Jim Crow
Alongside sharecropping, Jim Crow laws legally institutionalized the racial prejudices behind slavery. Segregation structured the daily lives and even physical spaces of Americans on black and white lines. Education and voting became available for African Americans, but Whites curtailed these opportunities. In the most severe cases, White supremacists lynched and murdered African Americans. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 eliminated these laws but did not end racial prejudice.
"Leon County Public Free Schools"
Susan Bradford-Eppes, a descendant of two local, slaveholding families, composed many thought pieces romanticizing antebellum society and the lost cause of the confederacy. This essay highlights how the schooling system would function in Leon county after emancipation. Across America, Jim Crow laws institutionalized racism from the 1870s to the end of the 1960s Civil Rights movement. In line with Jim Crow’s ideology, the essay states that the school system would racially segregate schoolhouses. Higher education existed in the same manner, with the Florida State College and the State Colored Normal and Industrial College under segregation.
"Oral History Interview: Annie Mae Macon"
Annie Mae Macon, born in Monticello, Florida, moved to Tallahassee in the 1910s where she attended school. She remembered “The Books we used were hand-me-downs from the White children at Sealey. There was never enough to go around.” Apart from the dwindling resources, Macon recalled that the children would write offensive language in them, knowing that Black students would receive them. She also recalled: “I do know that the N word was there.” While education positively impacted the Black citizens of Tallahassee, Jim Crow and the racism it institutionalized made it difficult, emotionally and tangibly.
"Oral History Interview: Ronald Rentz"
Even after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the legacy of Jim Crow continued in the South. Ronald Rentz gave testimony of racist voting procedures in Tallahassee. He remembered a story he heard from a friend about Raymond Hamlin, the Leon County Sheriff from 1968-1977. Rentz recalled that “This young black man came to vote and Raymond Hamlin handed him a ballot and he said ‘Son you can’t vote unless you can read this.’” The man replied that the ballot said he was not going to be able to vote. Hamlin had reportedly given him a ballot in Chinese. While this story may not be verifiable, it is important to note what this memory can share. Even after the Civil Rights Act, people thought about how much work was still needed to combat racial prejudice.