Jim Crow Laws Essay

715 Words2 Pages

Equality is something that should be given to every human and not earned or be taken away. However, this idea does not present itself during the 1930’s in the southern states including Alabama. African Americans faced overwhelming challenges because of the thought of race superiority. Therefore, racism in the southern states towards African Americans made their lives tough to live because of disparity and inhumane actions towards this particular group of people. Even though Blacks were granted independence, laws were set up to limit this accomplishment. Jim Crow Laws, enforced in 1877 in the south, were still being imposed during the 1930s and throughout. These laws created segregation between the two races and created a barrier for the Blacks. For example, even though African Americans were allowed to vote, southern states created a literary test exclusively for them that was quite difficult to pass, since most Blacks were uneducated. However, if they passed the reading test, they were threatened death. Also, they had to pay a special tax to vote, which many African Americans could not afford. This obstacle caused Blacks to not have a voice in the USA’s political decisions. Furthermore, they were left with the worst jobs in town and had the poorest schools because of segregation (The Change in Attitudes…). In the southern states, compared to White schooling education, the Blacks received one-third of school funding. The White people dominated the states and local government with their decisions and made sure that the Blacks were weak. They weren’t being treated in hospitals because the doctors refused to do treatment on them. Also, because of the laws and segregation, people claim that there was a ‘visible colored line’ in publi... ... middle of paper ... ...can Americans. To conclude, due to the lack of education and clichéd thought, African Americans didn’t receive the same respect and opportunity as compared to Whites. To wrap it up, African Americans lived an unfair past in the south, such as Alabama, during the 1930s because of discrimination and the misleading thoughts towards them. The Ku Klux Klan, Jim Crow Laws and the way they were generally treated in southern states all exemplify this merciless time period of the behavior towards them. They were not given the same respect, impression, and prospect as the rest of the citizens of America, and instead they were tortured. Therefore, one group should be never singled out and should be given the same first intuition as the rest of the people, and should never be judged by color, but instead by character.

Show More
Related

  • Pros And Cons Of Reconstruction

    1004 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although many laws were passed that recognized African Americans as equals, the liberties they had been promised were not being upheld. Hoffman, Blum, and Gjerde state that “Union League members in a North Carolina county, upon learning of three or four black men who ‘didn’t mean to vote,’ threatened to ‘whip them’ and ‘made them go.’ In another country, ‘some few colored men who declined voting’ were, in the words of a white conservative, ‘bitterly persecute[ed]” (22). Black codes were also made to control African Americans. Norton et al. states that “the new black codes compelled former slaves to carry passes, observe a curfew, live in housing provided by a landowner, and give up hope of entering many desirable occupations” (476). The discrimination and violence towards African Americans during this era and the laws passed that were not being enforced were very disgraceful. However, Reconstruction was a huge stepping stone for the way our nation is shaped today. It wasn’t pretty but it was the step our nation needed to take. We now live in a country where no matter the race, everyone is considered equal. Reconstruction was a success. Without it, who knows where our nation would be today. African American may have never gained the freedoms they have today without the

    Read More

  • Mass Incarceration In The Age Of Colorblindness By Michelle Alexander

    2147 Words  | 5 Pages

    Today, more African American adults are under correctional control than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began (Alexander 180). Throughout history, there have been multiple racial caste systems in the United States. In her book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander defines a “racial caste” as “a racial group locked into an inferior position by law and custom” (12). Alexander argues that both Jim Crow and slavery functioned as racial caste systems, and that our current system of mass incarceration functions as a similar caste system, which she labels “The New Jim Crow”. There is now a silent Jim Crow in our nation. Mass incarceration today serves the same function as did slavery before the Civil War and Jim Crow laws after the Civil War - to uphold a racial caste system.

    Read More

  • Jim Crow Law Essay

    759 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lasting hatred from the civil war, and anger towards minorities because they took jobs in the north probably set the foundation for these laws, but it has become difficult to prove. In this essay, I will explain how the Separate but Equal Laws of twentieth century America crippled minorities of that time period forever. Separate but Equal doctrine existed long before the Supreme Court accepted it into law, and on multiple occasions it arose as an issue before then. In 1865, southern states passed laws called “Black Codes,” which created restrictions on the freed African Americans in the South. This became the start of legal segregation as juries couldn’t have African Americans, public schools became segregated, and African Americans had restrictions on testifying against majorities.

