Gonzales
Discussion (Fri 11-12)
October 5 2016
Jim Crow Laws and Their Influence on the Harlem Renaissance
The end of the Civil War brought hope to slaves in the South; they were optimistic about the new freedoms that came with the Civil War Amendments. These amendments, ranging from the thirteenth to the fifteenth amendments, abolish slavery, implement the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection clause, and prohibit the denial of the right to vote based on race. Although these amendments were formally written into the United States constitution in the late 19th century, they were not actually executed in society. Southerners found their way around these amendments with the use of Jim Crow Laws.
Jim Crow laws became extremely popular in the South following the Reconstruction period as they legalized racial segregation, allowing white southerners to retain the power they had prior to the Civil War. Although the laws directly went against the Civil Rights Amendments, they were upheld and legitimized by the Plessy v. Ferguson case of 1896, which highlighted the doctrine of "separate but equal."
Thus, with the passage of Plessy vs. Ferguson, the Jim Crow Laws carried on in the South. These laws were apparent in the segregation of public places such as schools, bars, bathrooms, and buses. However, colored people were also denied the right to vote, even though they had gained this right through the fifteenth amendment. White southerners prevented colored people from voting by instating poll taxes, which only white southerners could afford. Further, southerners required a literacy test to vote, which became an obstacle to most colored people since a lot of them had not gotten the privilege of education. These obstructions along with many other racially-driven criteria stripped black people of the rights they had gained only a few years prior.
An example of a literacy test.
Lobbyists across the nation attempted to end Jim Crow Laws. Many pieces of legislation chipped away at its legitimacy. One of the bigger actions was the ruling on Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. This Supreme Court case overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, which was the case that had given Jim Crow Laws its legitimacy in the first place. Thus, Brown v. Board of Education repealed the idea of "separate but equal" and recognized that the idea is extremely detrimental to colored children. Though this case brought down the severity of Jim Crow Laws, it was the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that demolished the laws. These acts, signed into action by President Lyndon B. Johnson, prohibited racial discrimination, thus signaling the end of Jim Crow Laws.
President Lyndon B. Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act
Jim Crow Laws had a huge influence on the United States for almost a century, thus, many cultural movements happened concurrently. The enormous presence of these laws in the South influenced many black people to move North, signaling the beginning of the great migration. This influx of colored people in the North created many black communities in urban slums, laying the foundation for the Harlem Renaissance. Zora Neale Hurston was part of the great migration, as she moved from Florida to New York, where she would slowly become a major player in the Harlem Renaissance. Jim Crow Laws indirectly led to the Harlem Renaissance as it caused many talented African American artists, musicians, and authors to move North and share their talent in an area where it would be appreciated.
Discussion Questions
- Given your knowledge of Jim Crow Laws and the Harlem Renaissance, do you think Harlem Renaissance artists implemented the laws into their work? How do they view the laws? How do they portray the laws? Are the laws evident in Their Eyes Were Watching God?
- How is race brought up in modernist texts, especially those we have read so far? How do you think modernists viewed Jim Crow Laws?
Works Cited
Kousser, J. Morgan. "Jim Crow Laws." Dictionary of American History 4 (2003): 479-480.
"Reconstruction and the Rise of Jim Crow." The African-American Experience. Woodbridge, CT: Primary Source Media, 1999. American Journey. U.S. History in Context. Web. 5 Oct. 2016.
"The Harlem Renaissance." Ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association, n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2016.
Warren, Chief Justice Earl. "Brown v. Board of Education." United States Reports 347 (1954): 483.
We get a glimpse of the tension and injustice due to Jim Crow Laws and other institutionalized racism during the reconstruction period through the eyes of Nanny, Janie's grandmother. The end of slavery and the birth of reconstruction comes with the birth of Janie's mother. Both Nanny and Janie's mother are raped by white men, so it is clear that racism and racial violence did not cease to exist with the emancipation of slaves. We also see racial inequalities and segregation in Eatonville. Eatonville is the first town that is exclusively black, and founded by African Americans. The townspeople get excited by the first streetlight in a black community, showing that while African American communities may have been separate from white communities, they certainly were not equal. This separate but unequal treatment is seen even in the burial of blacks and white corpses after the hurricane in Chapter 18. Tea Cake is asked to separate the bodies because coffins will be given to only the white people. The Jim Crow laws that gave way to an institutionalized racism certainly pervades the novel, Their Eyes were Watching God, because they were integral to society during the time.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this historical insight into the time period and how this correlated with the cultural movements of this time. Race is paradoxically the most undiscussed yet perhaps the most important issue in modernist novels. It underlies all the tension in 'Their Eyes Were Watching God' and is easily, although perhaps strategically, dismissed in '42nd Parallel.'
ReplyDeletePerhaps you could have added a little more connection into modernism but other than that good post!
In response to your first question, I think that Hurston was very aware of the Jim Crow laws and more generally the rules of race at the time, constructing the white man as far superior to the black, even after the abolishment of slavery in Their Eyes Were Watching God. The notion of "separate but equal" comes into play through Hurston's novel especially through the establishment of Eatonville, the first all black town. Professor Masiello made the comment on Monday that there is practically nothing in Eatonville today other than the every so often Hurston celebration. While Eatonville was in fact separate, it was in no way equal to the white communities at the time. In addition, I see the "separate but equal" idea through the coffins that were only given to white people killed in the hurricane. Ironically, many could not even tell the color of the skin of the dead because the bodies were so destroyed, yet the white men insisted that only coffins be given to dead white people. Great blog post!
