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American Nightmare

The History of Jim Crow

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About this listen

For a hundred years after the end of the Civil War, a quarter of all Americans lived under a system of legalized segregation called Jim Crow. Together with its rigidly enforced canon of racial "etiquette", these rules governed nearly every aspect of life - and outlined draconian punishments for infractions.

The purpose of Jim Crow was to keep African Americans subjugated at a level as close as possible to their former slave status. Exceeding even South Africa's notorious apartheid in the humiliation, degradation, and suffering it brought, Jim Crow left scars on the American psyche that are still felt today. American Nightmare examines and explains Jim Crow from its beginnings to its end: how it came into being, how it was lived, how it was justified, and how, at long last, it was overcome only a few short decades ago. Most importantly, this book reveals how a nation founded on principles of equality and freedom came to enact as law a pervasive system of inequality and virtual slavery.

Although America has finally consigned Jim Crow to the historical graveyard, Jerrold Packard shows why it is important that this scourge - and an understanding of how it happened - remain alive in the nation's collective memory.

©2002 Jerrold M. Packard (P)2021 Tantor Americas Black & African American Social Sciences United States Social justice Law War Freedom Africa Equality Capitalism
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I've now read this book four times & it never fails to make me angry. Angry that it stands out as snapshot of antebellum America (1812-1965) angry that our fellow human beings were treated with such wholesale hate, in the richest country in the world. Civil rights for all except the black slave in the cotton fields. You know what happened, you know about the Civil War you also might know that the concept of civil disobedience & non violence spread to the streets of Derry & Belfast to the Townships of South Africa. I hope somewhere this is being taught in schools. knowledge is true power. 5*

An outstanding book

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Some how it found its way to me. Very pleasant surprise. Well written and incisive. A delight to listen to.

Excellent book!

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