The Strange Career Of Jim Crow Summary

In The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander develops a compelling analogy on how mass incarceration is similar to the Jim Crow era, and is a “race-making institution.” She begins her work with the question, “Where have all the black men gone?” (Alexander, 178) She demonstrates how the media and Obama have failed to give an honest answer to this question, that the large majority of them or in prison. She argues that in order to address this problem, we must be honest about the fact that this is happening, and the discrimination with the African American communities that is putting them there.

Answering this radical turn of events, Woodward published a third edition of Strange Career in 1974 to discuss the ambiguity faced by many African Americans in opposing the principles of Jim Crow laws while maintaining a distinctive racial identity. His research and continual revisions made The Strange Career of Jim Crow an undeniable force of the time with praise hailing from civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. who referred to it as “the historical bible of the civil rights movement.”

He publishes his second revised edition in 1966, three years after Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech. The civil rights movement is now in full swing and his second edition is much more complete than his first. He acknowledges the faults of his first edition stating, “The intervening years of social upheaval and political travail since 1955 have inevitably altered the perspective from which the earlier history was viewed.” (p.ix) Woodward’s third edition is published in 1974, and in his preface he again allows for the changing times. Though in this edition, he does state that his biggest change is the addition of a chapter to the end of his book which covers the biggest advancements in race relations. His final edition is published almost thirty years after his third edition and is in many ways a reevaluation of the entire book after the time period has ended. In 2001, while there is still racism, the Civil Rights

C. Vann Woodward’s book, The Strange Career of Jim Crow, has been hailed as a book which shaped our views of the history of the Civil Rights Movement and of the American South. Martin Luther King, Jr. described the book as “the historical Bible of the civil rights movement.” The argument presented in The Strange Career of Jim Crow is that the Jim Crow laws were relatively new introductions to the South that occurred towards the turn of the century rather than immediately after the end of Reconstruction after the Civil War. Woodward examines personal accounts, opinions, and editorials from the eras as well as the laws in place at the times. He examines the political history behind the emergence of

The Jim Crow laws were local and state laws that were supposedly “separate but equal,” but instead blacks were inferior to the whites due that to the social, educational, and economical disadvantages that they caused. In Woodward’s greatly influential book, The Strange Career of Jim Crow, he shows supporters of segregation that this was not the way that it had always been, but instead segregation took time to develop after the Civil war and that the acceptance of the Jim Crow laws was not just because of race, but also included politic aspects. Woodward proves his thesis by showing how the state between the two races was right after the race the war and how slavery required interaction between blacks and whites. Woodward continues to

Racism is a thing of the past, or is it? Michelle Alexander’s, “The New Jim Crow,” main focus is on mass incarceration and how it occurs in an era of color blindness. Alexander also focuses on the social oppressions that African Americans have suffered throughout the years, until now. In this essay, I will discuss how the system of control was constructed, Alexander’s compelling historical analysis, and if the current system would be easier to dismantle. I would like to start by delving into how the system of control was constructed.

This book makes clear that the struggle for racial equality was nationwide and not just isolated to certain geographical locations. A common misconception about the civil rights movement is that blatant racism was a problem only encountered in the Deep South. However, Waiting ‘Til the Midnight Hour does a great job of clarifying this misconception and showing the many elements of the struggle for justice that blacks from coast to coast experienced.

The Strange Career of Jim Crow is a book that opens reader’s eyes to obstacles that black people faced during this period of time. Van Woodward does an excellent job in this book illustrating history. He provides factual and vivid examples of the racism that blacks faced in their fight for equality. It is obvious that this is a well written book in that it is still being published

In 1865, the United States government implemented what was known as Reconstruction. Its’ purpose was to remove slavery from the south, and give African-American’s the freedom in which they deserved. However, the freedom that they deserved was not the freedom that they received. With documents like The Black Codes restricting them from numerous privileges that white people had and the terroristic organization known as the Klu Klux Klan attacking and killing them, African-American’s were still being oppressed by their government as well as their fellow man. Slavery may have been abolished, but African-American’s were not yet given the freedom and rights that their white counterparts took for granted.

This “war on drugs,” which all subsequent presidents have embraced, has created a behemoth of courts, jails, and prisons that have done little to decrease the use of drugs while doing much to create confusion and hardship in families of color and urban communities.1,2Since 1972, the number of people incarcerated has increased 5-fold without a comparable decrease in crime or drug use.1,3 In fact, the decreased costs of opiates and stimulants and the increased potency of cannabis might lead one to an opposing conclusion.4 Given the politics of the war on drugs, skyrocketing incarceration rates are deemed a sign of success, not failure. I don’t totally agree with the book (I think linking crime and black struggle is even older than she does, for instance) but I think The New Jim Crow pursues the right line of questioning. “The prison boom is not the main cause of inequality between blacks and whites in America, but it did foreclose upward mobility

Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness goes into great detail on race related issues that were specific to black males, the mass incarceration, and how that lead to the development of institutionalized racism in the United States. She compares the Jim Crow with recent phenomenon of mass incarceration and points out that the mass incarceration is a network of laws, policies, customs and institutions that have been working together to warrant the subordinating status of black males. In this paper I will go into a brief examination of the range of issues that she mentions in her book that are surrounding the mass incarceration of black male populations.

A central theme in the book, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander (2010) is The War

The New Jim Crow is a book that discusses how legal practices and the American justice system are harming the African American community as a whole, and it argues that racism, though hidden, is still alive and well in our society because of these practices. In the book, Michelle Alexander, author and legal scholar, argues that legal policies against offenders have kept and continue to keep black men from becoming first class citizens, and she writes that by labeling them as “criminals,” the justice system and society in general is able to act with prejudice against them and subordinate black Americans who were previously incarcerated, on probation, or on parole, by limiting their access to services as a result of their ‘criminal status’ and therefore, further degrading their quality of life. The New Jim Crow urges readers to acknowledge the injustice and racial disparity of our criminal justice system so that this new, more covert form of racism in society can be stopped.

I agree with Michelle Alexander on her view of mass incarceration, as well as the new racial caste system that has evolved in the United States. She states that, “we have not ended racial caste in America, we have merely redesigned it”. After reading her book The New Jim Crow, her point of view on the age of colorblindness is extremely bold. Over time, it has developed into many forms. The racial systems have evolved from exploitation, to subordination, to marginalization. As a nation, we have remained in deep denial about the racial systems. Even though it may look like America is an egalitarian society, there is too much occurring “behind closed doors”, that is often overlooked.

In the novel Blood on the Forge by William Attaway, which takes place in 1919, the Moss brothers, Big Mat, Melody, and Chinatown, leave the South to start a new life in the North. When the Moss brothers left the South, it was also at the time of the “Great Migration” movement, where African-Americans migrated to the Northeast, Midwest, and West, leaving the South behind them. Just like other African-Americans, the Moss brothers thought they were making the right move to a better life because even though the slavery days were over, it was still very present in the South. When they finally made it, they realized the North had a new set of problems. Although they had more freedom, slavery still ruled their existence and there was no escaping it. The only difference between the North and South was that the South openly showed slavery aspects, where the North covered it up with more pay, freedom, and advertisements of “a better life.” The story of the Moss brothers’ journey from South to North was supposed to be a step closer to the “American Dream,” but it was only a change of scenery. With the Moss brothers leaving their crop life behind and moving into an industrialized mill life, they quickly realized there was no escaping being dehumanized by the white society.