Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell About Life in the Segregated South
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Contents |
Overview
Remembering Jim Crow was published in 2001. The book was edited by William H. Chafe, Raymond Gavins, and Robert Korstad. The book, Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell About Life in the Segregated South, is a product of the Duke University's Behind the Veil: Documenting African American Life in the Jim Crow South. The project was aimed at capturing oral histories of southern African Americans who lived between the periods of 1890-1950 and had lived through the Jim Crow Era. 1
"RJC" is a significant work concerning African American History. The book continues the historiographical discussion of African Americans in the Jim Crow era south that underwent a radical shift during the Civil Rights Era. The introduction of the book states: "Above all, what came out of this scholarship was a new appreciation for the importance of understanding the roots of the civil rights era." 2 The work provides a way for historians to view the Jim Crow era in a new light and provides a rich new source for future students and scholars. <sup3 It allows African Americans to share their experiences in their own words, and lets them provide their own version of the lead up to their civil rights struggle.
The six chapters are reflections of the the six lessons introduced in the introduction by the authors.
"Bitter Truths" explores the realization of African Americans that segregation was an all too real aspect of daily life. The stories touch on aspects such as separate water fountains and schools to the harsh treatment of white men and women.
"Heritage and Memory" details the memories passed down from older generations. Such memories include slavery as well as oral traditions. The heritage and memory chapter argues that the information that was passed down "formed the bedrock of African American identity in the midst of a social order that sought to deny African Americans a legitimate heritage or place in society." 4
"Families and Communities" looks at the churches, organizations, and neighborhoods roles of creating tight knit communities in African Americans' daily life.
"Lessons Well Learned" explores the unequal education offered to African Americans and the ways that they coped.
"Work" looks at how African Americans made a living and the problems that faced them in the work environment.
"Resistance and Political Struggles" identifies ways that African Americans responded to white oppression by force or the vote.
Each chapter contains excerpts from oral histories taken from the Behind the Veil project. The oral history excerpt is introduced by a short background about the interviewee's life.
Editorial Method
The editing of Remembering Jim Crow replicates a similar methodology as an earlier work on African American History, Remembering Slavery: African Americans Talk about Their Personal Experiences of Slavery and Emancipation 5
The editors state that they edited the work "to present the material in a clear form. We chose to omit certain spoken idiosyncrasies such as "uh", "mmm" and "you know" as well as other repetitive conversational forms of speech that would be distracting to most readers." 6
The editors also continuously reviewed each other's work throughout the process of creating the book. The interview questions, for the most part, have been removed. However some questions do appear in the book to provide context. Other edits include the alteration of the "sequences of some of the interview passages." 7
The main purpose of the editing is to clarify the text and provide the reader with a readable work.
The book's style consists of a several paragraphs to introduce each chapter, followed by a short introduction of each oral history transcription. Photographs from the Behind the Veil project are used, however they do not correspond to the oral history on which page they fall on.
Reviews
Professor Anushiya Sivanarayana states her "students read segregationist laws as simply legal codes that demarcated spaces. As the stories in Remembering Jim Crow make clear, the laws of segregation defined not simply where one ate, drank water, resided, went to school or worked, but also illustrated in myriad ways how black bodies and lives were disciplined." 8
Susan Bragg, from the University of Washington, states that: "The result is a dense and compelling series of oral histories that reveal both the necessary accommodations to the systems of racial oppression known collectively as Jim Crow and the daily protests against such discrimination." 9
American Radioworks Documentary
Minnesota Public Radio and NPR News created a radio documentary to correspond with the book. Many versions of the book contain at least one CD containing the documentary. The documentary is supplemental to the book, as overlap does occur, however, "each contain substantial amounts of material not included in the other." 10
Collection
The oral histories collected for the Behind the Veil project have been archived at the Duke University's Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library. For more information, visit the website: http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/rbmscl/btv/inv/
Awards
Lillian Smith Book Award (2002) (11)
Carey McWilliams Prize (12)
Discussion Questions
In what ways was "pyschology" used to appease or trick whites in the community? What was the reasoning behind the ruse?
Why were little victories such as being able to enter through the front door just as important as bigger victories such as voter registration?
What do you think were some of the reasons why more African Americans did not migrate to the North during "the great migration" that took place in the early 1900s as Jim Crow laws continued to multiply?
Different Perspectives of whites and Blacks during the time? - it would be interesting to listen to hear the stories of the white plantations owners - it would also be interesting to get the perspective of the poor white farmers during the time
I wonder if any of the interviwees held anything back when telling their story? If so, why? What reasons do you think they might have to omit things?
References
(1) Duke University, Behind the Veil-Project Overview," The Center for Documentary Studies, http://cds.aas.duke.edu/btv/btv_basic_html/projectoverview.html
(2) William Henry Chafe, Remembering_Jim_Crow:_African_Americans_Tell_About_Life_in_the_Segregated_South (New York: The New Press, 2001), xxviii.
(3) Chafe, "Remembering Jim Crow," xxxv.
(4) Chafe, Remembering Jim Crow, 56.
(5) Chafe, "Remembering Jim Crow," xxii.
(6) Chafe, "Remembering Jim Crow," xxii.
(7) Chafe, "Remembering Jim Crow," xxii.
(8) Anushiya Sivanarayanan, "Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell About Life in the Segregated South (review)," Callaloo 26, no. 3, 2003, http://www.jstor.com, (accessed April 17, 2009), 904.
(9) Susan Bragg, "The Jim Crow South review essay," The Journal of American Ethnic History vol. 22 no. 2, http://jaeh.press.uiuc.edu/22/2/bragg.html (accessed April 17, 2009).
(10) Chafe, "Remembering Jim Crow," 305.
(11) Duke University, Behind the Veil-In the News," The Center for Documentary Studies, http://cds.aas.duke.edu/btv/btv_basic_html/inthenews.html
(12) ibid,.
