SHAMEFUL PAST: CANTON SOUTH STUDENTS DISCUSS JIM CROW LAWS AS PART OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH
By Tesa Strasser
The Press News
33948
Feb 25 2009
As part of their global studies, most freshmen at Canton South High
School are learning about how Jim Crow Laws affected African-Americans
in the 1870s.
In the class, students are analyzing the consequences of oppression,
discrimination and conflict throughout the world. They have
studied horrific realities such as the holocaust and genocide in
other countries including Armenia, Rwanda and Bosnia. Since February
is Black History Month, the class is reflecting on oppression and
discrimination in their country.
Greg William’s third-period class recently learned that shortly after
the Civil War, in the 1870s, a set of laws were created to keep
newly-freed slaves from having contact with white Americans. They
were called the Jim Crow laws.
Williams showed pictures from that era reflecting results of
those laws. Students saw photos of drinking fountains and restrooms
designated for use by only one race to keep them apart. He said that in
many southern states, interracial marriages were made illegal. He also
taught that since most African-Americans had not had the opportunity
to accumulate much wealth, a large new poll tax that was required to
vote prohibited their voice from being heard in political affairs. The
students seemed genuinely surprised and appalled by the prejudice of
our country during that period.
The class soon will study the famous court cases of Brown vs. Board
of Education and Plessy vs. Ferguson. These landmark cases played a
significant role in reversing the Jim Crow laws.