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In C. Vann Woodward's enormously influential examination of Jim Crow segregation laws in the post-Civil War South he makes two fundamental points: first, that the imposition of strict segregation did not immediately follow the War; second, that the eventual adoption of Jim Crow laws was not simply a function of racism -- there were myriad political factors involved. Woodward first provides a detailed analysis of the state of the races following the War. He demonstrates: that Slavery had required the proximity and interaction of Blacks and Whites, which could not be reversed overnight; that Northern Republicans, Southern Conservatives and Southern Radicals all had reasons to court black citizens; and reminds us that with the North virtually running the South for a period of years, segregation would not have been allowed immediately after the war. He then makes a compelling case that the true rise of Jim Crow came about, in the 1890 's, due to a confluence of factors: 1) Northern withdrawal from Southern affairs; 2) the changes in Northern attitudes towards colored peoples as America became an Imperialist power; 3) the crushing depression of the 80 's, which added fuel to racial animus; 4) the concurrent rise of the Populists who were more than willing to play the race card; and 5) the series of Supreme Court rulings which sanctioned separation.
Finally, he turns to the demise of segregation, which was going on even as he wrote the several editions of his book. Here again, he identifies a number of factors, besides the Civil Rights movement, which contributed to Jim Crow's fall: Northern migration; changing, but this time improving, attitudes towards colored peoples, as exemplified at the UN; the reversal of course by the Supreme Court; and the improved economic condition of the Nation generally. In chronicling this rise and fall of Jim Crow, demonstrating that segregation was a gradual rather than an immediate & natural response to the end of slavery and showing that many factors besides race lead to the adoption of segregation policies, Woodward makes an inestimable contribution to our understanding of the horrific legal repression of Southern Blacks. One of the central problems in American history is that of race relations, and one of the central problems of race relations in America has been that of segregation. Woodward intends for this book to be an overview of the rise and fall of de jure segregation in the American South, and, for the most part, he succeeds admirably. There is much to commend this book and its author for.
Woodward debunks the notion, especially popular among the defenders of segregation during the Civil Rights era, that segregation had been part of the Southern way of life for time immemorial; instead, he convincingly argues, a considerable amount of integration existed from before the Civil War up until the turn of the Twentieth Century. He provides a nuance analysis of the course of white Southern resistance to desegregation decisions by the Supreme Court -- it was not monolithic, nor was it immediately virulent; rather, "massive resistance" developed over the course of several years, not reaching its peak until the early 1960 s. Finally, his analysis of the internal tensions in the Civil Rights movement between the integrationist's and the nationalists and between the black middle class and the mass of black poor, while frustratingly incomplete, nevertheless rings true. Concise but scholarly, Professor Woodward's work is the definitive history of this aspect of the American South. The only criticism I have for Prof. Woodward's is that he doesn't really explain WHY southern whites instituted Jim Crow.
Woodward explores the economic and political underpinnings of Jim Crow in a manner that does not fit modernist notions of inherent and intractable racism, but rather shows the real life situations, which lead to the Jim Crow. "The Strange Career of Jim Crow, " is a compilation of lectures written after the Supreme Courts landmark decision to integrate the public schools in 1954. Woodward emphasized that legally mandated racial segregation in the South was not a long-standing and inviolable tradition, as its apologists claimed. It was a relatively new phenomenon. For over a decade after the end of the Civil War, Woodward argued, blacks and whites in many southern states often mingled in public places without incident. It was not until the late 1880 s that the rigid system of legal and political segregation became pervasive. Laws appeared in state after state requiring racially separate schools, restaurants, hospitals, orphanages, parks, railroad cars, and even public restrooms.
To Woodward, the fact that widespread legal segregation emerged only at the end of the century was of great significance to Americans confronting Court-ordered integration in 1954. A prejudicial system of segregation that had been cobbled together in a few years, he stressed, could be more readily and peacefully dismantled. While Woodward's optimism about a quick ending of segregation proved to be misplaced, his underlying message about the enduring effects of history in shaping the present proved to be poignantly accurate. He repeatedly highlighted the Souths history of defeat, poverty, and racism as defining the essence of Southern ness.
As a son of the South, Woodward felt a keen sense of guilt for its violence and bigotry. While candidly recognizing his native regions "enduring value, " he repeatedly urged his fellow southerners to confront their peculiar racial heritage and embrace the compromises needed to bridge their social divide. As he declared, "It would be a tragic decision to make intransigence and desperate adherence to a discredited code the test of southern loyalty. " His observation still rings true. Bibliography:
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