Jim Crow Guide to the U.S.A.: The Laws, Customs and Etiquette Governing the Conduct of Nonwhites and Other Minorities as Second-Class Citizens

By Stetson Kennedy

Book Overview

"A history of the United States that is almost incredible." --Jean-Paul Sartre, Les Temps Modernes

Jim Crow Guide to the U.S.A. by Stetson Kennedy is a bold expos of America's institutionalized racism, originally published in 1959 and hailed as a landmark in civil rights literature. With unflinching clarity, Kennedy documents the laws, customs, and social codes that relegated nonwhite citizens to second-class status under the Jim Crow system. From the mistreatment of Native Americans to the exclusionary immigration policies targeting Asians and Africans, the book maps the presence of race-based politics across every facet of American life--housing, education, employment, and even burial.

What makes this work especially influential is its international resonance. The famed French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre championed the book's publication in Europe, recognizing its power to illuminate the contradictions between American democratic ideals and racial realities. Sartre's endorsement helped position the book as a global indictment of racial injustice, aligning it with anti-colonial and human rights movements worldwide. Provocative, meticulously researched, and deeply human, Jim Crow Guide to the U.S.A. remains a vital historical document and a call to conscience. It is not merely a guide--it is a mirror held up to a nation, reflecting truths that later generations were called on to address.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0817356711
• ISBN13: 9780817356712
• Release Date: March 2011
• Publisher: University Alabama Press
• Length: 232 Pages
• Weight: 0.72 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Jim Crow 101

"Jim Crow Guide: The Way It Was", is an excellent 'guide' to life in the Jim Crow South. Stetson Kennedy's book amply captures this era, when terriorism of an entire class of U.S. citizens, in the South, was the order of the day. The author's style of writing and unique presentation technique, makes this work easy reading for general readers and all students of American History from 9th grade and above.