Jim Crow's Legacy: The Lasting Impact of Segregation

by Ruth Thompson-Miller, Joe R. Feagin, Leslie H. Picca

Overview

Jim Crow’s Legacy shows the lasting impact of segregation on the lives of African Americans who lived through it, as well as its impact on future generations. The book draws on interviews with elderly African American southerners whose stories poignantly show the devastation of racism not only in the past, but also in the present.

The book introduces readers to the realities of the Jim Crow era for African Americans—from life at home to work opportunities to the broader social context in America. However, the book moves beyond merely setting the scene into the powerful memories of elderly African Americans who lived through Jim Crow. Their voices tell the complex stories of their everyday lives—from caring for white children to the racially-motivated murder of a loved one. Their stories show the pernicious impact of racism on both the past and the present. The authors use the phrase segregation stress syndrome to describe the long-term impact on physical, mental, and emotional health, as well as the unshakable influence of racism across years and generations.

Jim Crow’s Legacy takes readers on an unparalleled journey into the bitter realities of America’s racial past and shows racism’s unmistakable influence today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442230279
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	11/13/2014
Series:	Perspectives on a Multiracial America
Pages:	278
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Ruth Thompson-Miller is assistant professor of sociology at the University of Dayton.

Joe R. Feagin is Ella C. McFadden Professor of Sociology at Texas A&M University. A former president of the American Sociological Association, he is author, co-author, or editor of numerous books and articles, including The First R and The Many Costs of Racism.

Leslie H. Picca is associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work at the University of Dayton. She is the co-author of Two-Faced Racism.

Table of Contents

Preface
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: The Reality and Impact of Jim Crow
Chapter 3: Everyday Surveillance and Racial Framing
Chapter 4: More Surveillance of Black Bodies
Chapter 5: Rape and Rape Threats: More Weapons of White Terror
Chapter 6: Coping and Resistance Strategies
Chapter 7: Fifty Years Later: Jim Crow Unwilling to Die

Editorial Reviews

These hidden stories of survivors of White terror situate the past at the core of the present, where accumulated privileging and dehumanization has kept the segregation stress syndrome alive across generations. Jim Crow’s Legacy convinces that collective trauma requires healing of society as whole—an invaluable global lesson.

Philomena Essed

Basing their work on the lived experiences of African Americans, Thompson-Miller, Feagin, and Picca introduce readers to a compelling and emotional account of the realities and psychological outcomes for African Americans during the Jim Crow era. Positioned within the frame of systemic racism—'institutionalized structures of white-created racial oppression'—the authors address the important issues of voicing the experienced realities and coping strategies by African Americans during Jim Crow segregation; the long-term psychological, physical, and economic consequences for the survivors; and the intergenerational impact of these experiences. Using the concept of 'segregation stress syndrome' to explain the collective psychological and physical outcomes of Jim Crow segregation, the authors give voice to the complexities of everyday life, from discrimination in travel, stores, and various other public spaces to rapes and murders of loved ones. Emotionally charged and intellectually stimulating, this book is must reading for anyone interested in racial relations. Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries.

Choice Reviews

Drawing from the lived experience of African American elders refracted through the concept of the 'segregation stress syndrome,' the authors provide a rich, well-documented, and convincing examination of the 'extraordinary, deep-lying, painful, and horrific' cumulative and intergenerational consequences of the Jim Crow era notwithstanding African American resistance and resilience to racial oppression. Their investigation moves beyond a mere examination of macro-aggressions that have perpetuated racial inequality in terms of occupation, income, wealth, and other social indicators. They also lay bare mico- and meso-level ones that have had an equally deleterious impact on the physical and mental health of African Americans. This masterful book should put to rest any fanciful notions that the United States is a colorblind or post-racial society despite the considerable progress the nation has made in addressing and eliminating racial inequality since the end of legalized segregation.

G. Reginald Daniel

Basing their work on the lived experiences of African Americans, Thompson-Miller, Feagin, and Picca introduce readers to a compelling and emotional account of the realities and psychological outcomes for African Americans during the Jim Crow era. Positioned within the frame of systemic racism—'institutionalized structures of white-created racial oppression'—the authors address the important issues of voicing the experienced realities and coping strategies by African Americans during Jim Crow segregation; the long-term psychological, physical, and economic consequences for the survivors; and the intergenerational impact of these experiences. Using the concept of 'segregation stress syndrome' to explain the collective psychological and physical outcomes of Jim Crow segregation, the authors give voice to the complexities of everyday life, from discrimination in travel, stores, and various other public spaces to rapes and murders of loved ones. Emotionally charged and intellectually stimulating, this book is must reading for anyone interested in racial relations. Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries.

Choice

Basing their work on the lived experiences of African Americans, Thompson-Miller, Feagin, and Picca introduce readers to a compelling and emotional account of the realities and psychological outcomes for African Americans during the Jim Crow era. Positioned within the frame of systemic racism—'institutionalized structures of white-created racial oppression'—the authors address the important issues of voicing the experienced realities and coping strategies by African Americans during Jim Crow segregation; the long-term psychological, physical, and economic consequences for the survivors; and the intergenerational impact of these experiences. Using the concept of 'segregation stress syndrome' to explain the collective psychological and physical outcomes of Jim Crow segregation, the authors give voice to the complexities of everyday life, from discrimination in travel, stores, and various other public spaces to rapes and murders of loved ones. Emotionally charged and intellectually stimulating, this book is must reading for anyone interested in racial relations. Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries.

CHOICE