
I am writing a book that will examine how African-American families and institutions taught Jim Crow to their children. African-American children who lived during the Jim Crow era in the United States, 1895 - 1965, learned at an early age the harsh realities of living in a society where their actions and roles were proscribed and reinforced with physical punishment. Tentatively titled, Teaching Jim Crow, the book will examine the methods and strategies African-Americans employed and the methods used to preserve self-esteem within a system designed to dehumanize.
Retrieving first-hand accounts from people who lived and raised children during Jim Crow segregation will enrich the quality of my research. For this reason, I hope to conduct interviews with parents, teachers, and community leaders who reared children during Jim Crow. Should you or someone you know wish to share your story, please do not hesitate to contact me. There is no repository more central to my research than the memories held by our community's elder. Sadly, every day we lose members of our community and with their passing, we lose irretrievable information. Please help me record one of the greatest untold stories of African American perseverance and cultural transmission.
Richard Pierce is the Chair of the Africana Studies Department and Associate Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame.
574-631-5628
rpierce@nd.edu
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