Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell About Life in the Segregated South [Hardcover]

William Henry Chafe (Editor), Raymond Gavins (Editor), Robert Korstad (Editor), Robert Gavins (Author), Behind the Veil Project (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2001

The sequel to the award-winning Remembering Slavery, a groundbreaking book-and-CD set of interviews about the segregation-era South.

Remembering Jim Crow, the groundbreaking sequel to Remembering Slavery, is an extraordinary opportunity to read and hear the voices of black southerners who were firsthand witnesses to one of the most heartbreaking and troubling chapters in America's history. Based on interviews collected by the Behind the Veil project at Duke University's Center for Documentary Studies, this remarkable book-and-CD set presents for the first time the most extensive oral history ever recorded of African American life in the racially segregated South.

In vivid, compelling stories, men and women from all walks of life tell how their most ordinary activities were subjected to profound and unrelenting racial oppression—in the workplace, on street corners, and above all in the public facilities and institutions that systematically demeaned, disenfranchised, and disempowered black people, condemning them to second-class citizenship. At the same time, Remembering Jim Crow is a testament to how black southerners fought back against the system, raising children, building churches and schools, running businesses, and struggling for respect in a society that denied them the most basic rights. The result is a powerful story of survival enriched by vivid memories of individual, family, and community triumphs and tragedies.

Remembering Jim Crow is accompanied by two one-hour compact discs of the companion radio documentary produced by American RadioWorks. A transcript of the audio programs is included in the book's appendix, and the book is illustrated with fifty rare segregation-era photographs collected from African American families who participated in the oral history project. Boxed set: hardcover book with 2 one-hour compact discs; 50 black-and-white photographs.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Old people knew things that we'll probably never know," confides one interview subject in this viscerally powerful book and compact disc compilation of firsthand accounts of the Jim Crow era. Drawing on the 1,200 interviews with African-Americans that make up the Duke University collection called Behind the Veil: Documenting African American Life in the Jim Crow South, this sequel to the book-and-audio compilation Remembering Slavery offers testimonies by people from 25 communities in 10 states, representing diverse economic, social and cultural lifestyles urban and rural, industrial and agricultural, Piedmont and Delta. Readers and listeners will confront "the dailiness of the terror blacks experienced at the hands of capricious whites" and of "the capacity of the black community to come to each other's aid and invent means of sustaining the collective will to survive." The editors provide lucid historical context for recollections of family, work, school and church. "[S]tories of rapes and beatings, of houses burned to the ground and land stolen, of harrowing escapes in the middle of the night" appear alongside accounts of "the extraordinary and multiple ways in which resistance to Jim Crow occurred and was nourished." Some of the stories are so extreme as to seem absurd white singers mistakenly sent to a black club conceal themselves under pancake makeup; a county's average expenditure for white students is $40.68 per student, and for black students, $5.95. This moving, deeply instructive book reveals how "African Americans developed their own life, hidden and estranged from the lives of white people." Two one-hour compact discs, 50 b&w photos. Appendixes not seen by PW. (Nov.)Forecast: The award-winning Remembering Slavery attracted countless readers and listeners, partly because public radio stations broadcast the tapes. Expect a similar reception for this volume.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This sequel to Remembering Slavery (LJ 9/1/98) is another effort to recover the history of black life in the American South, with interviews this time focusing on the era of segregation. It is a rare opportunity to read and hear the voices of black Southerners who experienced one of the most hideous periods in America's history, "a time of severe legal, economic, political, and social oppression, all reinforced by the pervasive threat of extralegal violence, especially lynching." Based on about 1200 interviews and in-depth research in 25 communities and ten different states undertaken by the Behind the Veil project at Duke University's Center for Documentary Studies, this remarkable book-and-CD set offers intimate views into the thoughts, activities, and anxieties of black Americans and at the same time strengthens our understanding of the Jim Crow era. Included are two one-hour CDs of the radio documentary produced by American Radio Works, a transcript of the audio program, 50 rare segregation-era photographs, biographical information, and suggestions for further reading. This superb primary source will appeal to public and academic libraries. Edward G. McCormack, Univ. of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast Lib., Long Beach
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: New Press, The (November 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565846974
• ISBN-13: 978-1565846975
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.6 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #701,538 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A necessary book, October 8, 2002

By 

Frank (Stockton CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell About Life in the Segregated South (Hardcover)

