Jim Crow, Lynching and White Supremacy – w/ Stephen A. Berrey, Hannah Ayers, Lance Warren and Ahmariah Jackson

Teaching Hard History

Jim Crow was more than signs and separation. It was a system of terror and violence created to control the labor and regulate the behavior of Black people. In this episode, historian Stephen Berrey unpacks the mechanics of racial oppression, the actions white people took—in and beyond the South—to maintain white supremacy, and the everyday ways Black people fought back. And the directors of the film An Outrage join ELA teacher Ahmariah Jackson to discuss teaching the racial terror of lynching.

For more movement music inspired by this episode, visit this new Spotify playlist.

Here's the Gordon Parks' 1956 Atlanta airline terminal photograph that Dr. Berrey describes.

Check out the enhanced full transcript of this episode. It is full of links to resources related to this episode, like this audio of Daisy Thomas Livingston from the Behind the Veil oral history collection about the Jim Crow South, this interactive map of "Sundown Towns in the United States." Or the teaching guide and full documentary An Outrage (free to stream at tolerance.org)

And educators! Get a professional development certificate for listening to this episode—issued by Learning for Justice. Listen for the special code word, then visit learningforjustice.org/podcastpd.