“Wade in the water”: Jim Crow scenes from Maysville, Kentucky
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This research explores Jim Crow scholarship in real estate, entertainment, policing, and recreation. The thesis of this research is that outside forces came to bear on Jim Crow laws and customs. This research will show that without that outside pressure, a more equal society may not have evolved organically. In addition, this research highlights scenes from the small town of Maysville, Kentucky to more fully illustrate the power and tenacity of Jim Crow. This research is not meant to belittle the efforts of thousands of brave Americans, of all colors, who risked and sometimes lost their lives in the face of racial bigotry and oppression. It is rather to suggest that without the full power of the federal government behind them, their heroic struggle might not have happened and most certainly would have been more burdensome. The methodology employed in this project was to locate primary and secondary sources related to the topic and apply those sources to the central argument of the thesis. These sources were used to gain an understanding of Jim Crow as a social and political phenomenon and demonstrate that Jim Crow was so engrained into the fabric of American life that it took a national effort spearheaded by all three branches of the federal government to wrench it away from the American experience. (Author abstract)