Impact of the Jim Crow Laws on Democracy

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During the early 1900s post reconstruction era, African Americans faced extreme injustice and prejudice in society. By being denied rights guaranteed in the Constitution, and being subject to outright racism, African Americans saw their democratic rights slowly being taken away from them. The Jim Crow laws were the facilitator of this democratic infringement through intimidation, as well as by the failings of our prized judicial system. By denying African Americans certain unalienable rights guaranteed to all American citizens, the Jim Crow laws were one of the greatest contractions of democracy in American history. The Black codes were the predecessor too, and served as a blueprint for, the Jim Crow Laws. With the emancipation recently freeing thousands of slaves from bondage, whites Americans were now worried about what they would do about the enormous loss of manpower. Having no previous work experience, men and women didn’t know how to function without the slaves and servants they had become so accustomed to. (Wormser) Men were particularly worried about the loss of manpower in their fields. (Wormser) With cotton still the driving crop of the South, farmers needed hundreds of able-bodied men to be able to harvest enough cotton to meet the rising demands. In the home, women were terrified of losing their house slaves. Having no previous experience living home without servants or maids, wives and mothers did not know how to cook, clean, or even take care of their children. (Wormser) To combat this, the Black Codes were enacted to make sure that, regardless of their recent emancipation, African Americans were never really free (fofweb.com). The "… codes were based on an assumption that freedmen were immature and unable to make d... ... middle of paper ... ...s- The Story Behind the Bus," The Henry Ford, last modified 2002, http://www.thehenryford.org/exhibits/rosaparks/story.asp. "Rosa Parks- The Story," The Henry Ford. Sandra L. West, ed., "Northern Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)," Facts on File History, last modified 2013, accessed November 16, 2013, http://www.fofweb.com/NuHistory/default.asp?ItemID=WE01. Richard Wormser, "The Emancipation Proclimation," The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, last modified 2002, accessed November 17, 2013, http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_emancipate.html. Keesha Gaskins, "Jim Crow Legacy Continues Today," Brennan Center for Justice, last modified April 12, 2012, accessed November 17, 2013, http://www.brennancenter.org/blog/jim-crow-legacy-continues-today. The NAACP moved to gain as much support as they could to prove the inequality behind the Jim

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