Jim Crow's Disabilities: Racial Injury, Immobility, and the "Terrible Handicap" in the Literature of James Weldon Johnson

Focusing on James Weldon Johnson's "The Best Methods of Removing the Disabilities of Caste from the Negro," The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, and Along This Way, this article examines how Johnson's work exposes disability as an integral, not incidental, element of the Jim C...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:African American review 2017-07, Vol.50 (2), p.185-201
Main Author: Tyler, Dennis
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
20th century
African Americans
Autobiographical literature
Autobiographies
Black history
Black people
Caste
Citizenship
Disability
Disorders
Genetic engineering
Injuries
Johnson, James Weldon (1871-1938)
Oppression
Public spaces
Race
Racism
Reserved Public Space
Segregation
Transgender persons
White people
White supremacy
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Summary:Focusing on James Weldon Johnson's "The Best Methods of Removing the Disabilities of Caste from the Negro," The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, and Along This Way, this article examines how Johnson's work exposes disability as an integral, not incidental, element of the Jim Crow regime. Demonstrating that Jim Crow was more than a social system that separated whites from Blacks, "Jim Crow's Disabilities" argues that Jim Crow imposed disabilities upon Black American bodies-stigmatizing African Americans at large, restricting their geographical mobility and movement in public spaces, inflicting physical and psychological wounds, and disciplining their bodies as a form of control and regulation.
ISSN:1062-4783
1945-6182
1945-6182
DOI:10.1353/afa.2017.0021