Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell About Life in the Segregated South (with MP3 Audio CD) by William Henry Chafe

Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell About Life in the Segregated South (with MP3 Audio CD) Reviews

• 
  Buffy

  I really enjoyed reading the stories in this book. I feel like a huge part of my history was missed out when I was in school. We learned about slavery and that it was bad and we learned a bit about desegregation but we weren't really taught about the stuff in between. Of course, I suppose it makes sense that institutionalised racism isn't going to be taught by an institution that institutionalised racism. I hope that more of my white American brothers and sisters will read this to understand what it was like for our African American brothers and sisters after slavery was abolished and to perhaps understand our current racial climate. Things need to change and for that to happen people need to listen to reach other.
  
  These stories are told in a matter of fact kind of way which, for me, made it worse. This is just the way things were and the people who lived through these times just had to deal with it. I found these stories to be very powerful and moving.
• 
  Nathan

  A bit repetitive, but what this book does disturbingly, hauntingly well is to strip away the mere offhanded regret it is easy to feel over the Jim Crow era and reveal the phenomenon for what it was and is: an American Holocaust, no less shocking or brutal than the horrors of Nazi Germany. Books like this -- plain, unvarnished accounts of everyday life -- cut to the very heart of what the study of history is supposed to accomplish: a warning against evil and a memorial to its victims.
• 
  Quiet

  This is a very important project/book where the stories of those who lived through the Jim Crow era are recorded. This book was the primary text assigned for a course I took on "The Age of Segregation."
  
  Jim Crow was a brutal and disgusting time period, and it's one which needs to be studied by every American. In terms of what this book is, I would actually recommend this as a supplementary material rather than primary. These are the stories of people, often briefly told, that highlight and detail a specific component of how the Jim Crow era was. If you're looking for a book which overviews Jim Crow and gets into how it progressed/contested resistance and progressive change, then this is not the book (I highly recommend "Parchman" Farm for that).
  
  This is an essential work. These are the voices of people who went through a damn terrible period of American history, and they are telling the immediate, specific, and empirical details of how this time was for themselves. Within this book are the thousands of details a history book won't be able to show; these are the real Stories of that period, and they are each deserving of their place here in this book.
• 
  Steph

  An important read which helps explain current injustices.
• 
  Godys Armengot

  A vicious society
  
  Every American should read this book. It’s puzzling how a nation whose citizens believed that they are the freest people of the world could produce one of the most vicious societies the ever existed.
• 
  Robert

  I've always thought that for the United States as a country to progress, it would be beneficial to acknowledge past atrocities that has taken place on its soil in a greater historical context than it does. The era of Jim Crow was a time where citizens were given free range under the guise of laws and "customs" to deny their fellow U.S. citizens rights that were guaranteed to them by the U.S. Constitution all because they saw themselves as superior and felt entitled to act as such. Reading personal accounts of people living in such an oppressive and abusive state of governance as recently as 63 years ago gives me an appreciation of how young and blossoming our Constitutional Republic is, and if we truly want to project the notion of freedom and liberty onto the rest of the world, we must reflect on the accounts of the people in "Remembering Jim Crow" and aim to achieve it. The tyranny of a majority or a minority is not a democracy. The book could have been better if it was edited thoroughly.
• 
  Keith

  This book was based on radio interviews of "survivors" of the Jim Crow discrimination that began after reconstruction and carried on until the civil-rights activists (with help from the government) finally swept it away. Well, mostly.
  
  Our modern minds cannot even grasp the depravity of the discrimination that was supported by the law of the land. Everything was segregated ... schools, churches, work. Ostensibly, "separate but equal," but really not equal at all. Everything supplied by the government was preferential to whites, every job offered by employers was preferential to whites. How people survived through these trying times is a testament to their tenacity -- as one person put it, "we don't take any 'stuff' off white people.
  
  I did have difficulty reading this book, the structure was clumsy and repetitive. However, the stories were real and disturbing.
• 
  Ted

  The stories told by the African Americans who lived in the Jim Crow south are heartbreaking. Maybe you've seen representations of this topic in fictional books or in the movies, but this book brings it to a very real and personal level. It's disturbing enough to read this bit of U.S. history; it's more disturbing to hear white voices, roughly around the year 2000 (in the Appendix, the Radio Documentary Transcript) - those who lived through the Jim Crow south and felt that the black population knew their place and were happy with it, and Southerners who have lived only after the Civil Rights movement and feel that African Americans should "get over it".
  
