[Author: Abdel Hafez Mahama]
Jump Jim Crow was a key initial step in a tradition of popular music in the United States that was based on the “imitation” of Blacks. It was composed by white comedian Thomas Dartmouth (T.D.) “Daddy” Rice and a racist dance, which gain notoriety, accompanied this tune. This music was named after one Jim Cuff or Jim Crow, a physically challenged slave, in the 19th Century. The dance which accompanied this absurd music is attributed to his humorous boogie.
The first edition of the song was published by one E. Riley, somewhere in the early 1830s. It gained popularity in the United States as a result of its racist nature. The extent of this popularity was stated by the USA ambassador to Central America, John Lloyd Stephens. He wrote that upon his arrival in Mérida, Yucatán, in 1841, the local brass band played “Jump Jim Crow” under the mistaken impression that it was the USA’s national anthem.
Under Jim Crow, African Americans were relegated to the status of second class citizens. Many ministers and theologians taught that whites were the Chosen people, blacks were cursed to be servants, and God supported racial segregation. Craniologists, eugenicists, phrenologists, and Social Darwinists, at every educational level, buttressed the belief that blacks were innately intellectually and culturally inferior to whites. Even children’s games portrayed blacks as inferior beings [1].
The Jim Crow system was guided by the rationalizations or belief that: whites were superior to blacks in all important ways, including but not limited to intelligence, morality, and civilized behaviour; sexual relations between blacks and whites would produce a mongrel race which would destroy America; treating blacks as equals would encourage interracial sexual unions; any activity which suggested social equality encouraged interracial sexual relations; if necessary, violence must be used to keep blacks at the bottom of the racial hierarchy.
Etiquette of Jim Crow were propounded and going contrary to them relegated one to be regarded as uncouth and falling short of basic manners. The following Jim Crow etiquette norms show how inclusive and pervasive these norms were:
(1) A black male could not offer his hand (to shake hands) with a white male because it implied being socially equal. Obviously, 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.
(2) Blacks and whites were not supposed to eat together. If they did eat together, whites were to be served first, and some sort of partition was to be placed between them.
(3) Under no circumstance was a black male to offer to light the cigarette of a white female – that gesture implied intimacy.
(4) Blacks were not allowed to show public affection toward one another in public, especially kissing, because it offended whites.
(5) Jim Crow etiquette prescribed that blacks were introduced to whites, never whites to blacks. For example: “Mr. Peters (the white person), this is Charlie (the black person), that I spoke to you about.”
(6) Whites did not use courtesy titles of respect when referring to blacks, for example, Mr., Mrs., Miss., Sir, or Ma’am. Instead, blacks were called by their first names. Blacks had to use courtesy titles when referring to whites, and were not allowed to call them by their first names.
(7) If a black person rode in a car driven by a white person, the black person sat in the back seat, or the back of a truck.
(8) White motorists had the right-of-way at all intersections.
With time Jim Crow became a term often used to refer to African-Americans, and from this the laws of racial segregation became known as Jim Crow laws. When most people think of Jim Crow they think of laws (not the Jim Crow etiquette) which excluded blacks from public transport and facilities, juries, jobs, and neighbourhoods. The passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution had granted blacks the same legal protections as whites. However, after 1877, and the election of Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, southern and Border States began restricting the liberties of blacks. Unfortunately for blacks, the Supreme Court helped undermine the Constitutional protections of blacks [2] by legitimizing Jim Crow laws and the Jim Crow way of life.
Jim Crow states such as Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia and Birmingham passed statutes severely regulating social interactions between the races. Jim Crow signs were affixed above water fountains, door entrances and exits, and in front of public facilities. There were separate hospitals for blacks and whites, separate prisons, separate public and private schools, separate churches, separate cemeteries, separate public restrooms, and separate public accommodations. In most instances, the black facilities were grossly inferior; generally, older or less-well-kept. In other cases, there were no black facilities – no coloured public restroom, no public beach, no place to sit or eat. Plessy [4] gave Jim Crow states a legal way to ignore their constitutional obligations to their black citizens. The Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site Interpretive Staff [3] compiled some of the typical Jim Crow Laws. Stated below are a few selected ones:
(1) Barbers. No coloured barber shall serve as a barber (to) white girls or women (Georgia).
