Comer Vann Woodward uses The Strange Career of Jim Crow to argue against the idea that the South had always been a well-established society that was embraced by everyone who lived in it. Instead, he counters that the South went through many different segments of order, starting with the old regime of slavery, into the Reconstruction era, into the Jim Crow era, and finally ending with the civil rights movement. Segregation was not an age-old tradition of the South and began the in the North. Woodward further claims that although the Redemption period gave Africans- Americans a sliver of democracy by including them in the political process and social settings. Northern states also did not do much to stop the momentum of Jim Crow laws once federal…show more content… He uses observations and studies during Reconstruction throughout the nation such Leon F. Flitwick’s North of Slavery, which described the conditions of segregation in the North, and contrasting observations of how black and whites successfully integrated into public intuitions from the works of Botume, Wynes, Thomas, Campbell, and Stewart. He also supports his argument that segregation met resistance in the South with studies and views of Southerners such as George Washington Cable, Lewis Harvie Blair, and Vernon Wharton. Woodward also documents how South Carolina did not adopt the Jim Crow car movement until 1898. The Charleston News and Courier saw segregation as unnecessary, but later completely switched its opinion in 1906. He notes Supreme Court decisions during the Redemption era that restricted the rights of Blacks leading to Plessy v Ferguson in 1896 and how Thornburgh’s study shows how ineffective equality laws were in the state of Indiana. The Boston Evening Transcript demonstrates the irony in which Southern race policy supported by the same party that fought and war against it. Also, how the New Orleans Times-Democrat claims white supremacy was being saved by black votes. Woodward shows how political trends with all three political parties at the time affect the rapid movement of Jim Crow laws. He notes how quickly each state followed one another with this policy. He lists literary works, textbooks, and social theories that supported the Jim Crow mentality throughout the nation. He supports his views on the rise of civil rights with stats showing that African-Americans voted majorly Democrat which sped up the pace of civil rights. Executive powers also acted for equality at this time with the Fair Employment Act and F.E.C.P. Finally; Woodward uses evidence
