34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[c] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[d] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matt. 22:34-40)
Now if two Commandments were good enough for Jesus then how did it come to pass that freed black people had to live under a slew of these ridiculous Jim Crow Laws. Clearly the Lord was not consulted when this was established. In fact, it sounds a little like idolatry to me. 😏
Most southern white Americans who grew up prior to 1954 expected black Americans to conduct themselves according to well-understood rituals of behavior. This racial etiquette governed the actions, manners, attitudes, and words of all black people when in the presence of whites. To violate this racial etiquette placed one's very life, and the lives of one's family, at risk. For example, black people were expected to refer to white males in positions of authority as "Boss" or "Cap'n" -- a title of respect that replaced "Master" or "Marster" used in slave times. Sometimes, the white children of one's white employer or a prominent white person might be called "Massa," to show special respect. If a white person was well known, a black servant or hired hand or tenant might speak in somewhat intimate terms, addressing the white person as "Mr. John" or "Miss Mary."
All black men, on the other hand, were called by their first names or were referred to as "Boy," "Uncle," and "Old Man" -- regardless of their age. If the white person did not personally know a black person, the term "n***r" or "n***er-fellow," might be used. In legal cases and the press, blacks were often referred to by the word "Negro" with a first name attached, such as "Negro Sam." At other times, the term "Jack," or some common name, was universally used in addressing black men not known to the white speaker. On the Pullman Sleeping cars on trains, for example, all the black porters answered to the name of "boy" or simply "George" (after the first name of George Pullman, who owned and built the Pullman Sleeping Cars). Black women were addressed as "Auntie" or "girl." Under no circumstances would the title "Miss." or "Mrs." be applied. A holdover from slavery days was the term "Wench," a term that showed up in legal writings and depositions in the Jim Crow era. Some educated whites referred to black women by the words "colored ladies." Sometimes, just the word "lady" was used. White women allowed black servants and acquaintances to call them by their first names but with the word "Miss" attached as a modifier: "Miss Ann," "Miss Julie" or "Miss Scarlett," for example.
This practice of addressing blacks by words that denoted disrespect or inferiority reduced the black person to a non-person, especially in newspaper accounts. In reporting incidents involving blacks, the press usually adopted the gender-neutral term "Negro," thus designating blacks as lifeless and unknown persons. For example, an accident report might read like this: "Rescuers discovered that two women, three men, four children, and five Negroes were killed by the explosion." To describe what was expected of African Americans as a “code of behavior” is misleading. There were no rules, and so no one knew when they had broken them. It was simply a matter of whether white people chose to be offended.
The following are some examples of Jim Crow etiquette norms that show how inclusive and pervasive these norms were:
· A black male could not offer his hand (to shake hands) with a white male because it implied being socially equal. Obviously, a black male could not offer his hand or any other part of his body to a white woman, because he risked being accused of rape.
· Blacks and whites were not supposed to eat together. If they did eat together, whites were to be served first, and some sort of partition was to be placed between them.
· Under no circumstance was a black male to offer to light the cigarette of a white female -- that gesture implied intimacy.
· Blacks were not allowed to show public affection toward one another in public, especially kissing, because it offended whites.
· Jim Crow etiquette prescribed that blacks were introduced to whites, never whites to blacks. For example: "Mr. Peters (the white person), this is Charlie (the black person), that I spoke to you about."
· Whites did not use courtesy titles of respect when referring to blacks, for example, Mr., Mrs., Miss., Sir, or Ma'am. Instead, blacks were called by their first names. Blacks had to use courtesy titles when referring to whites, and were not allowed to call them by their first names.
· If a black person rode in a car driven by a white person, the black person sat in the back seat, or the back of a truck.
· White motorists had the right-of-way at all intersections.
Stetson Kennedy, the author of Jim Crow Guide (1990), offered these simple rules that blacks were supposed to observe in conversing with whites:
· Never assert or even intimate that a white person is lying.
· Never impute dishonorable intentions to a white person.
· Never suggest that a white person is from an inferior class.
· Never lay claim to, or overly demonstrate, superior knowledge or intelligence.
· Never curse a white person.
· Never laugh derisively at a white person.
· Never comment upon the appearance of a white female.
The whole intent of Jim Crow etiquette boiled down to one simple rule: blacks must demonstrate their inferiority to whites by actions, words, and manners. Laws supported this racist code of behavior whenever racial customs started to weaken or breakdown in practice -- as they did during the Reconstruction era. When the laws were weakly or slowly applied, whites resorted to violence against blacks to reinforce the customs and standards of behavior. Lynchings and the horrible murders of blacks were commonly justified during the Jim Crow era as defensive actions taken in response to black violations of the color line and rules of racial etiquette.
In the famous case of Emmett Till, for instance, a 14-year-old African American boy was mutilated and murdered for speaking to a white woman in what his murderers considered an inappropriate fashion. No one knows what Till actually said but the white woman, Carolyn Bryant, gave, and continues to give, conflicting stories and the men who murdered Till were not even present. It was enough that someone told them he had spoken inappropriately. That was the “code” that justified lynchings, beatings and police violence in the Jim Crow South.
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