  My three stars are driven mostly by those portions of the book I found to be slow and, perhaps, not the best choice of stories to include. But, that doesn't detract from the value of the book overall.
• 
  Asuka

  "Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Talk about Life in the Segregated South" is a profoundly enlightening and empathetic exploration of an important yet often painful chapter in American history. Through the skillful compilation of personal narratives and interviews, Chafe, Gavins, and Korstad provide an invaluable platform for voices that were silenced for far too long. Their meticulous work not only sheds light on the harsh realities of segregation but also celebrates the resilience, strength, and triumph of African Americans during a challenging era. A compelling and essential read that fosters understanding and promotes a more inclusive society.
• 
  Chris Leuchtenburg

  I read only part of this, but I think I got a good sense for it. I had read every word of several Studs Terkel oral histories, but this didn't captivate me in the same way. It is at the same time overly annotated and under-edited. The intro to some of the stories are explained so much that they don't need to be read, and others go on and on. There are some of the expected stories of horrific violence, but that is expected. More often, I got the sense of constant pressure, dread and a thousand slights.
• 
  Candace Chesler

  Oral history of life in the segregated south. I read this in pieces over the course of several months. AS someone who grew up in a small town in northeast Iowa - I had no idea about the restrictions placed on the lives of African Americans. Important to read, learn and understand the stories told in this book.
• 
  Niki McDowell

  This book was very thought provoking and disturbing throughout, as I read personal accounts of life as a black person during this dark time in history. The end got a little long and repetitive, but I found myself shocked, saddened, and thoroughly disappointed in my own race, with every turn of the page. Important to read these stories.
• 
  Lynn

  Excellent Resource
  
  This is a collection of interviews with African Americans who lived during the Jim Crow years. The years range from the 1890s up though the 1960s. It’s an oral history. A great plus are audio recordings included to hear the real voices of people interviewed. Provides a lot of insight into life at that time.
• 
  Shakarean

  if you like first person accounts of jim crow america, and i do, then this is a good read. it reaffirms the stories your grandparents told you about growing up in early to mid 20th century and tells you some of the stories they didn't.
• 
  Lisa

  The United States: O, the shame!
• 
  Rachel Mayes Allen

  An informative and detailed oral history.
• 
  Jeffrey Leonards

  A+. First-hand accounts from victims of Jim Crow. Anyone who believes we're not a racist country should read this (but they won't).
• 
  Brionna

  Often Jim Crow is something that people try to associate with being so long ago. However, William H. Chafe, Raymond Gavins, and Robert Korstad did a great job of putting names to the experiences we've heard about. Based on a documentary called "Behind the Veil," Remembering Jim Crow recounts the trials and tribulations that African Americans had to overcome in different states and throughout several decades. Remembering Jim Crow is a collection of first-person interviews on topics such as living through segregation, the creation of cultural celebrations, the building and maintenance of the Black communal family structure, oppressive work environments, and social resistance.
  
  The stories included in the book are a great testament to how far we've come and a reminder of the progress we should strive to continue. I would recommend this book for nonfiction November, Black History Month, or if you're someone who wants to learn more about the Black experience.
• 
  Joe

  This is a must read. It is Hard read do to subvert
  To the due
  To the Subject matter. I don’t understand how human beings an treat each other these times.
• 
  Scott Burton

  This was a very moving book. It was amazing to read so many first hand accounts of abuse and feel so little anger coming from those who experienced it. There was such dignity in so many of the accounts. Too bad my own white folk couldn't have had a little more dignity. The racial insecurity they exhibit by their abuses is embarrassing. Such poor treatment of others by my race is, of course shameful. I lived in the south for a little over a decade and often felt that African Americans with whom I interacted were sometimes just humoring me, saying and doing what they thought I wanted to hear or see. It seems from this book that I was right in my feelings. Too bad, but who can blame them.
• 
  Ayne Ray

  A fascinating compilation of eyewitness histories dealing with racial oppression and segregation. The accompanying CD makes the stories spring to life and serves as a powerful oral history of the most difficult era of racial inequality in American history.
• 
  Carolyn Bay

  A powerful book. No polemics, not overly preachy. Just individuals relating their personal stories of a past, but never-to-be-forgotten time. In their telling, the history is told and the point is made. A must-read.