“Jim Crow” Gallery Walk

Directions: With your group members, you will rotate from station to station, having approximately seven (7) minutes per station to work and complete that station. You must follow the directions for each station, collaborating with your group members to answer the questions thoroughly. There should be a different writer/recorder for each station, and your responses should be written on a separate sheet of paper. You will turn in ONE set of answers/responses PER GROUP.

Station 1 – Begin by observing, discussing, and analyzing the images. Then answer the questions below.

  1. What kind of places do you hear about that were segregated in the time of “Jim Crow” laws?
  2. Which picture stood out the most to your group? Why?
  3. Overall, what do the pictures say about society at that period of time?

Station 2 – Look at the pages from Toni Morrison’s book Remember. Read the text and observe/analyze the pictures. Then answer the questions below.

  1. The images depicts students in school. Describe the conditions that they are forced to learn in.
  2. Why do the images presented in this book represent “Jim Crow”?
  3. Defend or refute (argue against) this statement: “Separate but equal” provided a quality education for all involved. Explain why or why not using the images in this picture as your support.

Station 3 – Watch the video clip of the song “Jump Jim Crow.” After watching the video and reading the song’s lyrics, then answer the questions below.

  1. What are your overall reactions to seeing the video and reading the lyrics?
  2. How are the video and lyrics racist and stereotypical? Provide an example/quotation from the lyrics to support your point.

Station 4 – Look at the images shown and answer the question below.

  1. What do the images say about voting for African-American citizens during the “Jim Crow” era? Refer to specific details to support your response.

Station 5 – Read and discuss the article about Plessy vs. Ferguson. Write a brief summary of five (5) sentences minimum explaining what you learned concerning this court case.

Station 1 Images

Station 3 Lyrics

"Jim Crow" (or "Jump Jim Crow")

Published by Firth & Hall, NYC

In 1828, white entertainer Thomas Rice darkened his face with burnt cork, costumed himself as a plantation slave, and won nationwide fame performing this song in variety theatres. He claimed that his inspiration was an elderly African American he found singing this tune near a stage door one night in Washington DC. Whatever its origins, "Jim Crow" became part of the language, eventually becoming a name for the laws and racist attitudes used to oppress blacks in the Southern United States in the 19th and 20th Centuries. It is generally believed that Rice's lasting success inspired the creation of minstrel shows.

The text here is taken from an early sheet music edition. Although undated, it appears to have been published in the late 1820's – oddly enough, no composer or lyricist is listed. The spellings and punctuation are as they appear in the original – all designed to reinforce an ugly racial stereotype. Rice continually added verses to spoof events of the day or fit special occasions. An early American edition of the sheet music (undated, but probably from the 1820's) includes 44 verses. Some are so racially insensitive that we have opted not to include them here.

Verse 1
Come listen all you galls and boys I's jist from Tuckyhoe,
I'm going to sing a little song, my name's Jim Crow,
Weel about and turn about and do jis so,
Eb'ry time I weel about and jump Jim Crow.

Verse 2
Oh I'm a roarer on de fiddle, and down in old Virginny,
They say I play de skyentific like Massa Pagannini.
Weel about and turn about and do jis so,
Eb'ry time I weel about and jump Jim Crow.

Verse 3
I went down to de riber, I didn't mean to stay,
But dere I see so many galls, I couldn't get away.
Weel about and turn about and do jis so,
Eb'ry time I weel about and jump Jim Crow.

Verse 4
I git upon a flat boat, I cotch de uncle Sam,
But I went to see de place where de kill'd Packenham.
Weel about and turn about and do jis so,
Eb'ry time I weel about and jump Jim Crow.

Verse 5
And den I do to Orleans and feel so full of fight,
Dey put me in de Calaboose and keep me dare all night.
Weel about and turn about and do jis so,
Eb'ry time I weel about and jump Jim Crow.

Station 4 Images

Station 5

Plessy v. Ferguson

This 1896 U.S. Supreme Court case upheld the constitutionality of segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine. It stemmed from an 1892 incident in which African-American train passenger Homer Plessy refused to sit in a Jim Crow car, breaking a Louisiana law. Rejecting Plessy’s argument that his constitutional rights were violated, the Court ruled that a state law that “implies merely a legal distinction” between whites and blacks did not conflict with the 13th and14th Amendments. Restrictive legislation based on race continued following the Plessy decision, its reasoning not overturned until Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954.

The case came from Louisiana, which in 1890 adopted a law providing for “equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races” on its railroads. In 1892, passenger Homer Plessy refused to sit in a Jim Crow car. He was brought before Judge John H. Ferguson of the Criminal Court for New Orleans, who upheld the state law. The law was challenged in the Supreme Court on grounds that it conflicted with the 13th and 14th Amendments.

By a 7-1 vote, the Court said that a state law that “implies merely a legal distinction” between the two races did not conflict with the 13th Amendment forbidding involuntary servitude, nor did it tend to reestablish such a condition.

The Court avoided discussion of the protection granted by the clause in the 14th Amendment that forbids the states to make laws depriving citizens of their “privileges or immunities,” but instead cited such laws in other states as a “reasonable” exercise of their authority under the police power. The purpose of the 14th Amendment, the Court said, was “to enforce the absolute equality of the two races before the law…. Laws … requiring their separation … do not necessarily imply the inferiority of either race.” The argument against segregation laws was false because of the “assumption that the enforced separation of the two races stamps the colored race with a badge of inferiority. If this be so, it is … solely because the colored race chooses to put that construction upon it.”

The lone dissenter, Kentuckian and former slave owner Justice John Marshall Harlan, denied that a legislature could differentiate on the basis of race with regard to civil rights. He wrote: “The white race deems itself to be the dominant race,” but the Constitution recognizes “no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens.” Harlan continued: “Our Constitution is color-blind…. In respect of civil rights all citizens are equal before the law.” The Court’s majority opinion, he pointed out, gave power to the states “to place in a condition of legal inferiority a large body of American citizens.”

Following the Plessy decision, restrictive legislation based on race continued and expanded steadily, and its reasoning was not overturned until Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954.

“Plessy v. Ferguson”. History.com, 2009. history/plessy-v-ferguson. Accessed 19

Sept. 2016.