Comedy performer Thomas “Jim Crow” Rice coined the term “Jim Crow” through his derogatory minstrel shows in which danced and sang in an offensive way towards African Americans while covered in black shoe polish. Even though Rice was only trying to entertain his audience, his performances suggested that all African Americans were ignorant useless buffoons Rice’s performances were so derogatory towards African Americans that they removed signs of humanity from them and caused people to become less compassionate towards Negroes. As a “system of laws and customs that imposed racial segregation and discrimination on Africans”, Jim Crow Laws were ubiquitous in America from the 1860’s to the 1960’s (Jim Crow Movement). These Jim Crow Laws came …show more content…
During Tom Robinson’s trial, Tom is never referred to as Mr. Robinson but referred to as “Boy”, “Black Nigger”, or “That Nigger” (Lee 196). According to Jim Crow Etiquette, “Whites [do] not use courtesy titles when referring to Blacks” because courtesy titles, such as Mr., Mrs., and Ms. imply equality and respect (Pilgrim). Characters use derogatory names when referring to Tom to imply that African Americans are uncivilized beings of a lower class structure than Caucasians. Had the characters referred to Tom as Mr. Robinson, a tone of equality would have spread through the courtroom and Tom would have been judged as an equal under the law. If the all-Caucasian jury had judged the Tom Robinson case with equality, then Tom Robinson would not have been found guilty and the social hierarchy in Maycomb would have crumbled. Instead, the jury declared Tom Robinson guilty, because it does not want to disturb the social hierarchy in Maycomb. Just as African Americans were called “Niggers”, Caucasians who “associated with Blacks in a too friendly or casual manner ran the risk of being called a ‘Nigger lover’” (Davis). Not only were Caucasians chastising African Americans, but they were also castigating members of their fellow race because they could possibly upset the social hierarchy during Post Reconstruction America. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch is berated by Caucasians in Maycomb by being called a “Nigger lover”
(https://www.britannica.com/event/Jim-Crow-law). “From the late 1870s, Southern state legislatures, no longer controlled by carpetbaggers and freedmen, passed laws requiring the separation of whites from “persons of colour”(https://www.britannica.com/event/Jim-Crow-law).
About a hundred years after the Civil War, almost all American lived under the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow Laws actually legalized segregation. These racially enforced rules dominated almost every aspect of life, not to mention directed the punishments for any infraction. The key reason for the Jim Crow Laws was to keep African Americans as close to their former status as slaves as was possible. The following paper will show you the trials and tribulations of African Americans from the beginning through to the 1940’s where segregation was at its peak.
“Jim Crow Laws were statutes and ordinances established between 1874 and 1975 to separate the white and black races in the American South. In theory, it was to create "separate but equal" treatment, but in practice Jim Crow Laws condemned black citizens to inferior treatment and facilities.” The Jim Crows Laws created tensions and disrespect towards blacks from whites. These laws separated blacks and whites from each other and shows how race determines how an individual is treated. The Jim Crow laws are laws that are targeted towards black people. These laws determine how an individual is treated by limiting their education, having specific places where blacks and whites could or could not go, and the punishments for the “crime”
The Jim Crow laws were local and state laws that were supposedly “separate but equal,” but instead blacks were inferior to the whites due that to the social, educational, and economical disadvantages that they caused. In Woodward’s greatly influential book, The Strange Career of Jim Crow, he shows supporters of segregation that this was not the way that it had always been, but instead segregation took time to develop after the Civil war and that the acceptance of the Jim Crow laws was not just because of race, but also included politic aspects. Woodward proves his thesis by showing how the state between the two races was right after the race the war and how slavery required interaction between blacks and whites. Woodward continues to
There was an event in To Kill a Mockingbird that showed discrimination for a breed of man. As depicted in the book, Tom Robinson was being accused of raping a young lady by the name of Mayella Ewell. Tom Robinson was a middle aged black man. Mayella Ewell is a white girl. This was very distraught because of the fact that this was the time that whites were superior over any other minority. Tom was being held in a cell waiting for the trial to commence. Atticus Finch, the lawyer of Tom Robinson, decided to take a trip to the jail in which he was being held in. As he arrived, a squadron of cars pulled up. A group of white men stepped out of the vehicles and walked up to the jail in a sort of formation. These men had showed up on this afternoon to lynch Tom Robinson. Luckily, Scout Finch started talking to one of the men, Mr. Cunningham. She said,” Tell him [Walter] hey for me, won’t you?”. His son’s name was Walter Cunningham. He ended up feeling bad for what he was going to do, and called the men back. They did not end up lynching Tom. This connects to what happened in
In 1875 the U.S congress passes a Civil Rights Act giving African Americans the right to public facilities.”This was an effort to make full citizens of and guarantee the rights of the freed slaves” ( Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History).When efforts were made to enforce the law better, the southern legislatures reacted by making a legal system that separated races from everyday life things. Under these new laws called “Jim Crow laws” people of color were put in second class a denied entry into public education and transportation. The original Civil rights act was never enforced, which led to the unfair Jim Crow laws and that affected African Americans lives in many
The government officials and the white community hold all the power in all areas in life in these documents. The “freedmen, the Negroes, and the mulattoes,” had absolutely no power what so ever. The amount of injustice in these documents is appalling. It is understood that in this time period these laws were normal, but looking back it is unbelievable that these laws were in place in the U.S.
