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Impacts of the Jim Crow laws
Supreme court in civil rights movement
Supreme court in civil rights movement
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Justice Harlan’s predictions were clear and accurate as he claims that the legalization of the Jim Crow laws would defeat the sole purpose of the recently adopted amendments to the constitution and simulate more aggression and discrimination towards the African American people. The impact of these laws were negative and counterproductive. Trains, buses, movie theaters, parks, public schools, and restrooms would soon to become entirely separate for blacks and whites under the condition that they are of the same quality. It is hard to say why the court made the decision that they did but I personally believe the court ignored Justice Harlan’s warning because too many people at that time were irrationally fearful of the unfamiliar.
C. Vann Woodward’s most famous work, The Strange Career of Jim Crow, was written in 1955. It chronicles the birth, formation, and end of Jim Crow laws in the Southern states. Often, the Jim Crow laws are portrayed as having been instituted directly after the Civil War’s end, and having been solely a Southern brainchild. However, as Woodward, a native of Arkansas points out, the segregationist Jim Crow laws and policies were not fully a part of the culture until almost 1900. Because of the years of lag between the Civil War/Reconstruction eras and the integration and popularity of the Jim Crow laws, Woodward advances that these policies were not a normal reaction to the loss of the war by Southern whites, but a result of other impetuses central to the time of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The book, the Strange Career of Jim Crow is a wonderful piece of history. C. Vann Woodard crafts a book that explains the history of Jim Crow and segregation in simple terms. It is a book that presents more than just the facts and figures, it presents a clear and a very accurate portrayal of the rise and fall of Jim Crow and segregation. The book has become one of the most influential of its time earning the praise of great figures in Twentieth Century American History. It is a book that holds up to its weighty praise of being “the historical Bible of the civil rights movement.” The book is present in a light that is free from petty bias and that is shaped by a clear point of view that considers all facts equally. It is a book that will remain one of the best explanations of this time period.
Based on the pronouncements of the court on May 17, 1954, everyone in the courtroom was shocked after it became clear that Marshall was right in his claim about the unconstitutionality of legal segregation in American public schools. Essentially, this court’s decision became a most important turning point in U.S. history because the desegregation case had been won by an African American attorney. Additionally, this became a landmark decision in the sense that it played a big role in the crumbling of the discriminatory laws against African Americans and people of color in major socioeconomic areas, such as employment, education, and housing (Stinson, 2008). Ultimately, Marshall’s legal achievements contributed significantly to the criminal justice field.
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
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.
Brown decision holds up fairly well, however, as a catalyst and starting point for wholesale shifts in perspective” (Branch). This angered blacks, and was a call to action for equality, and desegregation. The court decision caused major uproar, and gave the African American community a boost because segregation in schools was now unconstitutional. The government started to create programs that would make Americans hate and fear communists, and make them seem like the enemy.
In 1863 to 1877 Reconstruction brought an end to slavery, it paved the way for the former slaves to become citizens. The African Americans wanted complete freedom. However, that right became a setback and were seen as second class citizens. Before the end of the Reconstruction, a legislation was passed called the Jim Crow law. The law enforced the segregation of people of African descent. The legislation was a system to ensure the exclusion of racial groups in the Southern States. For example, separate transportation law, school division, different waiting rooms both at the bus terminals and hospitals, separate accommodations, marriage law and voting rights. The Jim Crow law was supposed to help in racial segregation in the South. Instead,
From 1877 through the 1960’s was a shameful time for American history. Most southern states had passed laws known as “Jim Crow Laws”. Jim Crow was a slang term for a black man. These laws were very anti-black, meaning they were established to ensure black Americans failed before they ever got to start. These laws also set out to make African Americans feel inferior to white Americans.
...did not follow these rules they still followed Jim Crow laws. These laws segregated the south and made life extremely hard on coloreds. The Supreme Court knew that some states wouldn’t comply so they made each attorney general send in a plan for desegregation. “Rather, it asked the attorney generals of all states with laws permitting segregation in their public schools to submit plans for how to proceed with desegregation”(Supreme Court 1955). Even though desegregation was in the process life for coloreds was still not easy.
