American Nightmare: The History of Jim CrowMacmillan, 2002 M02 12 - 291 pages For a hundred years after the end of the Civil War, a quarter of all Americans lived under a system of legalized segregation called Jim Crow. Together with its rigidly enforced canon of racial "etiquette," these rules governed nearly every aspect of life--and outlined draconian punishments for infractions. The purpose of Jim Crow was to keep African Americans subjugated at a level as close as possible to their former slave status. Exceeding even South Africa's notorious apartheid in the humiliation, degradation, and suffering it brought, Jim Crow left scars on the American psyche that are still felt today. American Nightmare examines and explains Jim Crow from its beginnings to its end: how it came into being, how it was lived, how it was justified, and how, at long last, it was overcome only a few short decades ago. Most importantly, this book reveals how a nation founded on principles of equality and freedom came to enact as law a pervasive system of inequality and virtual slavery. Although America has finally consigned Jim Crow to the historical graveyard, Jerrold Packard shows why it is important that this scourge--and an understanding of how it happened--remain alive in the nation's collective memory. |
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Contents
COMING HOME | 1 |
STARTING FROM THE VERY BEGINNING | 16 |
SLAVERY TRANSFORMED INTO PEONAGE 18651896 39 | 39 |
THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY | 80 |
BETWEEN THE WARS | 114 |
HOW WHITE AMERICA RATIONALIZED JIM CROW | 151 |
THE WAR YEARS | 172 |
GETTING TO THE END | 210 |
THE LAST YEARS | 244 |
Bibliography | 275 |
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Common terms and phrases
African African-Americans army became began black Americans black and white Black Codes black officers cars century churches citizens city's civil rights color Congress Constitution course decades decision discrimination driver enforcement enlisted entire equal European fact federal forced Fourteenth Amendment Henry Lowry Homer Plessy human inferior integration Jim Crow justice Klan Ku Klux Klan labor later leaders least legislators lives lynching majority meant military Mississippi Montgomery moral NAACP nation navy Negro nigger North Northern Plessy police political president race etiquette racial racial segregation racism reality refused region's remained represented seats segregation segregationists Senate separate served simply skin slavery slaves social social equality society South Southern blacks Southern whites status Stetson Kennedy supremacists Supreme Court thousand troops Truman United virtually vote Wendell white Americans white Southerners white supremacy woman women World War II York