This is an absolutely superb book, comprised of recollections of the Jim Crow years in the form of oral histories. It can be read through, or picked up at any part. There is an appropriate amount of historical introduction to each chapter.
This material needs to be read, and remembered. There was a long time in our history when, although there was no more slavery, African Americans were treated as a separate serf class, under constant pressures and reminders of their lower status. Whites used pervasive legal and social downward pressures to keep African Americans out of an equal education, and equal access to public facilities, much less the right to equal jobs and the right to vote -- and then claimed that African Americans' lack of achievement was a racial fault. If an African American violated one of the many social taboos, the sanctions ranged from a beating, to loss of job, and even being lynched.
While whites benefited from Jim Crow, the whites, also, were trapped in the system. They were also forced to abide by legal segregation, and were subject to social pressure if they were too liberal (being called "n* lover," "white n*," etc.).
What led to the mindset that the end of slavery should lead to continued legal and social oppression of African Americans? It was part of white American culture. Lincoln himself said that he was not "in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry.... [T]here must be the position of superior and inferior. I am as much as any other man in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race." In 1877, Rutherford B. Hayes traded the end of southern post-war Reconstruction for the electoral votes he needed to win the presidency. Southern states then were free to institute the Jim Crow system.
I believe we are more subject to peer pressure than we would like to believe. Although reviewer McInerney asserts that "no civilized person" would benefit from Jim Crow, I feel many otherwise-good people were trapped and/or blinded by their own interests and surroundings. When allowed, and even encouraged, their evil side showed itself. On this topic, see John Griffin's _Black Like Me_, on the different faces that whites showed to other whites, and to African Americans.
While we are certain that we wouldn't go back to that system, we shouldn't be so sure that we, also, wouldn't be trapped by it if we were born into it. Consider that Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy (to a large extent) didn't take effective action to end segregation.
This book is excellent. Those dreadful and shameful times -- and the vestiges which still continue -- must not be forgotten.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Slavery The Sequel, March 13, 2002

By 

taking a rest - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell About Life in the Segregated South (Hardcover)

Any illusions about the freedom and equality that were alleged to have been given to African Americans in this country following the Civil War were just that, illusions. The reality of America's version of Apartheid was legitimized in 1896 in the United States Supreme Court with the case of Plessy vs. Ferguson. When the de-facto segregation that Plessy allowed was added to the de jure laws that followed, whatever emancipation had been promised was firmly repudiated. It is even legitimate to go back to 1877 when Rutherford B. Hayes and his party sold out, and swapped the presidency for the removal of federal troops from the south.

"Remembering Jim Crow", is a brilliant collection of first hand accounts of life under Jim Crow by those who were victimized by its laws. A large cast collected these verbal accounts over several years, and they accomplished no less than the preservation of a sinister part of this country's history. A time that W.E.B. Dubois characterized as, "living behind the veil". Combined with the book, "At The Hands Of Person's Unknown", which I commented extensively on, these two books, and if you choose the accompanying CD of the interviews, provides a wide, if horrific view of these eight decades.

These testimonies are also notable for the speakers who identify by name the people and families that victimized them. This is not ancient history that many would like to forget. These people who survived and speak of Jim Crow are alive, and so a presumption that their tormentors are alive is reasonable. The end of the book includes portions of a documentary that was made as part of this project with National Public Radio. Happily some of the whites that were interviewed in Iberia Perish in Louisiana remember and look with regret on what they did and did not do. Their willingness to speak on the record is admirable. But lest anyone think that all is solved there are also people who went on the record bemoaning their never having enjoyed the privileges that Jim Crow gave whites. A man named Barrow expressed himself thusly, "That was awful nice, you know, you'd go hunting, "Boy clean those ducks", you know, "Skin that dear", uh, "Shine my shoes". I believe I could have gone for that. Yeah I think you could have too".

No Mr. Barrow, no civilized individual from any state could, "have gone for that". However I am sure that many appreciate your confirmation that even now, ignorance, arrogance, and racism are alive and well.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reveals how blacks fought against the system, April 10, 2002

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell About Life in the Segregated South (Hardcover)

This slipcased book and 2-cd set supplements the written word with oral history, gathering the voices of men and women who were firsthand witnesses to segregation in the south. Stories by men and women from all walks of life reveal how blacks fought against the system, built communities, and ran businesses in a society which denied them basic rights. Remembering Jim Crow offers the reader a comprehensive, involving, highly recommended presentation.