Ophie's Ghosts

Ophie’s Ghosts is set in the early 1920s during the Jim Crow era and the start of the Great Migration. These eras serve as a backdrop for the struggles that Ophie and her family experience in their search for freedom, autonomy, and equality. Jim Crow was an era of American history beginning in 1877, following Reconstruction. After the Southern states were forced to ratify the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, much of the region enacted Jim Crow laws to enforce segregation of the Black and white populace. These laws were an attempt to return American society to its former racial divides, which defined the Antebellum period, and as history has proven, “Jim Crow Laws’ purposefully limited African Americans’ ability to engage with the political and public spaces” and “limited African American participation in local and national elections” (“The Jim Crow Era.” American Battlefield Trust). Jim Crow laws operated under the guise of “separate but equal”; the Black and white segments of the populace had separate public facilities and programs, but public services for Black people were consistently underfunded and were inferior in quality to those afforded to white people.

Although “the 14th Amendment guaranteed ‘equal protection’ under the law regardless of race,” this wording was still problematic, as “many lawyers reasoned that if these segregated accommodations were ‘equal’ then they were also constitutional” (“The Jim Crow Era”). However, Black Southern residents suffered under these conditions because they were unable to find proper work and housing and were also threatened by hostility from white supremacists wherever they went. The Jim Crow era lasted until 1965 and ended as a result of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This act outlawed racial, religious, and sexual discrimination in employment, public accommodations, and voter registration.

While the racist laws were eventually abolished, the oppression caused by Jim Crow led directly to the Great Migration, an era of American history that spanned from 1910 to 1970 and occurred in two phases (1910-1940 and 1950-1970). Ophie’s story takes place during the first phase. This era “was one of the largest movements of people in United States history,” as over 6 million Black citizens relocated from the Southern states to other regions around the country (“The Great Migration.” National Archives). This mass relocation was inspired by a desire to escape the injustice of the South’s Jim Crow laws. Migrating Black citizens also sought vocational, economic, and educational opportunities in the Midwestern, Northern, and Western states. In particular, Black citizens found such opportunities for freedom in New York, Chicago, Detroit, and Pittsburgh.

In Ophie’s Ghosts, Ophie and her mother move from Georgia to Pennsylvania after Ophie’s father is killed by white men for voting. His violent death is a symptom of the Southern white supremacist culture and the Jim Crow era. The family’s house is also burned to the ground by a white supremacist group. Unable to support themselves in their Southern town, Ophie and Mama seek a new life in Pittsburgh, where there are more jobs and better housing opportunities.

In these ways, Justina Ireland’s characters are both targets of Jim Crow laws and members of the Great Migration. Throughout the novel, Ophie tries to maintain a positive attitude despite her dislike of their new life in Pittsburgh. She understands how important it is that they were able to flee the racial segregation in Georgia and find job and housing opportunities in Pennsylvania. Their circumstances are better in the North, but Ophie’s life is still not free from subjugation or exploitation, and this portrayal is true to the era’s history. While the Black population did find better jobs and housing outside the South, many people who migrated also had to deal with a broad range of injustices and challenges. Much of this hardship was inspired by lingering anti-Black sentiment, a symptom of America’s lengthy enslavement practices.