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely interesting how white southerners went out of their way to try to keep the colored community out of the democracy. It reminds me of a Chinese prover, "上有政策，下有对策," which means that as soon as the government comes up with a policy, there is always a strategy that lower-level government, in this case the local government, adopts to try to maintain things as the way the were before that policy. Even today, racial issues remain incompletely resolved, as we have seen in cases where white police officers shot black citizens. There is a longterm conflict, and laws passed in Washington DC are not enough to solve it all; the local governments have to run under those principles laid out by the federal government to make a difference.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your piece on Jim Crow Laws! That being said, you put a lot of blame for racism on the South and I think your piece could greatly benefit from analyzing how the ideology behind Jim Crow Laws perpetuated to the North and to the Harlem Renaissance. Even though the artists of the Harlem Renaissance weren't directly subject to Jim Crow Laws, they certainly were suffering from segregation, discrimination, and racism. Focusing on how these elements were present throughout the U.S. would really benefit your piece! Also, you tend to place blanket blame on the entire "South" for Jim Crow Laws when South is really a generalized location and each state and locality within the state had its own segregation laws and culture. By identifying specific acts in specific places, your piece could be much more informative and credible. Overall, good work!
ReplyDelete- Emma E.
The term "separate but not equal" definitely resonates with me when I try to imagine what life was like for Black people in the early 20th century. Although the rights of Black people seemed to be progressing, the installation of these amendments seems to have done nothing more than inspire so many Black artists to express themselves through their art. I do think that the Harlem Renaissance artists implemented the Jim Crow Laws into their work. They didn't necessarily implement these laws explicitly, but the undertone of racial tensions that is present in so many Modernist novels is a testament to the significance these laws have had on the personal lives of so many.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was an excellent topic to further explore since "Their Eyes Were Watching God" touched on these issues and we see how different characters were impacted by segregation and the Jim Crow Laws. This reminded me of the scene in the novel when Tea Cake is made to clean up the bodies in the area. The blacks are dumped into a ditch across the black graveyard and all the black bodies are to be dumped there yet, the white bodies get coffins. This is a clear indication that the reality of a law that insists on "separate but equal" is actually meant to keep segregation in society.
ReplyDeleteThis discussion of Jim Crow laws underscores one of the many contradictions of race in American society: although the U.S. Constitution declared equality between whites and African Americans, the reality of segregation and rampant racism indicated the true nature of race relations for much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Despite the constitutional basis for racial equality, whites still perceived themselves as superior to African Americans, thereby fostering the development of segregation. In Zora Neale Hurston's novel, Mrs. Turner's self-hating attitudes towards African Americans reinforce the perception of status based on skin color that predominated during the time period.
ReplyDeleteWhen Tea Cake is forced to bury white men with coffins and black men without he says "look lak dey think God don't know nothin' 'bout de Jim Crow law."
ReplyDeleteTea Cake's joking comment about segregation after death highlights the artificial nature of Jim Crow and the ways in which religion helped African-Americans cope with racial segregation.
I think the segregation between whites and blacks was highlighted very clearly in the aftermath of the hurricane as Ian pointed out. Tea Cake argued that there wasn't enough time to go through all the bodies to identify their race and they just needed to be in the buried as soon as possible. However, the white men adamantly insisted that the white people be buried in coffins, while the black people will just have to get some quicklime to sprinkle over them. The white men told Tea Cake to use the hair texture to identify the race of the bodies. This also highlights the importance of hair in "Their Eyes were Watching God" because Janie has straight hair that a lot of people envy, so Joe told her to always wear her hair up in a rag while in the store.
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ReplyDeleteIn the Modernist works we have seen so far, race only seems to be of concern to those who are directly affected by racial tensions. This is exemplified in the 42nd parallel, as Dos Passos bluntly avoids the discussion of racial identities and chooses to focus on the lives of atypical caucasians in a time when the social issues surrounding African Americans were at a peak. However in Their Eyes Were Watching God, African American author, Hurston, goes to great lengths to emphasize the racial identities and struggles of the 20th century throughout the implementation of the Jim Crow laws while celebrating the African American pride and culture at the same time.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting how racial tensions were brought up constantly in Their Eyes Were Watching God, but brushed under the rug in the 42nd Parallel and made into an experiment in Melanctha. Different modernist texts have different opinions and interpretations about institutional racism, but it's not really clear-cut as to why. Is it the race of the author? The specific year and societal context of when the book was written? Also, I liked how you tied in Jim Crow to the Great Migration to the Harlem Renaissance in your post.
ReplyDeleteI think this was a really interesting insight as to the mindset and culture of a region historically! In response to your first question, I do think that these racist laws did have an effect on Harlem Renaissance writers - they are clearly apparent in Their Eyes Were Watching God, especially in the scene after the hurricane in which Tea Cake is forced to help bury the dead and the white bodies are given coffins while the black bodies are thrown into a mass grave. Zora Neale Hurston brought these issues to light while subsequently celebrating the individual culture African Americans share, which is important culturally and historically. It is interesting to look at these laws in respect to other Modernist writers we've covered though, since Dos Passos doesn't even consider them in his text. I don't know if this is because his novel largely ignores race, or if he didn't consider them issues since they didn't apply to him. Also, I find it insane that these horribly racist laws weren't repealed until so recently, and even then, there are still racist remnants in place.
ReplyDelete