What you’ll learn to do: use historical examples to better understand systemic racism

The study of history is more than a collection of individual actions. It is also about how a society is constructed, with systems in place that support it. While individuals do have agency and the ability to act on their own, they do so in a complex web of customs, laws, social expectations, economies, and politics. This activity invites you to consider the issue of racism in this more multifaceted way. In particular, you will look at how racism can thrive as a system, using the Jim Crow era of the South as our historical example. As you read some primary sources from the Jim Crow era, you may start to see how this framework of racism is created and sustained.