HONORS U.S. HISTORY

MR. WAGENBERG

The Economics of Jim Crow - Discussion Questions

Instructions:In your group, review the set of questions below before watching each video. Take notes as you watch. When the video has ended, discuss the questions and come to agreement as a group on the answer to each one.

Video Segment 1: Edisto Island

  • Why had General Oliver O. Howard distributed land to former slaves? Why did the black residents of EdistoIsland believe they had a right to the land?
  • Why were these lands returned to the former slaveholders?
  • Why was land important to Edisto Island African Americans? Had they been able to own and control this land, what would they likely have done with it?
  • What is the relationship between land ownership and economic independence?

Video Segment 2: Booker T. Washington: An Education

  • How did the Holtzclaw family try to achieve economic independence? What principles did they value?
  • The Holtzclaws were sharecroppers. Describe the family’s relationship with the “overseer” of the land they lived and worked on.
  • Why was sharecropping never going to lead to economic uplift and stability for the Holzclaw family?
  • What impressed William Holtzclaw about Tuskegee? How did Tuskegee's program seek to help African Americans achieve economic independence?

Video Segment 3: Blacks and Whites in the New South

  • What sort of work did African American men and women do in the cities of the South? How did this work differ from the work in rural areas? What were relations like with white employers? How did "relationships of dependency" continue?
  • What evidence do you find of the development of a new black middle class? How did this challenge white supremacy?

Video Segment 4: Ned Cobb: Fighting for the Farmer

  • Several of the people interviewed remarked on the closeness of white and black tenant farmers and sharecroppers: "We was all like a family." How did shared economic conditions challenge Jim Crow?
  • How did the sharecropping system work?
  • How did the plantation economy keep African Americans "trapped in a culture of poverty"?
  • Why were labor organizations like the Sharecroppers Union considered a threat to the Jim Crow system?

HONORS U.S. HISTORY

MR. WAGENBERG

The Economics of Jim Crow

Summary Questions

  • How does the question of land ownership continue to play an important part in the economics of Jim Crow?
  • What is behind the movement of blacks from rural to urban areas? What were the social and economic reasons that pushed African Americans from rural surroundings? What opportunities pulled African Americans to the cities?
  • What role does the black middle class play in the overall economic condition of African Americans?
  • How are "relationships of dependency" maintained during the Jim Crow era? What is the economic impact of these unequal relationships?

Learning Activity II: Summary Questions for Group Discussion:

  • How has the Southern system of farm tenancy affected whites?
  • In Paragraph 5 and 6, the author gives some statistics on the numbers of tenants involved in Southern farming. What conclusions can you make, based on these statistics? Is tenancy on the rise? Where is it most prevalent? How has it affected black and white tenants?
  • In paragraph 7, Embree argues that "the system is shot through with the master and slave relationship." What examples does he give to support this conclusion?
  • What is the difference between a tenant farmer and a sharecropper? (See paragraph 8.)
  • During the New Deal the government established the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), which, in order to stabilize agricultural prices, gave payments to farmers not to grow certain crops. Read paragraphs 22 to 24 and describe how this program affected tenant farmers.
  • In paragraphs 25 to 31 Embree offers a plan to transform Southern farming. Describe the elements of his plan. In what ways are they similar to proposals made after the Civil War? Do you think Embree's proposal is realistic? If it had been enacted, would it have challenged the Jim Crow system or left it largely intact?

Culminating Activity Questions:

  • In what way have the economic issues facing African Americans changed?
  • What new economic issues emerged in the late nineteenth and twentieth century?
  • Legal Jim Crow was abolished in the 1950s and 1960s. Does the legacy of Jim Crow still affect African Americans economically? If African Americans today were to create an "Economic Bill of Rights," what might it include?