Jim Crow Policy

Jim Crow Policy The Jim Crow Policy is one of America’s darkest moments. It started in 1877 and by most accounts did not end until the 1960’s. At first it was made to keep black people “in their place”. Since then it has been used on immigrants in the early 20th century. In this paper I will explain the two parts of the Jim Crow Policy, It’s effect on the freed slaves, and why the freed slaves did not try to fight it. The Jim Crow Policy is broken up into two components. The first of which is segregation. The new southern congress, consisting of all white members, did not like the reconstruction of the south and wanted things back to the way they used to be. In fact, the last major piece of reconstruction, the Civil Rights Act of 1875, was all but ignored in the south. The Civil Rights Act of 1875 prohibited racial discrimination in all public accommodations, transportation, places of amusement, and juries. The South’s refusal to abide by this act caused the Supreme Court in 1983 to strike down all provisions in the Civil Rights Act of 1875 except the one relating to juries. So, with the Supreme Court’s ruling the new southern congress took it’s power to another level when it instituted segregation. Segregation is the use of separate facilities, one for the whites and one for the blacks. The second part of the Jim Crow Policy was the taking away of the freed slaves’ political rights. A few examples of this are poll taxes, Literacy tests, and the grandfather clause. The southern congress knew that all most all of the freed slaves were poor. Making everyone pay a poll tax to vote would eliminated most of the blacks chances on voting. Since it was illegal for slaves to learn how to read the congress knew that many of the freed slaves did not have the time to learn since being freed. This caused a law stating that you had to pass a literacy test before voting. Even if a freed slave could pay a toll tax and pass a literacy test they still had to deal with the grandfather clause. This clause stated that your grandfather had to be a registered voter in 1960 in order for you to vote.