How Did Jim Crow Laws Affect African Americans In The Early 1900s

The early 1900’s in the United States was a time that will never be forgotten, these years brought much change to our society both good and bad. Depending on what race you were, you were either happy or miserable. Although the African Americans of this time had gained their freedom thanks to the 13th amendment, they were still treated as second-class citizens. They were treated as if they were not even human beings and separated from the whites thanks to the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow Laws were statutes established in the South to segregate the blacks and whites. Everything from schools, trains and restaurants were segregated. Many people know about the Jim Crow laws but wonder how and where they began. In 1862, Homer Plessy: an octaroon,

The whites were becoming more and more afraid of the blacks gaining power so they did everything they could to “bring back their way of life”. At this time, blacks were already guaranteed suffrage by the 15th amendment, so poll taxes and literacy tests were imposed as a way to exclude them from voting. Black people could often not afford these taxes and could not pass literacy tests due to the low quality education they received. This made it impossible for a black person to be elected to make any real change. There were even vigilante groups like the Ku Klux Klan who would terrorize and lynch the blacks. One of the biggest disadvantages toward the blacks was economics. If they were paid more for their hard work they would’ve been able to move out of the south quicker and not had to deal with the mistreatment. All of these factors contributed to the regression of the blacks but the most powerful had to be the Jim Crow

People wondered how much of it was accurate to his life. Although no one except him knows whether he ever felt these things or not, it is evident that this novel was written to prove a point. The main character represents the feelings of the majority of blacks at the time. One can only imagine how blacks felt growing up in a world that constantly de-humanized them and treated them like garbage. The Jim Crow Laws created a sort of self-hatred for the blacks. They were treated as if they were a disease that the whites did not even want to be close to. Some African Americans lived their whole lives being treated this way and that had to do something to their self esteem. By the end of the novel the unnamed narrator finally declares himself a white man. He is the father of two and the widow of one. In the last words of the novel he states, “I no longer have the same fear for myself of my secret’s being found out, for since my wife's death I have gradually dropped out of social life; but there is nothing I would not suffer to keep the brand from being placed upon them [his children]” (Johnson 153). The character feels like a coward for not embracing and standing with his race, but for the sake of his children he is willing to live with that so that his children will not have to; so that they