No natural speed, could you speak a little slowlier, in order to be understood by French teenagers?
Hey, This is Professor Miller on NPR, the radio network. Today, I'm going to answer an email question from David in Texas and David's question is "What were the Jim Crow Laws?". So, David, here we go.
After slavery ended, in the South of the United States, white people were not happy that their slaves were now free men and so, they passed a number of laws, known as the Jim Crow laws.
Jim Crow was the name of a popular minstrel show. It was a show that made fun of black people. The objective of the Jim Crow laws was to isolate African Americans and place them in an inferior position compared to white people. This was the beginning of segregation in the South after the civil war.
Here are some examples of the Jim Crow laws. A black man and a white man could not shake hands, because it would mean that they were socially equal. Blacks and whites could not eat together in the same restaurants. Black teens could not go to the public swimming pools reserved for whites. When speaking to blacks, white people did not use courtesy titles of respect. For example, Mr., Mrs., Miss. Now, instead, black people were called by their first names. And lastly, if a black person was in the car of a white person, the black person had to sit in the back. Now, it was not until the civil rights movements of the 1950s and the 1960s that the Jim Crow laws were recognised as illegal. Well, that's the history lesson for the day. If you have more questions, join us on our website, at www.npr.org .
Many thanks for the recording!