The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

(Editor's note: To better understand the impact and force of Jim Crow laws, reporter Diana Zimmerman gathered the following information.)

by Diana Zimmerman

According to the Jim Crow Museum website run by Ferris State University, Jim Crow “was more than a series of rigid anti-black laws. It was a way of life.”

The following are some examples of Jim Crow etiquette:

White motorists had right of way at all intersections.

A black male could not offer his hand to a white male because it implied social equality. A black male could not offer his hand or any other part of his body to a white woman, because he risked being accused of rape.

Black people were introduced to white people, never the other way around.

White people did not use courtesy titles of respect when referring to black people, for instance Miss, Mrs., Mr., Sir or Ma’am. They used first names. Black people were required to use the honorific when speaking to white people. They were never allowed to use first names.

Black people could not show affection in public.

When conversing with whites, black people could never accuse the white person of lying, even if they were. They could never demonstrate superior knowledge or intelligence. They could not curse or laugh at a white person. They could not comment on the appearance of a white female.

Jim Crow laws excluded black people from public transport, facilities, jobs, and neighborhoods. They had to use separate water fountains, separate entrances and exits. They had separate hospitals, prisons, schools, churches, cemeteries, public bathrooms and more.

Sometimes there were no accommodations. No bathrooms. No place to sit. No public beach.

They were denied the right to vote.

One state made it illegal for black and white people to boat together. Another state had parks for blacks and parks for whites. In Alabama, they weren’t even able to play checkers or dominoes with each other.

Now add violence.

According to the website, “the Jim Crow laws and system of etiquette were undergirded by violence, real and threatened. Blacks who violated Jim Crow norms, for example, drinking from the white water fountain or trying to vote, risked their homes, their jobs, even their lives. Whites could physically beat blacks with impunity. Blacks had little legal recourse against these assaults because the Jim Crow criminal justice system was all-white: police, prosecutors, judges, juries, and prison officials. Violence was instrumental for Jim Crow. It was a method of social control. The most extreme forms of Jim Crow violence were lynchings.”

“Lynchings were public, often sadistic, murders carried out by mobs. Between 1882, when the first reliable data were collected, and 1968, when lynchings had become rare, there were 4,730 known lynchings, including 3,440 black men and women. Most of the victims of Lynch Law were hanged or shot, but some were burned at the stake, castrated, beaten with clubs, or dismembered.”

The “What Was Jim Crow” page was written by Dr. David Pilgrim, Professor of Sociology at Ferris State University.

To read the article in its entirety, go to http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htm. To learn more about Jim Crow, go to http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/.