American Nightmare Quotes

“If a white female felt, merely felt, she had been given a look or a glance or a smile from a black male that implied familiarity, or if she was accidentally bumped or brushed on the sidewalk, or if, God forbid, she was shown any actual sexual interest, the black male’s life was liable to forfeit in expiation for his sin.”
― Jerrold M. Packard, American Nightmare: The History of Jim Crow

“But seeing Truman’s reaction evidently strengthened Randolph’s resolve, and the seeds of the tactic of civil disobedience, one of the most effective weapons deployed in the war against Jim Crow, began to sprout.”
― Jerrold M. Packard, American Nightmare: The History of Jim Crow

“The first independent black congregation in America was the First African Baptist Church, set up in Savannah, Georgia, in 1778; its members were unceasingly harassed by slave patrols, its services broken up, and its congregants jailed. Probably as provoking to whites”
― Jerrold M. Packard, American Nightmare: The History of Jim Crow

“New Orleans came up with a new ordinance that required anyone moving into an area to receive written consent of the people already living in the area, the city characterizing its bald racism as representing a “zoning ordinance” within the power of the city’s policing authority.”
― Jerrold M. Packard, American Nightmare: The History of Jim Crow

“almostunique-in-the-world “one-drop” (i.e., one drop of “black” blood makes one wholly black) racial rule.”
― Jerrold M. Packard, American Nightmare: The History of Jim Crow

“bodies resting for eternity”
― Jerrold M. Packard, American Nightmare: The History of Jim Crow

“Southern people do not believe in social equality.”
― Jerrold M. Packard, American Nightmare: The History of Jim Crow

“Often a community or government entity would institute some Jim Crow ordinance in the absence of any actual demonstrated need but when such official sanction would be thought to preclude any future situation”
― Jerrold M. Packard, American Nightmare: The History of Jim Crow

“Thus twelve years after the Civil War ended, the Republicans—and thus the republic—in effect turned their collective back on African-Americans.”
― Jerrold M. Packard, American Nightmare: The History of Jim Crow

“But a wrench was thrown into the works when vote fraud was alleged in Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Oregon, and in the end Congress was required to decide whether Hayes or Tilden would move into Grant’s about-to-be-vacated executive mansion.”
― Jerrold M. Packard, American Nightmare: The History of Jim Crow

“And because members of a community have for all sorts of reasons required the trust of one another to function successfully, it’s difficult to see how things might have been otherwise.”
― Jerrold M. Packard, American Nightmare: The History of Jim Crow

“All but surely, one and only one species of creatures became the ancestors of every human being now living.”
― Jerrold M. Packard, American Nightmare: The History of Jim Crow

“When in Jim Crow days police departments were totally white, blacks especially resented the universal contempt shown by police toward all African-Americans, officers almost always using their authority to demand deference from blacks. An African-American, regardless of his economic or educational status, who failed to address a police officer with due deference became an obvious target for police reprisals.”
― Jerrold M. Packard, American Nightmare: The History of Jim Crow