    Read More

  • How Did Emmett Till Dehumanized

    702 Words  | 2 Pages

    Blacks were treated unjustly due to the Jim Crow laws and the racial stigmas embedded into American society. Under these laws, whites and colored people were “separate but equal,” however this could not be further from the truth. Due to the extreme racism in the United States during this time period, especially in the South, many blacks were dehumanized by whites to ensure that they remained inferior to them. As a result of their suffering from the prejudice society of America, there was a national outcry to better the lives of colored people.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Martin Luther King's Speech

    1003 Words  | 3 Pages

    is able to efficaciously illustrate the awareness that whites have oppressed blacks for years, and had continued to do so, long after the Emancipation Proclamation, at times for reasons seemingly unknown to blacks. In fact, it has left a lasting impact on the present United States, as de-facto segregation continues to take place in more rural areas. However, it is important that this situation is altered because if not, what significance would the phrase “all men are created equal”

    Read More

  • Race Relations Between African Americans and Whites Following Reconstruction

    776 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...rowth; politics witnessed significant alterations, as well. However, there were no changes as profound as those seen in the decline in racial relations between whites and newly-freed African Americans in the south. Here, the discriminatory practices of the pre-Civil War period were reborn anew through laws meant to disenfranchise African Americans and the Supreme Court ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson. Though government agencies like the Freedmen’s Bureau were designed to help combat some of these problems, they lacked the expertise and the funding to do so. Coupled with the growing apathy of northerners to the plight of newly-freed slaves, it was clear that racial relations in the south would gradually worsen and worsen, coming to a head only with the actions of Civil Rights supporters in the 1950s and 1960s, thus demonstrating the long-term impact of these changes.

    Read More

  • Jim Crow Research Paper

    2117 Words  | 5 Pages

    ...onal rights and freedoms that Americans are entitled to. On the positive side, this proved that blacks were capable of fighting for their rights and that their race did not prove anything about them. They struggled to do away with the “separate but equal” policy. After segregation ended, the blacks diminished any negative stereotypes that they were associated with. Despite the fact that Jim Crow has long been laid to rest, beliefs and stigmas of this era are still visible among the social and financial aspects of America. Democracy in the United States will always be a work in progress, because sometimes it does not live up to what it was set out to be. Some of the most discriminated against people helped secure the rights and freedoms we have today by serving our country. African Americans have assisted people today to achieve the American Dream (Contradictions).

    Read More

  • The Long Struggle for Civil Rights

    2179 Words  | 5 Pages

    ...h past prejudices and previous beliefs elongated the process of desegregation, African Americans were still successful and were able to be free.

    Read More

  • Jim Crow Essay

    610 Words  | 2 Pages

    The methodically use of discriminating against and segregating Black people, particularly as practiced in the South from the end of Reconstruction to the mid-20th century. Jim Crow is a name given to a group of laws to keep Blacks and Whites separate after the American Civil War. Lynching was the method of execution during Jim Crow era; it is now similar to death a penalty.

    Read More

  • Racial Discrimination in 1940s America

    1438 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the 1940s, African Americans were facing the problem of discrimination. They fought to receive the rights that all Americans were given through the United States Constitution. They were being treated unfairly in society. Their education, jobs, transportation, and more were inferior to a white citizen’s. With the end of slavery and the creation of the Fourteenth Amendment, African Americans were theoretically given their freedom like every other American. The way they were treated denied them these rights that they thought they would obtain. Through the efforts of white bigots and the biased government, African Americans were segregated from the free lives of the white civilian. Prior to the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans faced discrimination

    Read More

  • Reconstruction In The Era Of Reconstruction

    1281 Words  | 3 Pages

    Tragically, however, very few of these goals were achieved. It seems as if every time the African Americans manage to move one step closer to reaching true equality among the Southern whites, whether it be in a social, political, or economic fashion, the whites always react by committing violent acts against them. Initially, the Southern whites (in fear of black supremacy in Southern politics) fought to preserve the white supremacy Southern politics had always functioned by. This “ushered most African Americans to the margins of the southern political world” (Brinkley, 369). Secondly, African Americans struggled to survive once they were set free; they had nowhere to live and nothing to eat. Because of such reasons, most former slaves decided to remain living on their plantations as tenants, paying their tenancy by working the crop fields. Sadly, even this failed for the African Americans due to the birth of the crop-lien system. Lastly, the Southern whites counteracted the effects of the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments by establishing the Jim Crow laws, which aided them with upholding, if not increasing, the steady level of segregation in the South. Ultimately, out of the very few accomplishments made by the African American population during and following the Era of Reconstruction, there existed one achievement significant enough to change the course of American history: the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments. As a result of these amendments, “would one day serve as the basis for a “Second Reconstruction” that would renew the drive to bring freedom to all Americans” (Brinkley,