After the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, a number of laws both restricting and enabling the rights of black Americans was passed in the United States. Segregation laws came after the civil war (George 10). First, in 1870, a Virginian law made it illegal for black and white children to attend the same school (David). In 1875, Congress passed an act prohibiting discrimination in public accommodations. (David)When Blacks American emigrated to the west after 1875, they were met with hostility from both whites and Native Americans (David). From 1890-1908, all Southern states adopted new constitutions and voting laws designed to disenfranchise black votes (David)
He was a white actor, who was inspired by an elderly African American man from Louisville, Kentucky, who sang and danced to a song that ended with the same chorus: "Wheel about and turn about and do just so, Ev'ry time I wheel about I jump Jim Crow." Thus, the Jim Crow laws, named for the minstrel show character, were passed in the late 1800s by the legislatures of the Southern states that discriminated against African Americans in the
In the novel, Atticus is called a "nigger-lover" on multiple occasions because he is fighting for a black man in the court. Atticus does not pay attention to these insults because he knows it doesn't matter. In the book, Atticus tells Jem that "In our courts, when it’s a white man's word against a black man's, the white man's always wins. They're ugly but those are the facts of life."(Lee 220). By saying this it makes you realize what life was like for a black man in that era. They stood no chance against a white man, and there was nothing they could do about it. Tom, Mr. Raymond, Reverend Sykes, and Calpurnia were all treated differently due to the way people in Maycomb thought. Racism was a big issue in Maycomb county, and Atticus called it "a fact of life"(Lee 220). The Scottsboro boys were faced with racism just like Tom. They did not have the fair trial that they should've gotten, but it didn't stop them (Linder). The boys were first faced biased when they were accused of raping Ruby Bates and Victoria Price. Then they were faced with whit bias in the first trials with all white, racist juries. When the boys were faced with racism and prejudice they kept fighting for freedom in a white man's world. The Scottsboro boys and Atticus showed that you can defend the innocent even if they are black and stand up in the fight for an anti-racist world
This “war on drugs,” which all subsequent presidents have embraced, has created a behemoth of courts, jails, and prisons that have done little to decrease the use of drugs while doing much to create confusion and hardship in families of color and urban communities.1,2Since 1972, the number of people incarcerated has increased 5-fold without a comparable decrease in crime or drug use.1,3 In fact, the decreased costs of opiates and stimulants and the increased potency of cannabis might lead one to an opposing conclusion.4 Given the politics of the war on drugs, skyrocketing incarceration rates are deemed a sign of success, not failure. I don’t totally agree with the book (I think linking crime and black struggle is even older than she does, for instance) but I think The New Jim Crow pursues the right line of questioning. “The prison boom is not the main cause of inequality between blacks and whites in America, but it did foreclose upward mobility
The United States has the biggest prison and jail population in the world not only by population, but also by sheer numbers. Many of these offenders are behind bars for nonviolent drug crimes and statistically more of those non-violent offenders are African American. African Americans are 13% of the United States Population but make up over 40% of the current jail and prison population. A black man is five times more likely to be convicted of a crime than a white man in the United States. How far have we really come sinse the Jim Crow laws? During the Jim Crow Era African-Americans in some states were treated as second-class citizens in every aspect of life from how they interact with White Americans to not having the right to vote. Many
Slavery, is blacks being forced to work for white people. Since the beginning of the States. Abraham lincoln freed the slaves during the civil war. Jim Crow Laws was invented in the 1880s. Jim Crow laws existed mainly in the South and originated from the Blacks Codes that were enforced from 1865 to 1866 and from prewar segregation on railroad cars in northern cities.
Jim Crow was a man who created laws, that affected many peoples lives during the 1960s. These laws made it much harder for blacks mainly in the South, but then it started to move upward in the United States. There were many purposes leading to creating these laws. During this era, blacks were excluded from many things and opportunities. These laws made many changes and changed how the things were after these laws were taken away. The Jim Crow Laws affected, harmed, excluded, and ruined many blacks and in some cases white peoples lives.
“Nigger”, “Colored-folks”, “Dinge”, racial slurs used in the South in the 1900s-1960s. The disgusting souls who discriminated, judged, hated, and segregated blacks. “White men rule”. Women, their voices, barely able to say as much as a sentence. The blacks, their voices, unable to say as much as even a word, and the children, innocent and curious, saw nothing and said nothing. Harper Lee represented the horrendous acts and judgments of racism in To Kill a Mockingbird. Maycomb, Alabama, 1930s, a small town with a big story. Tom Robinson, discriminated and unequal, was seen as “just another nigger” in Maycomb. “Nigger”, “Chocolate”, “Colored”, racial slurs that began long ago, and are still used to this day. The White