How do you, as the student, conduct your research? What path, or paths, do you follow?
Cynthia Waldmeier
(c_waldmeier@hotmail.com)
(not ready to use)
Coauthors
ASK
Grade Levels
Unit Keywords
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U.S. History, African American History, Branham, Comstock, Inquiry |
Rationale of the Unit
| When I am first assigned a paper, I look in my history book at the assigned time period to see if anything interests me especially. Usually just by skimming the book I am able to find a topic that interests me. I then use the internet and use search engines such as google or yahoo to research my topic for generally. Once I obtain general information, I go to mr branham and ask his advice on my idea to see if he thinks a paper could work on it. Once I recieve his approval, i start searching the internet with more detailed searches in order to try and narrow down the topic so as to write a thesis for my paper. Once i have my thesis, i check out books from either our school library or Herald Washington public library down town. I find the librarians at our school very helpful, and Ms. Comstock was especially helpful in this assignment because she played an active role in coming up with the idea for the assignment. I then write a rough draft and check it with mr branham. I continue to write drafts and have him check it until the date it is due. I appreciate how mr branham gives me honest criticism, because i have noticed my papers and grades improving, |
Background and Resources
Activities and Open-ended problems
Cynthia W.
The Comparisons Between
The Jim Crow Laws
And
The Nuremberg Race Laws
The “Jim Crow” laws and The Nuremberg Race Laws were both examples of racism in different parts of the world. The “Jim Crow” laws started in the 1880’s in the United States, and the Nuremberg Race Laws commenced in 1935 in Germany. Although these two different sets of laws started approximately half a century after the other, there are many similarities between the two. Both sets of laws restricted the lives of millions of people. In the Jim Crow Laws, the restricted party was the African Americans. In the Nuremberg Race Laws, the restricted party was the Jews. The “Jim Crow” laws were written after the end of the Civil War in 1865. People were frightened that the newly freed blacks would get out of control and perhaps harm the white population, so the laws were created to “manage” the freed blacks. The Nuremberg Race Laws were written prior to the Second World War. They too were written out fear. After the First World War, Germany suffered financially. Adolph Hitler blamed Germany’s problems on the Jewish people, and thus the laws were created to “manage” the Jews. The most identical traits between the “Jim Crow” laws and the Nuremberg Race Laws were the terms for intermarriage between blacks and whites and Jews and non –Jews and terms for citizenship of Jews and blacks which includes the new definitions of Jews and Negroes.
The “Jim Crow” laws were created in order to “manage” the newly freed blacks. The laws were most apparent in the Southern states and states bordering Southern states. After the Civil War ended in 1865, all slaves were ordered to be emancipated. For hundreds of years, black slaves had worked under white workers. Now, equality was being ordered to exist between the black and white people. This enormous step for equality was highly opposed by the majority of the white southern people. The whites of the South therefore decided to enact their own set of laws to limit the actions of the blacks. During the “Jim Crow” period in America, another country was implementing laws on its citizens to restrict any activity they wished to do. The Nuremberg Race Law were laws that were applied to Gypsies, Blacks, and Jews. By far, the group that was affected the most by these laws were the Jews. These laws were implemented just prior to World War Two in Germany.
The Jim Crow Laws were named for an ante-bellum minstrel show. The shows would ridicule blacks, mock their cultures and in general their lives. One particular minstrel show always ended with a chorus which mentioned Jim Crow, “Weel about and turn about and do jis so, Eb’ry time I weel about I jump Jim Crow.” The name “Jim Crow” was deemed an appropriate name for the laws that would restrict African Americans lives for approximately the next 80 years. From 1877 till 1954 the laws remained in use. The laws were not uniform throughout all the states. Each state was able to create its own individual laws. The common goal was the same throughout the states though, control as much as possible the daily lives of African Americans. Many “Jim Crow” laws were consistent in all states, the most consistent being intermarriage between blacks and whites.
