Vann Woodward focuses on several issues in the book The Strange Career of Jim Crow. Racism, segregation, race relations, slavery and civil rights are some of the significant problems that take center stage in revealing the purpose and intention of the book. The paper aim is to show how the book has dealt with the history of the Jim Crow laws in the South. It will cover the book’s period which beginning after the civil war and ending with the Civil Rights Movement. It will examine the major themes of the book and critique the underlying issues with the aim of establishing how Woodward articulates his thoughts, and the method he uses to bring out characters and themes an in-depth analysis of the sources how they vary both primary and secondary and their effects conducted. An educated opinion will be offered to show my thoughts and status concerning the book.
The major theme of the book The Strange Career of Jim Crow (1955) by C. Vann Woodward is the Jim Crow laws; the author attempts to provide a historical background of the rules, their advent, and impact on society and their demise. In tracing the development of the Jim Crow laws, he attempts to determine the history of the statutes, their origin, impact, and effects. He brings out the results of the requirements by examining how racism developed differently in the South and North America. He elaborately explains in the book describing the basis of Jim Crow’s rules, the emergence, and development of the laws and how they were used by local and state governments to discriminate against blacks leading to social, educational and economic disadvantages.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Jim Crow laws are well brought out through the examination of the history of South and North America. The analysis displays two different periods of change, which he calls the “reconstructions” (Edward, 1992). The first period begins after the Civil War, where the north after winning embarks on a mission to enforce the emancipation and equal rights amendments. After the great compromise, the Southerners codified statutes which came to be known as Jim Crow; these statutes were meant to alienate the blacks. The second reconstruction according to the author began when the government started to desegregate some of its institutions; this started the demise of the Jim Crow laws. Among the first institutions to be desegregated were the military and state-operated public schools. The author finally shows how the Jim Crow laws came to an end through the civil rights Act of 164 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The sub-themes of the book The Strange Career of Jim Crow include race relations. Woodward severally raises race relations in the book and consistently pursues the theme. Using the race relations theme, the author sets out to prove and debunk the notion held by most white Americans at the time, that racial separation between blacks and white is something that was long-established and has no end. The author further shows the history of the south after the war. He presents an image of how the South was racial but not so racial to the extent of enacting laws that separated the race. In fact, Woodward records that blacks and whites lived united as neighbors and race were only strengthened by the influence of the North who set the example of using the Jim Crow laws, and slowly they crept to the south.
The layout of the book is organized and separated by division into chapters where each chapter describes different aspects that led to the rise of segregation and evolution of Jim Crow laws. The sections appear in chronological order with different chapters covering the different period in the history of South. The author began when the Jim Crow laws did not exist; it is evident from the title of the first chapter, “Of Old Regimes and Reconstructions.” This chapter covers the south after the civil war and describes the original perspective before the evolution of the laws. In this chapter, the author explains how the North was not the best instructors to the south because they did not have racial equality (Woodward, 2002). The chapter also continues to touch on how schools and churches were the first institutions to be racially segregated.
Chapter two and three are named “Forgotten Alternatives” and Capitulation to racism” respectively. These two chapters focus on blacks, civil rights and racial equality are the main themes that are apparent in these two chapters. The author focuses on the disfranchisement of blacks in the south. Chapter three also focuses on the adoption of terror tactics and the rise of white supremacy groups. The fourth chapter of the book is titled “The Man on the Cliff,” and the main theme of this chapter is segregation and alienation of blacks. The author mostly covers the period after World War 1, till the end of the World War 2. His main focus is on the black response to segregation; he focuses on the riots that become prevalent during this period. In this chapter he also shows how segregation laws are expanded to include taxis, airports, waiting rooms and barber shops. The 1954 ruling on Brown v. Board of Education is one of the events the author uses to present his case.