    Read More

  • Civil Rights Argumentative Essay

    1061 Words  | 3 Pages

    This Civil Rights Act is a challenge to all of us to go to work in our communities and our states, in our homes and in our hearts, to eliminate the last vestiges of injustice in our beloved country” (Lyndon B. Johnson). The civil rights were the hardest times for African Americans to do anything from going to school, to even going to the bathroom, they were not aloud to be associated with anything the whites were able to do. They were sprayed with water hoses when they marched the streets fighting for their rights. Most people saw them for being nasty people because of their skin color, not everyone saw them for who they were, they were just like the whites just a different skin color. It is unfair how they were treated, looking back and seeing how they were treated, us whites should be ashamed of how we treated them. When people become dissatisfied with the way they are treated they fight for their rights: Dred Scott v. Sanford, Shelley v. Kramer, and Brown v. Board of the Education.

    Read More

  • Discrimination In The Workplace Essay

    1244 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although African Americans were finally able to gain back their freedom; they did not gain equality in the eyes of their former oppressors. Resentful of the newfound freedom of African Americans, laws known as Jim Crow laws were established throughout the United Stated by states and local governments. These discriminatory laws worked to systematically oppress African Americans through segregation and violence. They were segregated from whites; forbidden to attend the same schools, eat in the same restaurants or intermarry. African Americans were treated as second class citizens; lesser beings that had no rights. “Blacks could not vote, sue whites, testify against them, raise their voice to them or even look them in the eye or stay on the sidewalk if they passed.” (BL p.98) The era of Jim Crow was a dangerous time where even a glance was enough for an African American to be murdered. But there was only so much abuse that would be withstood. The winds of change were beginning to stir and African Americans and their supporters were beginning to demand their equality.

    Read More

  • The Struggle for Freedom Among African American Citizens

    1390 Words  | 3 Pages

    It wasn’t easy being an African American, back then they had to fight in order to achieve where they are today, from slavery and discrimination, there was a very slim chance of hope for freedom or even citizenship. This longing for hope began to shift around the 1950’s. During the Civil Rights Movement, where discrimination still took place, it was the time when African Americans started to defend their rights and honor to become freemen like every other citizen of the United States. African Americans were beginning to gain recognition after the 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, which declared all people born natural in the United States and included the slaves that were previously declared free. However, this didn’t prevent the people from disputing against the constitutional law, especially the people in the South who continued to retaliate against African Americans and the idea of integration in white schools....

    Read More

  • African American Racism

    2124 Words  | 5 Pages

    For decades, African Americans have been on a racial discrimination and extremely deadly roller coaster ride for justice and equality. In this new day and age, racial tendencies and prejudice has improved since the 1700-1800s,however, they are slowly going back to certain old ways with voting laws and restaurants having the option to serve blacks or not. It all began with the start of slavery around 1619. The start of the New World, the settlers needed resources England and other countries had, which started the Triangle Trade. The New England settlers manufactured and shipped rum to West Africa; West Africa traded slaves to the West Indies for molasses and money . From the very beginning, they treated African Americans like an object or animals instead of another human being with feelings and emotions. Women that were pregnant gave birth to children already classified as slaves. After the American Revolution, people in the north started to realize the oppression and treatment of blacks to how the British was treating them. In 1787, the Northwest Territory made slavery illegal and the US Constitution states that congress could no longer ban the trade of slaves until 1808 (Brunner). However, since the invention of the cotton gin, the increase for labor on the field increased the demand for slave workers. Soon the South went thru an economic crisis with the soil, tobacco, and cash crops with dropped the prices of slaves and increased slave labor even more. To ensure that the slaves do not start a rebellion, congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act in 1793 that made it a federal crime to assist a slave in escaping (Black History Milestones). This is the first of many Acts that is applied to only African-Americans and the start of many ...

    Read More

More about Jim Crow Laws Essay

Open Document