The most widely used “Jim Crow” law was the prevention of intermarriage between African Americans and whites. Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, and Wyoming all prohibited intermarriage. Other laws segregated transportation, “All railroad companies and corporations, and all persons running or operating cars or coaches by steam on any railroad line or track in the State of Maryland, for the transportation of passengers, are hereby required to provide separate cars or coaches for the travel and transportation of the white and colored passengers” . Some restrictions even went as far to decide where black people could sit at a circus, “ All circuses, shows, and tent exhibitions, to which the attendance of more than one race is invited or expected to attend shall provide for the convenience of its patrons not less that two ticket offices with individual ticket sellers, and not less than two entrances to the said performance, with individual ticket takers and receivers, and in the case of outside or tent performances, the said ticket offices shall not be less than twenty-five feet apart” . As a result of the laws, the blacks were reduced to that of second-class citizens.
In September of 1935, members of the NSDAP met in Nuremberg Germany. The main reason for the meeting was to discuss what would define a Jew. The meeting took place prior to World War Two, but already anti-Jewish sentiment was apparent throughout Germany. During the convention, the “Blutschutzgesetz” and the “ReichsbYregergesetz” were decreed. The “Blutschutzgesetz” was known as the Blood Protection Act and the “ReichsbYregergesetz” was a law that would regulate the citizenship in the German Reich.
The Nuremberg Race Laws also forbade intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews, “The 'Blutschutzgesetz' forbade marriages between Jews and non-Jews and sexual relationships between these two groups. Any offence was punished with prison or penitentiary. ” Another comparison can be seen between the “Jim Crow” laws and the Nuremberg Race Laws. The “Jim Crow” laws forbade any type of intermarriage or sexual relations between African Americans and white. The Nuremberg Race Laws stated much the same thing, forbidding intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews and having a strict punishment if the law was ever broken.
The “Jim Crow” laws were applied to all blacks. A definition of black was therefore necessary. The definition came 1896 with the Plessy v Ferguson case. Homer Plessy was only one-eighth black and he attempted to sit in a white only railroad car. Plessy was thrown off the railroad car, and when Plessy protested being thrown off the railroad car to the Supreme Court, they deemed that the state of Louisiana was able to withdraw people of color from all white transportation and put them in all black transportation as long as “the state governments provided legal process and legal freedoms for Blacks equal to that of Whites. ”
The members of the NSDAP decided that religious practices would no longer be the deciding factor in the definition of a Jew. Instead, anyone whose parents or grandparents had been a Jew was himself a Jew as well, regardless of what religion was practiced. The first amendment of the “ReichsbYregergesetz” stated the new definition of a Jew, “A Jew is an individual who is descended from at least three grandparents who were, racially, full Jews. A Jew is also an individual who is descended from two full-Jewish grandparents or if he is the issue from a marriage with a Jew, if he was in a marriage with a Jew, or if he is the issue of extramarital relationship with a Jew, or was born out of wedlock after July 31, 1936. ” The meaning of a Jew no longer meant any specific religious observance. Instead, a Jew was classified by what religion his grandparents practiced. Anyone who was remotely related to a Jew ended up suffering the same consequences as a religious Jew would during World War Two, “ Atheists and converted Jews were marched into the gas chambers, as long as their biological ancestry made them fall under the racial designation invented by the Nazis. ” This is a direct comparison to the “Jim Crow” laws. In the “Jim Crow” laws, even if one was seven-eighths white he would be regarded as Black as illustrated in the Homer Plessy case. In the Nuremberg Race Laws even if one was three-fourths catholic, he could be deemed a Jew.
