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Jim Crow Laws Paper

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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.
Terrified by the changing of the Black’s status, before the Civil War had even finished, Southerners started a huge counterattack aimed at overpowering their former slaves. In 1896 their …show more content…

They were made to use separate facilities such as restrooms, restaurants, and waiting rooms. Blacks were prevented from renting land outside of the towns. They were forbidden to go anywhere they wanted. They were prevented from marrying any one outside of their race.
However, the Grandfather Clauses that were introduced allowed men who did not pass the literacy test to vote on if their father or grandfather had been able to vote before the reconstruction. African Americans were not allowed to vote until 1867. The Jim Crow Laws however chose to further restrict the Blacks by adding etiquette laws. Almost all of society believed that the Whites were better then the Blacks in all ways, including intelligence, being civil and having morals. It was believed by the Whites that sexual relations between races would cause a mongrel race to be born therefore in return destroying America .
They thought that if they were to treat the Blacks as equals then this would encourage interracial relationships. They used violence to keep the Blacks in place and at the bottom of the racial chain. This caused several Jim Crow Laws to be set forth such as a black man could not shake hands with a white man because it meant that they were socially equal. A black man could not also extend a hand or other body part towards a White woman for the fear of being accused of raping her. Blacks and Whites were forbidden from eating together and if they did the

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