In the Shadow of Destrehan: Legacies of Slavery Speakers: Azby Brown (Safecast’s lead researcher and author of the Safecast Report) Catherine Pugh (Adjunct Professor at the Beasley School of Law at Temple University, Japan Campus)

1. IT DOESN’T MATTER. IT’S IN THE PAST.
◦“Because you corrupt public morals, we
can’t have you participate . . . as you are.”
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◦~November 17, 2017, Osaka Prefecture,
Japan

2. HEARTS AND MINDS?
“It may be true that the law cannot make
a man love me. But, it can stop him from
lynching me, and I think that’s pretty
important.”
~Martin L. King, Jr. Speech at UCLA, 1965
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3. U.S. Constitution, Amendment XIII 1865
Neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude, except as punishment for
crime whereof the party shall have
been duly convicted, shall exist within
the United States, or any place subject
to their jurisdiction.
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4. The Killing of The Emancipated
One of the [then] president’s emissaries, Carl Schurz, recoiled as he traveled
throughout the South and gathered reports of [black] women who had been
“scalped,” had their “ears cut off,” or had been thrown into a river and
drowned amid chants for them to swim to the “damned Yankees.” Young
black boys and men were routinely stabbed, clubbed, and shot. Some were
even “chained to a tree and burned to death.” In what can only be described
as a travelogue of death, as he went from county to county, state to state, he
conveyed the sickening unbearable stench of decomposing black bodies
hanging from limbs, rotting in ditches, and clogging the roadways.
~Carol Anderson, Ph.D. White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide
(p. 17). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.
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5. What is “Jim Crow”?
◦Jim Crow laws were laws that
enforced racial segregation primarily
– but not exclusively – in the South.
◦Re-established the race relationships
that the 13th Amendment
threatened.
◦Legal discrimination.
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6. The Reach of Jim Crow
◦Adoption
◦Healthcare
◦Military
◦Transportation
◦Waiting rooms
◦Playing pool
◦Circuses and shows
◦Theater, opera, movies
◦Parks
◦Baseball/playgrounds
◦Fishing & boating
◦Buying/drinking alcohol
◦Funerals/burials/hearses
◦Dining
◦Hygiene
◦Lodging
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7. A small sampling . . .
“Books shall not be interchangeable between the white and colored schools, but shall
continue to be used by the race first using them.”
“Building permits for building Negro houses in white communities, or any portion of a
community inhabited principally by white people, and vice versa prohibited. Penalty:
violators fined from $50 to $2,000, and the municipality shall have the right to cause said
building to be removed and destroyed.”
“All marriages between a white person and a negro, or between a white person and a
person of negro descent to the fourth generation inclusive, are hereby forever prohibited.”
“Negro porters shall not sleep in sleeping car berths nor use bedding intended for white
passengers.”
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8. A small sampling . . .
“The officer in charge shall not bury, or allow to be buried, any colored persons upon ground
set apart or used for the burial of white persons.”
“No colored barber shall serve as a barber [to] white women or girls.”
“...in no event shall a Negro be eligible to participate in a Democratic party primary election
held in the State of Texas.”
“It shall be unlawful for a negro and white person to play together or in company with each
other at any game of pool or billiards.”
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9. North Carolina Jim Crow Placard
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10. Life Under Jim Crow
"Let us look at Jim Crow for the criminal he is and what he has done to one life multiplied
millions of times over these United States and the world." —Rosa Parks
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11. 11
Dr. and Mrs. Charles N. Atkins of
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and their
sons, Edmond, 10, and Charles, 3,
pause for a glance at the Santa Fe
Depot segregation sign on Nov. 25,
1955.
Life Under Jim Crow
"Let us look at Jim Crow for the criminal he is and what he has done to one life multiplied
millions of times over these United States and the world." —Rosa Parks

12. 12
David Isom, 19, broke the color line
in one of this city's segregated
public pools on June 8, 1958, which
resulted in officials closing the
facility.
Life Under Jim Crow
"Let us look at Jim Crow for the criminal he is and what he has done to one life multiplied
millions of times over these United States and the world." —Rosa Parks

13. 13
Left: Freedom Rider James Zwerg stands bleeding
after an attack by white pro-segregationists in
Montgomery, Alabama, on May 20, 1961. Zwerg
remained in the street for over an hour after the
beating, since "white ambulances" refused to treat
him.
Right: Benny Oliver, a former Jackson, Mississippi,
police officer, viciously kicks Memphis Norman, a
black student who was waiting to be served at a
segregated lunch counter.
Life Under Jim Crow
"Let us look at Jim Crow for the criminal he is and what he has done to one life multiplied
millions of times over these United States and the world." —Rosa Parks

14. 14
White Rights Protest
SEPTEMBER 10, 1963
White Rights Protest
AUGUST 12, 2017
That was “then,” . . . right?
"Let us look at Jim Crow for the criminal he is and what he has done to one life multiplied
millions of times over these United States and the world." —Rosa Parks

15. That was “then,” . . . right?
◦ It will take decades and decades to disassociate ourselves from the cost of
racism and segregation.
◦ The laws are off the books, but the practice (exclusion; hierarchal
relationships) continues. Jim Crow progeny:
◦ Education and Employment – Hair
◦ Voting – FL, GA, AL, TX, NC 2018 elections
◦ Housing – Apartments, redlining, home ownership and loans
◦ Policing – don’t even get me started here
◦ Take heart – we’re still new at this – 400 years versus 55-ish years.
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16. THE CIVIL WAR: Union States,
Confederate States, and US Territories
16Explosion of Jim Crow Laws post Plessy v. Ferguson