Jim Crow Essay

But not everyone believed in white superiority, but in equality. There were multiple groups for and against this type of segregation. “The National Association for the Advancement of Colored... ... middle of paper ... ...rnment cared about the deaths and segregation that was currently happening at that time. As the years went on, African Americans were cared about less and less, and hated more and more. The Jim Crow laws were discriminating to African Americans because they received unfair punishments, no one cared about the African American’s opinions, and they replaced slavery with laws that encouraged racial inequality.

After the emancipation of slaves, many things changed throughout the south. The slaves had the title of freed people, but these freed people didn't have the same rights and privileges as their white counterparts. Even though the freed slaves were suppose to be able to live an equal life with the whites, the whites still found ways to keep the African-Americans from being equal with them on all levels. The whites imposed all kinds of hidden rules towards the blacks and the consequence of breaking those laws was death. The whites did not want the ex slaves to be equal and even after the white men's mistress failed at assuming the jobs of their ex slaves, the slave masters still didn't give blacks credit for being able to do the work that they did.

America has been the site of discrimination in race for years. The Black Codes were laws each state came up with on their own that limit certain rights, prevent them from voting, and keep the black slaves under white control. Even after the Black Codes ended, a new way to keep African-Americans unequal came up. The Jim Crow laws were a series of laws passed in order to keep African-Americans unequal from white Americans. Every state had their own form of the Jim Crow laws.

This cycle could be part of the reason African-Americans are poorer nationally than caucasians. This cycle truly began with slavery and then Jim Crow laws, African-Americans were oppressed and treated as less so they never got the chance to start on the same level as whites. We personally have family members that lived in a time when it was regular for and African American man to get lynched, tortured and killed for simply looking at a white girl wrong. We as a culture often forget how recent this really was, and that many social institutions have not fully adjusted. One of those institutions is our criminal justice system that is not as color blind as it claims to be.

After the 13th amendment was passed, there was a severe shortage of workers on plantations and they needed help. The black codes were partially created because of economic worries of not having labor in the south. They helped reconstruction because it ensured that wealthy southern landowners would have a cheap and steady workforce they needed, because some of the codes forced African Americans to sign contracts that required them to work for meager wages. The government was also scared that the freed slaves would try to get revenge on their owners. The black codes helped regain control and inhibit the freedoms over the freed slaves, prevent black uprisings, ensure the continued and steady supply of cheap labor, and maintain segregation and white supremacy.

I do not believe that the Americans of African and European ancestry successfully rebuilt their relationship right after the Civil war. Even though slavery was finally slowly getting abolished, there was still much discrimination against the African Americans. The Jim Crow laws and the black codes discriminated against black people. The Ku Klux Klan in particular discriminated against black people. Even though the United States government tried to put laws into the Constitution to protect black people, the African Americans were discriminated in every aspect of life from housing, working, educating, and even going to public restrooms!

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. The years leading up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 were turbulent times filled with great strife brought by the ever-growing dissent.

After being freed from slavery, the blacks thought they had achieved their freedom, but soon realized that was only the beginning. During the Civil Rights Movement, racism began to play a large role in how the blacks were treated. They were segregated and discriminated against causing racial violence to stir up and add to the many other problems the blacks faced on a daily basis. It took several years before the blacks would take a stand and fight for their rights, but until then, they continued to face suppression. Around 1876, Jim Crow Laws came into effect and demonstrated a system of segregation which separated the blacks and whites, primarily in public facilit... ... middle of paper ... ...ivil Rights Movement, a large social movement, paved the way for changes in black freedom and how the blacks would be viewed.

The South feared an African American revolt and so, even after slaves gained their freedom, they suffered disenfranchisement because privileged whites were afraid that if former slaves could vote they would use their new power to take advantages, such as better, segregated schools, away from the elite. The Demon in Darren Wilson’s Head comments on this form of fear from before the abolition of slavery, saying, “The purpose of these white racial privileges… was to form a wedge between the European and African indentured servant classes and exbondsmen so that a united class war against the ruling elite would not happen.” (Thandeka) This excerpt shows oppression-based fear on a wider scale, the fear of the oppressed lower classes. The elite was fearful that if unified, the lower classes would

Jim Crow Laws Jim Crow laws are laws which were meant to segregate whites from blacks and to prohibit blacks from obtaining the same social status as whites. Jim Crow laws were in effect for nearly a century, from around 1875 to approximately 1964. These laws were primarily used in South but were also loosely used in the North. These laws came from the post war South where racial stresses were still high. With the passing of these laws came violence and aggression for those, for and against these laws.