(2) Burial. The officer in charge shall not bury, or allow to be buried, any coloured persons upon ground set apart or used for the burial of white persons (Georgia).
(3) Buses. All passenger stations in this state operated by any motor transportation company shall have separate waiting rooms or space and separate ticket windows for the white and coloured races (Alabama).
(4) Child Custody. It shall be unlawful for any parent, relative, or other white person in this State, having the control or custody of any white child, by right of guardianship, natural or acquired, or otherwise, to dispose of, give or surrender such white child permanently into the custody, control, maintenance, or support, of a Negro (South Carolina).
(5) Education. The schools for white children and the schools for Negro children shall be conducted separately (Florida).
(6) Mental Hospitals. The Board of Control shall see that proper and distinct apartments are arranged for said patients, so that in no case shall Negroes and white persons be together (Georgia).
(7) Nurses. No person or corporation shall require any White female nurse to nurse in wards or rooms in hospitals, either public or private, in which Negro men are placed (Alabama).
(8) Teaching. Any instructor who shall teach in any school, college or institution where members of the white and coloured race are received and enrolled as pupils for instruction shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanour, and upon conviction thereof, shall be fined… (Oklahoma).
(9) Wine and Beer. All persons licensed to conduct the business of selling beer or wine…shall serve either white people exclusively or coloured people exclusively and shall not sell to the two races within the same room at any time (Georgia).
Blacks who violated Jim Crow norms 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 lynching. The Jim Crow laws and system of etiquette were undergirded by threats and all sort of violence.
With respect to the Jim Crow etiquettes in our current time, we notice that some of these racial and social behaviours are replicated in our society. Contemporarily, it has become the norm for our leaders (those who we elect to serve us) to extend their hands to offer us handshakes and not otherwise. We are required to refer to them as “honourable” and the likes whenever we are to address them. They can, however, choose not to use courtesy titles of respect when referring to their subjects. Many do isolate themselves when they are being driven – sending unequivocal messages that he or she is the man in charge. Our honourable have a right of way at all intersections; a benefit which is not conferred on the remaining citizens. These may seem insignificant but goes to the root of disuniting us to some extent.
Furthermore, when it comes the examples of Jim Crow laws in our contemporary times, the current state of some western electoral processes show some features or characteristics of the Jim Crow laws. Blacks are being regarded as a menace in some jurisdictions and are not fit to be part of that particular “elite” society. Hence, suggestions have been made to deport all coloured persons. A step we all know is radical. Donald Trump, a billionaire business mogul and a United State of America presidential aspirant, in a black related speech asserted that; “If you think we kill you too much, go somewhere where you’re gonna just kill more of each other… if black lives don’t matter here go back to Africa” – this extract is everything Jim Crow! And it is unsurprising to see him rocketing in his quest to become the next American president.
As Africans we must endeavour to break the chains of every remnants of Jim Crow laws and etiquette in our society. Before we could achieve such a feat, we need to know what these laws and etiquettes are and flash them out. Even amongst ourselves, we tend to employ these methods even without knowing. It is time, as blacks and Africans, to buckle our boots and get rid of these practices in our system. One such way is to employ our intellect and appeal to the conscience of society.
The words of Malcolm X best describe this piece. He said; “I think you’ll find, sir, that there will come a time when black people wake up and become intellectually independent enough to think for themselves as other humans are intellectually independent enough to think for themselves. Then the black man will think like a black man and he will feel for other black people and this new thinking and feeling will cause black people to stick together. And then at that point you’ll have a situation where when you attack one black man, you are attacking all black men and this type of black thinking will cause all black people to stick together. And this type of thinking also will bring an end to the brutality inflicted upon black people by black people. And it is the only thing that will bring an end to it. No federal court, state court or city court will bring an end to it. It’s something that the black man has to bring an end to” [5].
References
1. See From Hostility to Reverence: 100 Years of African-American Imagery in Games”.
2. See the infamous Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) case.
3. This list was derived from a larger list composed by the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site Interpretive Staff. Last Updated January 5, 1998. The web address is: http//www.nps.gov/malu/documents/jim crowlaws.htm
4. Supra.
5. Outro of Kendrick Lamar’s Little Johnny tune.
The Journal of African Discourse 