Blogs > Cliopatria > Remembering Jim Crow

Apr 2, 2011

Remembering Jim Crow




Almost 50 years after the end of Jim Crow, communities throughout the United States still grapple with its legacy. This website, a companion to the NPR radio documentary on segregated life in the South, presents 30 audio excerpts of oral histories and 90 additional stories with members of these communities.

These materials, covering legal, social, and cultural aspects of segregation, black community life, and black resistance to the Jim Crow way of life, allow visitors to experience the contrast between African American and white remembrances of Jim Crow. Older whites in one southwestern Louisiana town, for example, remember race relations to be more peaceful during Jim Crow than they are now, while blacks recount lynchings, insults, and thievery at the hands of whites.

The website also includes roughly 130 photographs, 16 of these taken by Farm Security Administration photographer Russell Lee in southwestern Louisiana. Transcripts of the original radio documentary, a sampling of segregation laws, a 41-title bibliography, and 100-word introductions to each of six thematic website sections provide a contextual framework for the documentary material.

Read a more in-depth review of Remembering Jim Crow written by Joseph Crespino of Emory University.

Or, explore other website reviews at History Matters.


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