Jim Crow Laws Quotes

“In the 1920s, Jim Crow Mississippi was, in all facets of society, a kleptocracy.”
― Ta-Nehisi Coates, Un conto ancora aperto

“By the turn of the twentieth century, every state in the South had laws on the books that disenfranchised blacks and discriminated against them in virtually ever sphere of life, lending sanction to a racial ostracism that extended to schools, churches, housing, jobs, restrooms, hotels, restaurants, hospitals, orphanages, prisons, funeral homes, morgues, and cemeteries. Politicians competed with each other by proposing and passing every more stringent, oppressive, and downright ridiculous legislation (such as laws specifically prohibiting blacks and whites from playing chess together.)”
― Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

“When I went to the swimming pool [in Chicago] I found negro girls floating about in the water. The first impulse was to refuse to go in; then I remembered I was in Yankee land and when in Rome -- I slide off into the water.”
― Gertrude Beasley, My First Thirty Years

“Let’s show lots of love for Emmett Till
And fight against bigotry, racism, and hate
Let’s show lots of love for Emmett Till
So humanity can have a better fate”
― Aida Mandic, Turn The Tables

“He was an innocent Black boy in Mississippi
Minding his business, going to the store
He became a Civil Rights movement icon
Emmett Till’s spirit continues to roar

This 14-year-old boy was lynched
Because of a woman named Carolyn Bryant
Who said that he flirted and whistled at her
But it was a lie meant to help evil stir”
― Aida Mandic, Turn The Tables

“Every soldier who fought put on a uniform and gave up two, three, four years of his life. He worked, he fought, sometimes he bled. Sometimes he lost a limb-but above all, he gave America those years of his life. And America said, "We won't forget you." That's simple justice. Now they're back. Most veterans are bitter men because the simple things they ask-a home, a job, security-they cannot have. But what, I ask, is it like to be a Negro veteran?
You fought, if you are a Negro veteran, to tear down the sign "No Jews Allowed" in Germany, to find in America the sign "No Negroes Allowed." You fought to wipe out the noose and the whip in Germany and Japan, to find the noose and the whip in Georgia and Louisiana.”
― Oliver W. Harrington, Why I Left America and Other Essays

“Under Jim Crow, Black Codes harshly restricted what people of color could do, In much of the country, Black people were prevented from voting, serving on juries, running for office, or defending their rights in court. They worked under systems of labor like sharecropping that were designed to keep them in poverty.”
― Alvin Hall, Driving the Green Book: A Road Trip Through the Living History of Black Resistance