This event was one of the factors that led to the decline of Jim Crow laws. The next chapter is titled “the Declining Years of Jim Crow,” this chapter covers the aftermath of the Brown ruling. The “ruling had caused the Jim Crow laws to come into question, and the north put more pressure on the south to drop the laws” (Patterson, 2002). To show the impact of the ruling the author says “the Jim Crow system still stood, but its foundations had been shaken.” (Woodward, 2002). The central theme of this chapter is change and resistance; the southern whites wanted to protect segregation laws while the blacks wanted to do away with the segregation laws. This division led to the white southerners saying that blacks were happy in their position. The implication was not right and due to this massive riots broke which were organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).
The evaluation of the chapters helps us to bring out the methodology and the use of sources in the book. Woodward uses an organization method where he discusses each idea under a different topic. Woodward has also incorporated the use of primary and secondary sources. He has drawn his content and analysis selectively from the valuable literature of history, economic and social history that has allowed him to present his ideologies systematic and bring more profound insights to the themes he addresses. His analysis of segregation and racial injustices with the Jim Crow laws in after the civil era find a basis in other peoples work including economists and sociologists which Woodward spice up with new insights and sturdy materials.
My point of view about the book:
The length of the book is short; this can be attributed to the author who cut out any unwanted detail. The author is straightforward and explains his points. Woodward sacrificed length to achieve quality and depth. The author’s ideas are provocative, and it provoked a sense of bitterness or the people who came up with the Jim Crow laws. The source document of the book is speeches given at the University of Virginia in1954. The book handles well the false issues raised by the Southern elite against blacks being “separate but equal.” This book in my perspective is the best book on the history of race relations, Jim Crow laws and racism in the Southern States.
The author Woodward is very objective; he is unbiased in his presentation of the book. He discusses in depth the historical background of the misconceptions that prevailed at the time. He traces the development of race, social separation, and civil rights movement; he does this to show and help the reader understand the present state of racism in America. Through historical analysis, the author debunks the notion that the South had been traditionally racist and the North antiracist. He uses a socio-economic study to show how peaceful co-existence had existed between black and white communities during the post-civil war era. The author supports his thesis well by using examples that are critical with in-depth research and analysis. The book has several faults, the lack of references is a significant fault of the book, and this is because Woodward mostly relied on the speeches given at the University of Virginia in 1954 as a source.
The discussion of the book presents a review on the work of C. Vann Woodward on The Strange Career of Jim Crow (1955) that examines the dominant theme of Jim Crow laws and also evaluates other subthemes including racism, segregation, race relations, slavery and civil rights. It has revealed the methodology and use of secondary sources through an in-depth analysis of chapters. Except for the limited faults, the book is successful in highlighting and analyzing the underlying issues of race that brought suffering and misery to non-American races. Evaluation of the Jim Crow laws and the influence of the north on the south is explicitly availing an understanding of the past and present state of racism in America. It forms an informative base for present and future reference.
References
Brewer, W. M. (1955). C. Vann Woodward. The Strange Career of Jim Crow. The Journal of Negro History , 40 (4), 379-382. Doi: 10.2307/2715665
Edward L. Ayers. The Promise of the New South: Life after Reconstruction. New York: Oxford University Press. 1992. Pp. Xii, 572. (1993). The American Historical Review . doi:10.1086/ahr/98.3.951
John W. Cell. The Highest Stage of White Supremacy: The Origins of Segregation in South Africa and the American South. New York: Cambridge University Press. 1982. Pp. Xiv, 320. (1983). The American Historical Review . doi:10.1086/ahr/88.4.965
Patterson, J. T. (2002). Brown v. Board of Education: A civil rights milestone and its troubled legacy . New York: Oxford University Press.
Weaver, H., & Wade, R. C. (1965). Slavery in the Cities: The South, 1820-1860. The Journal of American History , 52 (1), 126. Doi: 10.2307/1901146
Woodward, C. V. (2002). The strange career of Jim Crow . Oxford: Oxford University Press.
