The strange career of jim crow summary

Woodward shows that change is a constant in Southern history. In this framework, integration was impossible. Woodward dismisses this viewpoint; considering the constant changes in Southern history, Southerners have little reason to expect that any set of social or political institutions—including segregation—will last indefinitely. In Chapter 1 Woodward argues that segregation was not an outgrowth of slavery.

Slavery and segregation share a core ideological foundation: a belief in Anglo-Saxon superiority coupled with innate African American inferiority. Slavery was just one of many different systems or methods through which white supremacy was maintained. The histories of slavery and segregation are connected but not continuous. Slavery as a system made segregation impractical.

The intimacy of household labor and other forms of slave labor required regular contact between slaves and slaveowners. Racial contact was not wanted by either side, but it was impossible to avoid. In the cities of slave states, races lived in closer physical proximity than anywhere else in the United States. Limits to association did exist.

For instance, hotels and restaurants typically barred free African Americans. Hospitals, jails, and public buildings separated races. Woodward compares the racial intermixing found in the South to the North in the same period. Byslavery was, in practice, abolished in the North. Only 3, African Americans were still in bondage. Capitulation to Racism.

The Man on the Cliff. The Declining Years of Jim Crow. The Career Becomes Stranger. This Study Guide consists of approximately 34 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Strange Career of Jim Crow. View the Study Pack. View the Lesson Plans. Plot Summary. Of Old Regimes and Reconstruction.

Forgotten Alternatives. Capitulation to Racism. The Man on the Cliff. The Declining Years of Jim Crow. Many others migrated North and were quickly employed in war industry jobs. This new prosperity, along with the national theme of the preservation and promotion of democracy worldwide, gave blacks the expectation that their status had and would continue to improve.

They could not have been more incorrect. Browse all BookRags Study Guides.