"Strange Career of Jim Crow

“The Strange Career of Jim Crow” is considered one of the great works of Southern history and was published in 1955. The book gives an analysis of the history of Jim Crow laws and shed light to the fact that segregation actually may have caused more of a divide than slavery. It also shows that there was considerable mixing of the races during the reconstruction period. The book was also cited to counter arguments for segregation so often that Martin Luther King Jr. called it “the historical Bible of the civil rights movement.” One thing that is very interesting about the Jim Crow system is that it started in the North before it moved to the South. In the 1830’s slavery was for the most part abolished in the north with only about 3,500 blacks remaining in bondage in the mainly free states. The northern free black was better off than the southern black slave but it was in no way equal to whites at the time. It was made very aware that the northern black lived in a society where the white was superior and the black was obviously inferior. This was where Jim Crow laws were first seen where in Northern States blacks was legally separated from whites in methods of transportations, churches, hotels, restaurants, and entertainment venues. (18, 19) At that point in time, there were multiple race relation philosophies but the main two were conservatism and radicalism. Conservatives believed that blacks were inferior but should not be segregated or publically humiliated. Instead it was believed that blacks should be aided and educated to counter lower class whites. It was also believed that making a big deal about contact with blacks was a lower class attitude. (47-50) Radicals were mainly part of the Populist movement with their attempt to combine the races in the party to achieve a “greater comity of mind and harmony of political purpose” with a party that the South has never seen before. (64) These beliefs and philosophies are much different compared to what is