Jim Crow Laws were a way of life from 1876 to the 1965. While exploring the site I became more informed of these laws. Several places on the website assisted with this information. On “Bitter Times” I started to understand how African Americans were robbed of their basic rights in the hands of Jim Crow. After that, I visited the “Danger, Violence, Exploration” page, which explained the cruelty that African Americans had to face due to whites in the south. Next, I decided to go on the “Whites Remember Jim Crow” where I was educated by more elderly whites on how they believe that the past was more peaceful with Jim Crow regarding race relations than now. I viewed all of the slide shows and listened to all of the audio clips on each page. It was interesting yet melancholy to hear the African Americans that were raised in that time period speak of their experiences. They would be yelled at for just walking on the sidewalk. Also, there was a man speaking of times that he was falsely accused for crimes he did not commit and sent to jail just because of the color
The Jim Crow laws kept black-white segregation alive in the years between 1877 and 1960. The laws racist against black people in that all the laws were directed towards blacks, took away black rights, and the punishments were very excessive. One of the laws was that blacks couldn’t show public affection towards each other. It emphasised no kissing, and was considered one of the etiquette norms. It was a law because public affection between blacks offended whites. Some of the reasons for the laws include keeping blacks in order. Whites didn’t want blacks to ever be superior. They also didn’t want any white women getting raped, and to keep black culture away from the white’s. Whites also didn’t want blacks to offend them. So they made laws
However, this is not an equal treatment. The legal analysis of the school segregation should have been in complete violation of the 13th and 14th Amendment, but because of the Plessy case, segregation was unfairly accepted. Jon looks to the future to be positive for African Americans. Because of Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States, Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, African Americans would finally get away from the tyranny they faced and end segregation. It is unfortunate that the African American people were still mistreated after the enactment of the 13th and 14th Amendments.
The majority of the South was still segregated in the 1960’s. Jim Crow Laws kept many people of color from doing simple things. Some states didn't allow African Americans to be out at certain times of night. Most Africans-Americans were silenced out of fear. The fear of not being able to see your family the next day. Just because they decide to speak up for their rights. It makes it even more, scarier when you know that someone your age was killed. Yes, I mean a college student or a young adult. Let me take you back to Orangeburg, SC in the 1960’s.
The Supreme Court is perhaps most well known for the Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954. By declaring that segregation in schools was unconstitutional, Kevern Verney says a ‘direct reversal of the Plessy … ruling’1 58 years earlier was affected. It was Plessy which gave southern states the authority to continue persecuting African-Americans for the next sixty years. The first positive aspect of Brown was was the actual integration of white and black students in schools. Unfortunately, this was not carried out to a suitable degree, with many local authorities feeling no obligation to change the status quo. The Supreme Court did issue a second ruling, the so called Brown 2, in 1955. This forwarded the idea that integration should proceed 'with all deliberate speed', but James T. Patterson tells us even by 1964 ‘only an estimated 1.2% of black children ... attended public schools with white children’2. This demonstrates that, although the Supreme Court was working for Civil Rights, it was still unable to force change. Rathbone agrees, saying the Supreme Court ‘did not do enough to ensure compliance’3. However, Patterson goes on to say that ‘the case did have some impact’4. He explains how the ruling, although often ignored, acted ‘relatively quickly in most of the boarder s...
The United States was divided in two as a war, known as the civil war, erupted between the North and the South (the Union vs the Confederates). A major issue that instigated the war was the issue on slavery and the expansion of it to more states. An act known as the Civil Rights Act of 1866 was made to give rights to slaves that were freed during the civil war and to ultimately help abolish slavery all together after the end of the war. There were many who opposed the granting of rights to blacks and thus paving the way for the creation of what were known as Jim Crow Laws. These laws were put in place to separate blacks from whites and to strip blacks from their rights. The Jim Crow laws are examples of how the American mind set was to effectively separate the two races as an effort to suppress African Americans from gaining complete freedom and equality and, ultimately, portrayed blacks as the inferior race.