The Strange Career of Jim Crow

By: C. Vann Woodward

Narrated by: Sean Crisden

C. Vann Woodward, who died in 1999 at the age of 91, was America's most eminent Southern historian, the winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Mary Chestnut's Civil War and a Bancroft Prize for The Origins of the New South. Now, to honor his long and truly distinguished career, Oxford is pleased to publish this special commemorative edition of Woodward's most influential work, The Strange Career of Jim Crow. The Strange Career of Jim Crow is one of the great works of Southern history. Indeed, the book actually helped shape that history. Published in 1955, a year after the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education ordered schools desegregated, Strange Career was cited so often to counter arguments for segregation that Martin Luther King, Jr. called it "the historical Bible of the civil rights movement." The book offers a clear and illuminating analysis of the history of Jim Crow laws, presenting evidence that segregation in the South dated only to the 1890s. Woodward convincingly shows that, even under slavery, the two races had not been divided as they were under the Jim Crow laws of the 1890s. In fact, during Reconstruction, there was considerable economic and political mixing of the races. The segregating of the races was a relative newcomer to the region. Hailed as one of the top 100 nonfiction works of the twentieth century, The Strange Career of Jim Crow has sold almost a million copies and remains, in the words of David Herbert Donald, "a landmark in the history of American race relations."

©2002 Oxford University Press Inc. Afterword © 2002 by William S. McFeely. (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Historiography

This book’s present value is its historiographical significance. The final chapter gives you insight into that after you’ve already read the work knowing it was written in real time of the Civil Rights movement.

Classic

Learn the messy truths of history. The most respectful thing we can do for the past is to learn it accurately.

Worthwhile history lesson

Well written book on the struggle to abolish segregation. Thoroughly enjoyed it and if your a history buff like myself you'll enjoy it also!

The races were not as separate as we think

This book is essential to understanding the fact that the races in the United States are not naturally opposed to one another, and indeed they once mixed freely. I heartily recommend this audio book.

the truth is Stranger Than Fiction

infuriating but is true its history what can you do . narration was kind of monotone in beginning kind of made it hard to pay attention but seemed to improve a little as the story continued on

Nuanced and essential

Required reading along with his other book “the burden of southern history”, another great listen.

Essential

Rarely is a history of this importance so succinct. It requires a minimum of time and effort to read (or listen to), but the reward in knowledge and perspective gained is immense.

Jim Crow was practiced in the North I grew up in through the 1970’s.

First published in 1955, a year after Brown v Board of Education and based upon a series of lectures the author delivered prior at U of Virginia, Dr. Martin Luther King endorsed it as “the historical Bible of the Civil Rghts movement.”

When I first read this MLK quote, it was really all I needed as an incentive to read this book. While much of the book was really no surprise to me because of prior exposure to points made, I did find it enlightening to have an author point out that Jim Crow wasn’t just practiced in the Deep South but in the North I grew up in. I experienced it reading/watching in the news the efforts to integrate the Boston School system through busing in the early 70’s. I saw and felt the distrust (Jim Crow) of many of my relatives and neighbors in Michigan as Detroit broke out in riots in 1967 and as Governor George Wallace won a large amount of Michigan votes in the 1968 General Election and won the 1972 Michigan Democratic Primary. I witnessed the derogatory/belittling comments of some of my relatives during this epoch. So Jim Crow was practiced in Michigan and many northern states and cities into the 1970’s and beyond.

Essential Reading

If you want to understand the history of injustice in the US and civil rights, then you need to read this book. It's a seminal pathbreaking work. I am not going to claim that it is perfect by any means. Vann Woodward does not make that claim either. As one example, his discussion of the "radical black" political movement in the 1960s and 1970s sounds completely at odds with everything that precedes it. It makes no sense to condemn black political frustration and aggression right after documenting a century of calculated racial aggression from white society. The point is, this isn't the final word on the topic. But it's an impressive first attempt that everyone should read.

The narrator is clear. His style is a little odd. But I had no trouble understanding everything he read. It's not easy to read non-fiction. So I appreciate the performance.

We all must look to the past for answers

We all can benefit from reading this great work of history. MLK was right in calling it the "the historical Bible of the Civil Rights movement".