Jim Crow

Texas Politicians Want to Erase What Happened Between Juneteenth and Jim Crow

by Jeffrey L. Littlejohn and Zachary Montz

Joshua Houston, long enslaved by Sam Houston, recognized that the collective work of securing freedom only began with the announcement of emancipation, and that teaching the state's history honestly was part of the struggle for an egalitarian society against people determined to stand against it. 

Why a Book About Two Bunnies Marrying Was Banned in 1959

Illustrator and author Garth Williams feigned incredulity that his tale of a white and black rabbit's romance ran afoul of Jim Crow sensibilities, but it's hard to see how else it was likely to be perceived, says Sharon Patricia Holland of the University of North Carolina. 

The Real Story Behind the Expulsion of the Two Black Members of the "Tennessee Three"

by Jemar Tisby

The disproportionate response of the Tennessee House's majority—the expulsion of two Black members for the violation of decorum rules during a gun control protest—echoes the efforts of the so-called "Redeemers" of the Reconstruction era to reassert white supremacy through expulsions. 

Can Virginia Preserve the Sites of "Green Book" Travel from the Jim Crow Era?

A new law in Virginia would declare the sites promoted as safe and welcoming for Black travelers in a widely-circulated travel guide from the segregation era to be historic and worthy of protection against development. 

The Jim Crow Reign of Terror

by Eric Foner

While the scope and horror of lynching has recently become acknowleged and memorialized, there is a parallel and more pervasive history, which Margaret Burhnam investigates, of racist terror carried out under color of law. 

Black History, White Terror, and Rosewood at 100

by Dan Royles

The efforts of historians and survivors to achieve a small measure of justice and acknowledgment for the Rosewood massacre demonstrate the stakes of Florida's current efforts to restrict the teaching of history that challenges white supremacy. 

Why is a Senate Office Building Still Named for an Unrepentant Segregationist and White Supremacist?

Texas Senator Ted Cruz decried efforts to "sanitize history" and argued that "the journey of the United States has been a steady journey toward freedom" by way of explaining why he did not support removing segregationist Senator Richard Russell's name from a Senate office building. But few Democrats will candidly support change either.

Rosa Parks: Radical

by Jeanne Theoharis

At the 110th anniversary of her birth, it's important to remember the civil rights icon as a militant organizer and career activist, writes the author of a new biography. 

Mississippi AG: We Purged "Taint" of Racism from Felon Disenfranchisement Law in 1968

Attorney General Janet Fitch insisted that the Supreme Court had no cause to review the state's law disenfranchising certain felons. She acknowledged the explicit racist intent embedded in the statute but insisted that "taint" had been removed. 

Review: When Freedom Meant the Freedom to Oppress

by Jeff Shesol

Jefferson Cowie's new book traces the current resurgence of racist and antigovernment radicalism through the history of George Wallace's Alabama home county. 

What the Jerry Jones Photo Shows About Historical Inequity in the NFL

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has explained his presence in an anti-integration mob as an innocent coincidence. As the most powerful owner in the NFL, he likewise leads an organization that exhibits racial inequality without anyone feeling responsible for it. 

1957 Jerry Jones Photo Shows How Close The Past Really Is

"We know, at least in the abstract, what happened in the days and years after this photo of Jones was taken. He was there and he is here."

Monuments to the Unthinkable

by Clint Smith

German and European memorials to the Holocaust contrast starkly with an American memorial culture where the Confederate dead are revered, former slave plantations are tourist attractions, and state legislatures are seeking to ban the teaching of the nation's history in full. 

Will Alabama Voters Strip Jim Crow Language from State Constitution?

The framers of the 1901 constitution were direct about their goal to maintain a government controlled by whites.

When Italian Immigrants were Tricked into Debt Peonage in the Jim Crow South

A labor agency in Mississippi experimented with a creative, if evil, solution to the problem of Black demands for labor rights at the turn of the 20th century: trick Italian farmers to sign contracts that shackled them with debt to their employers.  

Governors DeSantis and Abbott Borrow from the Jim Crow Playbook

by Greta de Jong

"Immigration scholars have noted how U.S. foreign policies contributed to the poverty and violence in Central and South America that migrants are fleeing. Yet rather than acknowledge this – along with assuming the moral responsibilities it entails – some GOP leaders denigrate and dehumanize refugees to win support from voters."

Recovering the Core Radicalism of the Civil Rights Movement: An Interview with Glenda Gilmore

by Robert Greene II

Cold war histories of civil rights have obscured the key role of communists and other radicals in establishing the economic demands of the movement and the practice of interracial mobilization. 

Court Upholds Mississippi's 1890 Jim Crow Voting Law

The framers of the state's voting laws were explicit in their intention to use the law to strip as many Black men of their right to vote as possible. A federal court recently ruled that the law, amended with nominally color-blind language, is acceptable. 

Can 500 Dinner Discussions Bring Atlantans to Recognition and Reconciliation over the 1906 Race Massacre?

Local activists seek to overcome a local pattern of forgetting of the events of 1906, a collective amnesia supported by the city's black and white leaders who have favored the image of a harmonious city as part of a good business climate. 

Weaponizing Bad-Faith History is a Conservative Tradition from Jim Crow to Alito

by Charles J. Holden

"Conservatives’ invocations of history often mixed wishful thinking about the past with bad faith in interpreting it. And it was always done with the present-minded purpose of maintaining elite white male rule, especially on matters of race."