Jim Crow Laws Research Paper

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The definition of the Jim Crow Laws is defined as laws of segregation and disenfranchisement that effected the south of the United States in the 1890’s (PBS, n.d.). With these laws in progress, it separated the black community from the white community by placing detail signs over water fountains, bathrooms, and schools letting the black community and the white community know that specific place was either “whites only” or “colored”. (PBS, n.d.). The two following narratives Willie Ann Lucas and James Hall, remember what the segregation laws were like for them and how it affected their everyday lives, and allowed them to overcome the obstacles thrown their way.
Willie Ann Lucas was interviewed on July 7th 1995 in Brinkley, Arkansas by interviewer
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They farmed different crops and were able to make about an 18 dollar profit at doing so. Hall and his wife were able to save money by hiding it under the rug of their homes for he did not trust the bank. When Hall and his wife saved enough money, that they were able to buy a farm of their own. James went down to Madge County, Georgia and talked to a man that had a farm for sale. When the man stated that the property was already being lived in, Hall then set out to buy out the previous tenant. Hall paid the tenant on the farm and thus in return the man sold him more 60 acres of land at the price of 3,900 dollars. (Hunter, 1994).
Life still wasn’t easy for Hall and his wife however. James Hall was accused by a man named John Bachelor for stealing his hogs when the hogs broke the fence. This argument then lead to a statement that Hall refers to as “a big blowing”. (Hall, 1994). John Bachelor accused James Hall of being crazy and spewed other racial names at him. More of this dispute between these men came when Bachelor took Hall’s cows away and demanded Hall pay 25 dollars for them, not wanting to start anything else with the man Hall paid the 25 dollars and took the cows back to his
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Both these narratives, James Hall and Willie Ann Lucas recalled how their lives were, how their families’ life were, and their struggles they faced during this time. The similarities and the differences between these two narratives is that segregation played a major part of their lives and in the lives of their families. Lucas and Hall experienced the same hardships and racial discrimination 's but made it out stronger than ever. Halls life was undoubtedly more difficult than that of Willie Ann Lucas’s life, he was an uneducated man that received death threats and being falsely accused of things while with Willie Ann, she was educated but she was not considered well enough to be something that she loved the most, both of these narratives made it out to be stronger than they were in the beginning and did not let segregation or racial discrimination define

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