Why and How We Birthed Jim Crow

Craig Uffman -
“In terms of race, there’s a layer of amazingly obvious symbolic language. I am a white person. My skin is not white. African Americans are not black. They are not literally black people. But we have taken the most obvious symbolic language to apply to race. What is white to the western world, except a symbol of purity and goodness? What is black but a symbol of darkness? The fact that they’re opposite carries this enormous symbolic weight that ties into this mental hierarchy.” - Dr. Kevin Boyle

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When Reconstruction collapsed, Jim Crow was born. Virulent racism peaked in the American South in the early 1900s and about twenty years later in the north. In today’s episode, we will remember why and how Jim Crow developed as a formal system of segregation and repression. Our guest is Dr. Kevin Boyle.

Dr. Boyle is a professor at Northwestern University, specializing in the history of the 20th century United States. He has a particular focus on modern American social movements, such as the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. Boyle has a long list of publications and honors including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew Carnegie Corporation. He is the highly acclaimed author of Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and received the National Book Award for Nonfiction and many others.

The conversation we have in this episode of the Race on the Rocks Podcast was eye-opening for me as we discuss the racial hierarchy, not only in the American south, but the northern states as well. How did it come to this? Thanks to our guest, we are reminded and remember well the stories that shaped our racial landscape and the tensions we struggle with today.

Questions for Clergy and Other Group Leaders

  1. When did the South and North reach apogees in terms of “virulent racism”?
  2. What were the intellectual, political, economic, and other factors that combined to create the environment where such virulent racism could flourish?
  3. Why did we create Jim Crow laws, why were we able to sustain them so long, and how did they systemize our ideas of racial hierarchy with Anglo-Saxons at the top?
  4. Can you remind us of some of our most pernicious ways of systemizing hierarchy in the North?
  5. Describe the rise of the KKK, and especially the violence and intimidation it used to shape our laws and politics?

Show Notes

  • [2:41] - Dr. Uffman highly recommends Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age and says that he could not put it down. By reading it, he formed questions for Dr. Boyle for today’s interview.
  • [3:36] - The peak of racism in the north is tied directly to the peak of racism in the south.
  • [4:01] - In the twenty year period after the end of slavery, the formal system of segregation (Jim Crow) was given its final form. This political process was driven by the desire of southern Whites to reassert their control over southern politics.
  • [5:02] - Jim Crow had two pieces. One piece was to take away the ability of Blacks to vote.
  • [5:24] - A problem with this was that the 15th Amendment gave black men the right to vote and southern states had to find a way around that with restrictions that didn’t specifically say anything about race.
  • [6:15] - In addition to restrictions, like a poll tax, Dr. Boyle also describes the hyperextension of segregation. While schools were already segregated, now petty things like drinking fountains and bus seating were included.
  • [7:23] - What Jim Crow was meant to do was to make sure that any time Blacks did one of these ordinary things, they would be reminded of their legal inferiority. Any time Whites did these things, they would be reminded of their superiority.
  • [8:03] - White southern democrats fed the greatest racial fear of white Americans and that is sexualized fear. This triggered the frenzy of lynching in the American South.
  • [8:41] - In the twenty years between 1890 and 1910, lynching in the American South was at its worst and Blacks were lynched, on average, once every two days.
  • [9:18] - As this was happening more often, Blacks began migrating to the north. This brought the problem of White Supremacy to the forefront in the north, too. The northern peak of racism ran from about 1910 to 1930.
  • [10:08] - Dr. Uffman shares that he was always taught that racism was a southern problem and expresses his unawareness of the peak of racism in the north.
  • [10:49] - Dr. Uffman makes a comparison between repeated practices and the repetition of Blacks being reminded of their place in society.
  • [12:40] - Dr. Boyle goes back to Reconstruction to explain why there was a need of political disenfranchisement of the African American vote. At its heart, Reconstruction was to reconfigure southern society.
  • [13:28] - The 14th and 15th Amendments were written to give Blacks equal rights. This was revolutionary as many other countries also abolished slavery but did not give former slaves equal rights as quickly as the United States.
  • [14:08] - Blacks were now holding office and voting which completely disrupted the old political patterns. The alliances Blacks were making in the south were with poorer Whites and that was detrimental to the southern Democratic party which was dedicated to White Supremacy.
  • [15:21] - Dr. Boyle discusses the movement of Populism in the 1880s that was a huge movement in the south. Alliances were springing up among black and white farmers and this spurred the Democrats to do something drastic by constructing the Jim Crow system.
  • [17:03] - Another implication of the Jim Crow system is that if you take away people’s access to the political system, they can’t influence the vote. Dr. Boyle shares the story of Dr. Sweet, who is also written about in his book, Arc of Justice.
  • [18:31] - Jim Crow was explicitly designed to block opportunities, humiliate, disempower, and to make sure that Blacks could not push their way past it.
  • [20:41] - In regards to the hierarchy of Jim Crow in the north, Dr. Boyle explains that there are two pieces to how it manifested. One being the side of white immigrants and the other Blacks moving north.
  • [21:56] - Similar to the idea of the Age of Enlightenment, Dr. Boyle explains that there was a push for categorizing people into distinct categories.
  • [23:03] - There is a symbolism attached to the words “black” and “white” to describe race since skin colors are not literally black and white. Dr. Boyle explains the symbolic meanings.
  • [24:10] - Dr. Boyle shares a personal story of a cousin from Ireland visiting him in Detroit and her perception of the first black mayor on TV.
  • [26:57] - Throughout history there have been many famous and intellectual people in support of White Supremacy. Dr. Uffman and Dr. Boyle list some, including Woodrow Wilson and Teddy Roosevelt.
  • [28:27] - Continuing the conversation in the next episode, Dr. Boyle will discuss how the racial topographies of northern cities developed the way they did and impacted our racial tensions today.

Connect with Dr. Craig Uffman:

More from Dr. Kevin Boyle: