This is so cruel. There’s a new talking point going around:That not allowing boys to compete against girls in sports is somehow the same as Jim Crow
This is so cruel.
There’s a new talking point going around:
That not allowing boys to compete against girls in sports is somehow the same as Jim Crow segregation.
Let’s be absolutely clear:
👉🏾 Jim Crow was not about fairness. It was about domination.
👉🏾 It wasn’t about inclusion. It was about exclusion, violence, and dehumanization.
👉🏾 And comparing it to sex-based protections in sports is not only misleading—it is an insult to our ancestors.
At WeSurviveAbuse, when we say “we survive abuse,” we mean all of it:
Personal abuse
Institutional abuse
Intergenerational abuse
And yes—the historical trauma of racism
To honor the truth, here are 12 real acts of violence from the Jim Crow era—and how each one was designed to enforce segregation, crush resistance, and keep Black people, especially girls and women, in danger and silence.
1. Lynchings Across the South (1877–1950)
Thousands of Black people were lynched in the U.S., often after accusations of “stepping out of place.”
🟥 This was racial terrorism meant to keep Black communities submissive, segregated, and silent.
Source: Equal Justice Initiative
2. The Atlanta Race Massacre (1906)
Dozens of Black people were murdered by white mobs after newspapers printed false allegations about Black men.
🟥 The violence was used to reinforce white supremacist rule and segregate the city.
Source: New Georgia Encyclopedia
3. The Perry Massacre (1922)
Four Black men were lynched and Black homes and businesses were destroyed in retaliation for a white woman’s murder.
🟥 It was a violent warning to Black residents to “stay in their place.”
Source: Wikipedia – Perry Massacre
4. The Tulsa Race Massacre (1921)
The thriving Black community of Greenwood—“Black Wall Street”—was destroyed. Hundreds were killed, and 35 city blocks were burned.
🟥 The goal was to destroy Black success that defied racial segregation.
Source: Tulsa Historical Society
5. The Rosewood Massacre (1923)
An entire Black town was wiped off the map after a white woman falsely accused a Black man of assault.
🟥 Rosewood’s destruction was about reinforcing racial terror and segregation.
Source: PBS
6. The Ocoee Massacre (1920)
On Election Day, a white mob murdered dozens of Black residents who attempted to vote.
🟥 This was targeted violence to enforce Jim Crow voter suppression.
Source: Orlando Sentinel
7. The Colfax Massacre (1873)
Over 100 Black men were killed by white militias for defending their right to vote during Reconstruction.
🟥 This was organized violence to destroy Black political power and install Jim Crow law.
Source: Smithsonian Magazine
8. The Elaine Massacre (1919)
Black sharecroppers organizing for fair wages were slaughtered by mobs and military forces.
🟥 The massacre for white economic dominance and segregation in labor.
Source: Equal Justice Initiative
9. The Wilmington Coup and Massacre (1898)
White supremacists overthrew a multiracial local government, killed Black citizens, and ran others out of town.
🟥 It was the only successful coup in U.S. history—and it restored Jim Crow control.
Source: Zinn Education Project
10. The East St. Louis Massacre (1917)
White mobs murdered Black workers and families during labor tensions. Homes and businesses were burned.
🟥 The attack reinforced labor segregation and housing inequality.
Source: History.com
11. The Springfield Race Riot (1908)
White mobs lynched Black residents and destroyed neighborhoods in the hometown of Abraham Lincoln.
🟥 The violence pushed segregation further and led to the founding of the NAACP.
Source: Illinois Times
12. The Detroit Race Riot (1943)
White resistance to Black families integrating housing projects led to widespread killings and police violence.
🟥 The goal: maintain segregation in housing, schools, and labor.
Source: Detroit Historical Society
✊🏾 We Survive Abuse—including Generational, Racial Trauma
When we say We Survive Abuse, we mean:
The abuse that happened in homes
The abuse that happened in silence
And the abuse that was written into the law, burned into our neighborhoods, and beaten into our bloodlines
To compare sex-based fairness in girls’ sports—which exists to protect and include girls—to the brutality of Jim Crow segregation is an erasure of our suffering and a distortion of history.
Girls’ sports are not Jim Crow.
Boundaries are not violence.
And protecting girls is not hate.
What is harmful?
Using the memory of lynchings, massacres, and racial terror to silence girls, erase women, and manipulate a conversation that should be rooted in care, truth, and fairness.
We remember. We survive. We protect.
https://www.britannica.com/event/American-civil-rights-movement
