“Jim Crow” was the stage name of New York actor Thomas D. Rice (1808-1860), who made a career of minstrel performances in blackface and thus popularized that form of entertainment. The name “Jim Crow” came from a popular 1832 song, “Jump Jim Crow,” written and sung by Rice and became a common term referring to African-Americans. Later it became a nick name for legislation restricting the rights of African-Americans. Blackface is not necessarily demeaning. Rice may have based his character on slave folk tales about a clever trickster. Al Jolson (1886-1950), a Russian Jewish immigrant, and the most popular and beloved American entertainer beginning with the movie The Jazz Singer in 1927 and lasting for many decades, was said to be the “king of blackface.” Jolson’s personal feelings and many of his songs were certainly sympathetic to African-Americans. What most people do not know is that Jim Crow laws first originated in Northern States. Northern Jim Crow Laws were the model for Southern States following the ruin, corruption, and oppression of Reconstruction. As author C. Vann Woodward has stated, “Jim Crow has had a strange career.”
In Aexis de Toqueville’s 1835 book, Democracy in America, he wrote that "the prejudice of race appears to be stronger in the States that have abolished slavery than in those where it still exists; and nowhere is it so intolerant as in those States where servitude has never been known."
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That helps to explain what I observed when we moved for Kansas to Lansing, MI for my husband to attend law school. I was mortified at the lack of common respect and segregation I was observing. Then, I discovered that Malcolm X was from Lansing, MI. No wonder the guy despised Caucasians.
ReplyDeleteInteresting and where did you end up? Thanks.
DeleteWe moved back to Kansas.
DeleteMuch more to your liking, I am sure. My best friend in Vietnam lived in Pratt.
DeleteAs a white man who's lived through the so-called "Civil Rights" movement, I'll make no apology for "Jim Crow" laws.
ReplyDeleteTheir purpose was not to persecute black people, but to provide much needed protection for the white population.
I grew up in the racially segregated community of Spring Lake, North Carolina, right outside the main gate of Fort Bragg, where Daddy was a master sergeant in the United States Army.
Today, after racial integration and preferential treatment has been forced on all of us at the point of a bayonet, we can plainly see the horrific results.
With blacks now in charge of everything, Spring Lake and all of Cumberland County has become uninhabitable.
Thanks.
DeleteComing to Asheville but this is not what I thought would come.
ReplyDeleteAsheville is Confederate territory and there were hardly any
blacks to speak. The communist Whites who came here are and
have been white-washed long before they came here and destroyed
a perfectly traditional/safe area. Everything they touch......
https://identitydixie.com/2021/05/24/keep-asheville-wearied-keep-the-rebel-remnant-weird/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=keep-asheville-wearied-keep-the-rebel-remnant-weird
Yes and good one. Thanks.https://freenorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2021/05/keep-asheville-wearied-keep-rebel.html
DeleteJim Crow laws came from the democratic party. The same can be said of the KKK and the white supremacy groups. When will we finally realize we have is a democrat party problem against America and everything that it once stood for and against.
ReplyDeleteThanks and the two parties were much different back then.
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