Jim Crow Era: A Nightmare of Racial Discrimination

The Jim Crow era was a racial status system used primarily in the south between the years of 1877 and the mid 1960’s. Jim Crow was a series of anti-black rules and conditions that were never right. The social conditions and legal discrimination of the Jim Crow era denied African Americans democratic rights and freedoms frequently. There were numerous ways in which African Americans were denied social and political equality under Jim Crow. Along with that, lynching occurred quite frequently, thousands being done over the era. The social conditions throughout the era were extremely poor. Legal discrimination was around and African Americans were denied democratic rights and freedoms. The southern states would pass strict laws to normalize interactions between white people and African Americans. For example, Jim Crow signs were placed above regularly visited places by everyone, such as water fountains, public facilities, door entrances and exits, etc. Even the most basic rights such as drinking from a water fountain was taken away from African Americans. They would also have separate buildings for African

Capitalism was suffering from the industrial success. Parenti uses the term “over-accumulation” do describe this issue, saying there was a “chronic excess capacity on a global scale” (32). Because of this issue, the American manufacturing and merchandising organizations found it problematic to keep up with the postwar profits. Many commodities were already around and one wanted to create a new one, the price declined. Upholding the profits that they had earned before, businesses had to switch how they ran their business. They had to expand their output which only drove down prices more than they previously were. Parenti then concludes by saying “there was too much capital looking for profitable investment outlets, and not enough profitable investment opportunities”