40 pages • 1 hour read
C. Vann WoodwardThe Strange Career of Jim Crow
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1955A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Reexamining the Conventional Historical Record
At the core of Woodward’s argument is the idea that history is not an inevitable linear progression. Rather, a close examination of the historical record reveals stops and starts, ruptures and breaks, continuity and discontinuity. Southern history in particular has experienced several distinct historical phases. Woodward highlights “slavery and secession, independence and defeat, emancipation and reconstruction, redemption and reunion” (31), revealing change to be a constant theme in Southern history. Throughout the text he identifies moments where alternative paths were possible or likely. Woodward writes:
the new Southern system was regarded as the ‘final settlement,’ the ‘return to sanity,’ the ‘permanent system.’ Few stopped to reflect that previous systems had also been regarded as final, sane, and permanent by their supporters (36).
In short, civil rights and civil rights for African Americans is a new phase in a long lineage of radical changes.
Woodward directly addresses how the conditions of the present affects historical interpretation. In the Introduction Woodward situates his history of segregation in the South within the context of the period he was writing, the mid-20th century.
Woodward’s book was originally published in 1955, which predated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which officially marked the end of Jim Crow. A revised edition was published following these momentous changes, though as Woodward notes, “what the perspective of years will lend to the meaning of change we cannot know” (38). He clearly signals to his reader that the context that he is writing in shapes and informs his analysis.
In Chapter 3 Woodward describes how early 20th-century historians were influenced by the discourse of white supremacy that was prominent in this period. While historians largely avoided the extreme racism of other contemporaneous literature, “some of it did not entirely escape that influence” (168). Scholarship in sociology, anthropology, and history reflected the dominant racial views of their period. Many histories of Reconstruction were written in this period, and white supremacists used the history of Reconstruction as propaganda because “the twilight zone that lies between living memory and written history is one of the favorite breeding places of mythology” (23). Woodward carefully demonstrates how history is subject to interpretation and bias.
The Relationship Between Economics and Racism
Economic issues are a key theme throughout Woodward’s text. He identifies a number of historical moments where racism increased or decreased based on changing economic fortunes. Through this analysis Woodward suggests that external factors shape racism.
In the first chapter Woodward establishes the economic barriers that faced African Americans prior to segregation. He writes that the economic inequality of the races in the South prevented segregation from being a huge concern. There was little need for laws to prevent African Americans from attending luxury places like hotels, restaurants, and theaters, as many avoided these places even if they could afford them. The legacy of slavery reinforced inequality between the races. The rise of the African American middle class led to a flourishing of cultural production, political leadership, and academic production.
However, the legacies of slavery, segregation, and white supremacy had strong impacts on African American economic potential, and the economic disadvantages faced by African Americans become an important theme later in the book. For example, the political and legal gains of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act were undermined by the persistence of economic inequality. The 1960s and 1970s saw a shift to economic issues and a call for economic self-determination in African American communities. By the end of the 1960s, the African American middle class had grown considerably, but economic gains were uneven. In the 1970s many of these economic gains eroded, and African American unemployment rates remained much higher than white unemployment.
Woodward also emphasizes how class influenced racism in white people. Upper-class white people often took paternalistic approaches to African Americans. There were higher rates of overt racism among poor white Southerners. The Populist political movement in the South sought to build a collation of impoverished African American and white Southerners by highlighting their shared interests and struggles. However, they faced considerable resistance within the white working-class population, and they ultimately moved away from their appeal to a class coalition across races. This trend continued in the second half of the 20th century. In the 1960s, for example, the Black Power movement and African American radicalism had some support within the white intelligentsia and upper class. However, lower-class white people claimed that African Americans were getting handouts while they were being left behind, fueling racial unrest.
The Drivers of Historical Change
Throughout The Strange Career of Jim Crow, Woodward draws from a diverse array of sources to build his argument. In the early chapters, for instance, he analyzes the economic, legal, political, and social relations that functioned to create Jim Crow as a system. Woodward places a strong emphasis on the law in shaping race relations. In particular, he singles out Plessy v. Ferguson, which established the “separate but equal” system of Jim Crow, and Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, which struck down segregation in schools. While many of these changes were implemented through a series of laws, Woodward is careful to note that several were extra-legal, writing “that laws are not an adequate index of the extent and prevalence of segregation and discriminatory practices in the South. The practices often anticipated and sometimes exceeded the laws” (181). Woodward also highlights federal legislation as a driver of change, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
To develop a fuller picture of how historical change is shaped, Woodward examines demographic data, letters, literature, and newspaper reports in addition to legislation. The actions of significant individuals are also emphasized. By drawing from diverse sources, Woodward suggests that a narrow economic, legal, political, or social history is inadequate to explain the complexities of race relations and the history of segregation. When the different drivers of historical change are placed into dialogue, a more complex picture emerges.
