Jim Crow: Cultural or State-Created?
26 March 2006
The Editor, New York Times
229 West 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036
To the Editor:
Orlando Patterson is correct - both that culture affects economic outcomes and that too many scholars ignore this fact ("A Poverty of the Mind," March 26). But he mistakenly says that "nothing could have been more cultural" than Jim Crow.
In his book Competition and Coercion, economic historian Robert Higgs presents much evidence that in the post-bellum south "individual attempts to extract discriminatory gains foundered on the rock of individual wealth-seeking behavior. Really effective discrimination, even by groups, required legal sanction or support."* These awful sanctions and supports were provided by Jim Crow legislation.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
* Robert Higgs, Competition and Coercion: Blacks in the American Economy, 1865-1914 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980), p. 134.
The Editor, New York Times
229 West 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036
To the Editor:
Orlando Patterson is correct - both that culture affects economic outcomes and that too many scholars ignore this fact ("A Poverty of the Mind," March 26). But he mistakenly says that "nothing could have been more cultural" than Jim Crow.
In his book Competition and Coercion, economic historian Robert Higgs presents much evidence that in the post-bellum south "individual attempts to extract discriminatory gains foundered on the rock of individual wealth-seeking behavior. Really effective discrimination, even by groups, required legal sanction or support."* These awful sanctions and supports were provided by Jim Crow legislation.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
* Robert Higgs, Competition and Coercion: Blacks in the American Economy, 1865-1914 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980), p. 134.
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Saturday December 9, 2006 at 10:47am