The Nuremberg Race Laws decided that Jews were not to be able to achieve citizenship in the Reich. They were thus not allowed the rights that were included in citizenship, “Jewish workers and managers were dismissed, and the ownership of most Jewish businesses was taken over by non-Jewish Germans who bought them at bargain prices fixed by the Nazis.” “Jews were not allowed to have any public functions any more, Jewish state officials were forced to retire by December 31, 1935 and they were eventually not allowed to vote. ” This is also a comparison to the “Jim Crow” laws. In the South, many times when a black person attempted to vote, he was physically threatened, had to take a literacy test, and pay a high poll tax. Now with the new Nuremberg Race Laws, Jews were no longer allowed to vote either, and with all their businesses being closed and thousands of people losing their jobs, they had no control over their government or their destiny.
Prior to World War Two, efforts were already being made at slowly chipping away at the power the “Jim Crow” laws held. In Guinn v. the United States in 1915, the Supreme Court decided that a statute in Oklahoma, which denied the right to vote to any citizen whose ancestors had not been enfranchised in 1860, was unconstitutional. In Buchanan v. Worley in 1917, the Supreme Court ordered Kentucky to end the law requiring residential segregation. During World War Two, African Americans from throughout the United States fought in the war, aiding in United State’s and the Allies victory in the war. After returning from the war, the African Americans had a new sense of patriotism, and began demanding more equal rights more vehemently than before.
In the early 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People was created. The NAACP was created in response to the Springfield Race Riots of 1908. The riots were fought after of two prominent white women accused black men of rape. Riots ensued, and three thousand blacks were driven from their homes in Springfield. It was estimated that damages from the riot exceeded 200,000 dollars , The NAACP’s main goal was establishing civil rights for African Americans after observing the civil injustice that blacks experienced during the riot of 1908. The NAACP’s first accomplishment was improving transportation for blacks, In 1952 segregation on inter-state railways was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, and two years later, segregation on inter-state buses was also declared unconstitutional.
Soon after the Nuremberg Race Laws were devised, World War Two broke out. Jews or the people who were defined as Jews, were sent to death camps and executed. The estimated number of Jews who were killed in these camps is approximately six million. Hundreds of thousands of these victims were probably not even practicing Jews, but killed just because of the new “Nuremberg” definition of a Jew. The “Jim Crow” laws also resulted in thousands of deaths from racist mobs and lynchings. The “Jim Crow” laws were eventually abolished in 1964 when President Johnson convinced congress to pass the Civil Rights Act, which made racial discrimination in public places illegal. Gradually, with the help of the Civil Rights Act, segregation in America grew less apparent. For the Jews in Europe, the Nuremberg Race Laws remained enacted until the end of World War two in 1945. As a result of these two laws, segregation became part of daily life for millions of Americans and Europeans. Without these laws, not only would millions of lives had been spared from the hate of segregation, but society would be more tolerant of different cultures and races.
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Dialogues, Discussions, and Presentations
The way I most do my paper is with the help of Mr. Branham, the librarians,(Ms. Comstock in particular) and at times the Writers center. I have Mr. Branham edit my papers every time we have one assigned. It is very helpful to me to hear his criticism on my paper so I can make it better before the day it is due. My grades have definetly improved because of this. Librarians are helpful in finding articles, books, and websites that can help you with researching your topic. And the writers center is good just for the grammar of your paper. I feel more secure having teachers look at my paper and telling me what to do rather than peers looking over my paper.
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Assessment, Related Questions, and Story of the Unit
I'm glad i did the topic I did. I found it very interesting. I hadn't realized that two sets of laws that happened decades apart could have so many parallels within them. I would of liked to find out more about court cases challenging the Nuremberg Race Laws. I found many court cases challening the "Jim Crow" laws, but hardly any challening the Nuremberg laws.
I learned that you cannot trust all internet sources. After checking one of my drafts with mr. branham i discovered that several important dates were wrong in one of my websites that i had used for my paper. Before writing this paper, I had usually believed all the websites i visited to contain verified information, but I found out that's not always true and it is usually a safer bet to use books rather than web sites.
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Credits & Acknowledgements
| Mr Branham and Ms. Comstock both helped me a lot on this paper, so thank you very much |
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