This course will give students an introduction the era of Jim Crow in America. Jim Crow laws were introduced to deny African Americans the right to vote, hold jobs, have access to education as well as other opportunities. We will examine why did Jim Crow emerge and persist from the late nineteenth century through to the mid twentieth century. We will begin by considering the Jim Crow laws from their roots immediately following the ratification of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery in the United States. Jim Crow laws required the separation of white people and people of colour on all forms of public transportation and in schools. Over time the segregation expanded to include interaction and mixing in schools, cemeteries, parks, theatres, and restaurants. We will consider those who enforced and supported these laws but also those who fought for the rights of those subject to the Jim Crow laws. While it was a time of oppression for African Americans and those who attempted to defy Jim Crow laws often faced arrest, fines, jail sentences, violence and death it was also a time when many African Americans stepped forward to oppose the laws. This course will try to give an insight into the African American experience under the Jim Crow laws and how this experience changed and evolved from the late nineteenth to the mid twentieth century. We will also consider the impact of the Jim Crow era in America beyond its conclusion in the 1960s. 

The course does not presuppose an in-depth knowledge of American history or politics.