Jim Crow Laws

• QUESTION: What were “Jim Crow” laws and how did they affect African Americans?

• Terms– Jim Crow Laws– Amendments 13, 14, 15– Shelby County v. Holder

1. Do you think this test was fair? Why or why not?

2. Do you think that people should have to be tested before voting?

3. Do you think that voters should be informed about their government?

4. Why do you think that African Americans were willing to risk so much in order to gain the right to vote?

5. Do you think that voting is a right worth struggling for?

The tests• Each applicant had to answer four questions to successfully register to

vote, but this was only one part of the application process.

• An applicant had to give, under oath, information about his or her address, employment, family members and a host of information that would be given to the applicant’s employer, the Ku Klux Klan and other organizations.

• For the audacity of attempting to register to vote, applicants could lose their jobs, be thrown off their land, and be subjected to violence or even death.

• White voters received much simpler exams and were encouraged to vote. Voter registration for whites often exceeded 100% because dead people were not removed from the lists.

Jim Crow Laws

• Racial segregation state and local laws enacted after the Reconstruction period (post-Civil War, 1865) in Southern United States that continued in force until 1965.

• Conditions for African Americans were consistently inferior and underfunded compared to those provided for white Americans. This decision institutionalized a number of economic, educational and social disadvantages.

• seg·re·ga·tion• ˌseɡrəˈɡāSH(ə)n/• noun• the action or state of setting someone or something

apart from other people or things or being set apart.• "the segregation of pupils with learning difficulties"• the enforced separation of different racial groups in

a country, community, or establishment.• "an official policy of racial segregation"

Amendments 13-15

• 13th amendment (1865): Abolition of Slavery• 14th amendment (1868): Granted African-

Americans citizenship rights and “equal protection under the law.”

• 15th amendment (1870): granted African American men the right to vote– “right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not

be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."

Current Voting Rights

Shelby County v. Holder

• This is a Supreme Court case from 2011, which effectively got rid of parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (which ended the Jim Crow Era).

• Read the handout and respond to the following question on your own piece of paper (at least a paragraph):– 1. Summarize the case and each side’s argument IN YOUR

OWN WORDS.– 2. Do you agree or disagree with the ruling? Back up your

answer with evidence from the “Supreme Court Decision” section.