The “Jim Crow Laws”

A WebQuest

Gregorio Luperon HS

Ms. Felix-Davila

Introduction:

Once the Civil War ended, many people felt that the federal government needed to develop a plan to fully integrate newly freed African Americans to southern life and to make sure that individual states were respecting the 14^th amendment rights of this group. In the former Confederate states, however, laws and statutes were passed that limited the rights of African- Americans. These were known as the “Jim Crow Laws.” These states also permitted the existence of white supremacist groups that would constantly terrorize minority groups in the South. As part of your school’s history study group you will analyze these laws and make a PowerPoint presentation to your class as well and possibly write an article for this year’s social studies magazine.

Task:

Through this Web Quest, you will study the situation of African Americans in the south during Reconstruction and after the passage of Jim Crow laws. Working with your study group, you will create a Power Point presentation on the impact of these governmental measures.

Process:

Meeting in groups of four, you will research the nature of the “Jim Crow Laws” and the perceived problems they were designed to address. You will use the American History Public Policy Analyst to guide you in this webquest. As part of the study process you will complete four worksheets that highlight aspects of your research. Each of these worksheets deals with a different aspect of analysis. Each student will complete a set of these worksheets.

The Steps of the American History Public Policy Analyst involve four stages:

Identify the Problem

Gather the Evidence

Determining the Causes of the Problem

Evaluating the Policy Developed – This page also leads to three additional steps of Identifying the Benefits of the Policy, Identifying the Costs of the policy and finally considering a Comparative Analysis of a similar problem today

Your PowerPoint presentation should be aimed at illustrating the analysis of the “Jim Crow Laws” that you have just completed with the worksheet. You should use at least 8 slides in your presentation. Be sure to allow several members of your group to create slides. You should be sure to use the following guidelines in addition to your own creativity:

· Watch the movie under the video resources

· Choose three documents to include on your Power Point presentation related to the situation of African Americans in the South. For each document, provide a historical background and a short analysis.

· Choose three pictures from the Without Sanctuary website and describe each.

Resources

Harlem Virtual Tour:

http://www.prenhall.com/aahtour/harlem.html

Video:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_narratives.html (click on “behind the veil” once you are on website)

Documents:

http://www.shmoop.com/best-of-the-web/history/us/jim-crow-in-america/historical-documents.html

Websites

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/segregation2.html

PBS presents an interactive timeline of the Jim Crow Era. Click on the topical tabs to read detailed descriptions of key events and to learn more about the day-to-day lives of African-Americans in the South from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/themap/map.html

PBS presents an interactive map of Jim Crow laws throughout the United States. Click on a state to view the many laws, codes, and constitutional amendments passed in that region. You may be surprised to see just how many states outside of the Deep South enacted some sort of Jim Crow measure after the Civil War.

http://www.inmotionaame.org/migrations/landing.cfm;jsessionid=f8302854141205357744229?migration=8&bhcp=1

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture presents "In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience," a rich and well organized website dedicated to the study of this monumental population shift. The site includes primary sources, including maps, charts, photographs, and interviews. In addition, you'll find a number of links to the full text of articles, chapters, and books on the topic written by leading historians.

http://www.withoutsanctuary.org/

Without Sanctuary features a haunting collection of photographs taken at public lynchings throughout the United States. The images, most of them souvenir postcards, expose one of America's most disturbing—and too often ignored—legacies. Be aware that the photos displayed here are very graphic.

Evaluation

The following rubric will be used to evaluate your PowerPoint:

CATEGORY	Excellent (A)	Satisfactory (B)	Good (C-D)	Unsatisfactory (F)
Content - Accuracy	All content throughout the presentation is accurate. There are no factual errors.	Most of the content is accurate but there is one piece of information that might be inaccurate.	The content is generally accurate, but one piece of information is clearly flawed or inaccurate.	Content is typically confusing or contains more than one factual error.
Originality	Presentation shows considerable originality and inventiveness. The content and ideas are presented in a unique and interesting way.	Presentation shows some originality and inventiveness. The content and ideas are presented in an interesting way.	Presentation shows an attempt at originality and inventiveness on 1-2 cards.	Presentation is a rehash of other people's ideas and/or graphics and shows very little attempt at original thought.
Sequencing of Information	Information is organized in a clear, logical way. It is easy to anticipate the type of material that might be on the next card.	Most information is organized in a clear, logical way. One card or item of information seems out of place.	Some information is logically sequenced. An occasional card or item of information seems out of place.	There is no clear plan for the organization of information.
Spelling and Grammar	Presentation has no misspellings or grammatical errors.	Presentation has 1-2 misspellings, but no grammatical errors.	Presentation has 1-2 grammatical errors but no misspellings.	Presentation has more than 2 grammatical and/or spelling errors.
Cooperation	Group delegates tasks and shares responsibility effectively all of the time.	Group delegates tasks and shares responsibility effectively most of the time.	Group delegates tasks and shares responsibility effectively some of the time.	Group often is not effective in delegating tasks and/or sharing responsibility.

Conclusion:

The “Jim Crow Laws” ushered in an era of discrimination and prejudice that lasted for more than a hundred years. It is hoped that your study of these policies will give you and the students who view your presentation a better understanding of that era and its impact on American life. It is also hoped that you will come to appreciate how governmental policies reflect the thinking and conditions of the era in which they were formed. Thank you for your research and presentation.

Standards:

The following are standards that should be met by this webquest.

Social Studies

Standard 1:   History of the United States and New York

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in the history of the United States and New York.

Standard 4:   Economics

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of how the United States and other societies develop economic systems and associated institutions to allocate scarce resources, how major decision-making units function in the United States and other national economies, and how an economy solves the scarcity problem through market and nonmarket mechanisms.

Standard 5:   Civics, Citizenship, and Government

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the necessity for establishing governments; the governmental system of the United States and other nations; the United States Constitution; the basic civic values of American constitutional democracy; and the roles, rights, and responsibilities of citizenship, including avenues of participation.

English Language Arts:

Standard 1:   Language for Information and Understanding

Students will listen, speak, read, and write for information and understanding. As listeners and readers, students will collect data, facts, and ideas; discover relationships, concepts, and generalizations; and use knowledge generated from oral, written, and electronically produced texts. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language to acquire, interpret, apply, and transmit information.

Standard 2:   Language for Literary Response and Expression

Students will read and listen to oral, written, and electronically produced texts and performances from American and world literature; relate texts and performances to their own lives; and develop an understanding of the diverse social, historical, and cultural dimensions the texts and performances represent. As speakers and writers, students will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language for self-expression and artistic creation.

Standard 3:   Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation

Students will listen, speak, read, and write for critical analysis and evaluation. As listeners and readers, students will analyze experiences, ideas, information, and issues presented by others using a variety of established criteria. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language to present, from a variety of perspectives, their opinions and judgments on experiences, ideas, information and issues.

Standard 4:   Language for Social Interaction

Students will listen, speak, read, and write for social interaction. Students will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language for effective social communication with a wide variety of people. As readers and listeners, they will use the social communications of others to enrich their understanding of people and their views.