The Influence Of Jim Crow Laws In The United States

‘Jump Jim Crow’ was a term for a type of laws that allowed racism and being able to be cruel to blacks. ‘Jim Crow Laws’ were laws after the Civil War and while the reconstruction of the South took place. And racism was happening in all the states. Also, any local area that wanted a law about discrimination was allowed. White communities thought that blacks were inferior to them.

It is a widespread notion that the Thirteenth Amendment ended the unconstitutional enslavement of African Americans in the United States, declaring "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.” Most Americans, however, do not take note of the loophole placed in the famed Thirteenth Amendment- slavery was deemed unconstitutional with the exception of being used as a ‘punishment for crime’. Michelle Alexander examines this loophole in The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, arguing how mass incarceration has replaced slavery and Jim Crow to reduce black Americans to a second class status. Through

The term "Jim Crow" was first created in the 1830s by White American audiences who watched Thomas "Daddy" Rice, a white man performing in blackface, portraying a comic black slave who danced and sang with glee. By the early 1900s, the term had come to describe the institutionalized system of segregation that kept blacks and whites separate in schools, restaurants, theaters, bathrooms, pools, buses, bars, markets, libraries and all other public facilities in the American South. Rand Paul stated, “The history of African-American repression in this country rose from government-sanctioned racism. Jim Crow laws were a product of bigoted state and local governments.

The whole Jim Crow Law rules were based on the separate but equal properties. Any of the laws that enforced racial segregation in the south between the end of reconstruction in 1877 and the beginning of the civil rights movement in the 1950s. Jim crow laws affected public places such as schools, housing jobs, parks, cemeteries, and public gathering places. Ohio was one of the first to ban interracial marriage. There was forms of segregation before the laws came into place. For instance some people had the mentality that they could work with a slave as long as the slave knew his or her place. Brown vs. Board of Education is an example of a Jim Crow law being put into action. After the supreme court unanimously held that racial segregation of children in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause.

Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness goes into great detail on race related issues that were specific to black males, the mass incarceration, and how that lead to the development of institutionalized racism in the United States. She compares the Jim Crow with recent phenomenon of mass incarceration and points out that the mass incarceration is a network of laws, policies, customs and institutions that have been working together to warrant the subordinating status of black males. In this paper I will go into a brief examination of the range of issues that she mentions in her book that are surrounding the mass incarceration of black male populations.

Upon being elected president in 1860, Abraham Lincoln sought the abolition of slavery. The Confederate states were against this, so they started a Civil War between them and the Union states. The Union states won, but the Confederate states did not take it lightly. The white people discriminated and segregated black people. The black people had separate schools, drinking fountains, and eating establishments. The Jim Crow Laws promoted segregation and violence and as time went on the Civil Rights Movement came about.

Phil Robertson the patriarch of Duck Dynasty has little to no knowledge about the events that happen in the Jim Crow era. To see how wrong he is lets take a look at the Jim Crow era. First Jim Crow was the name of the racial class method which operated mainly, but not purely in the south, between eighteen seventy-seven and the nineteen sixty. Jim Crow was more than a series of severe anti black laws. It was a way of life to african americans. Under Jim Crow, African Americans were relegated to the status of second class citizens. Jim Crow represented the legitimization of anti-black racism. Many Christian ministers and theologians taught that caucasian were the Chosen people, african americans were cursed to be servants, and God

Since the beginnings of the United States there has always been some form of racism, whether it be individual, institutional, or systematic. Racism can be defined as prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior. In the US today this racism is seen in many forms from a simple comment to a violent action. Recent actions such as the Dakota pipeline and the new mass incarceration system have begun to show new forms of racism. The way the systems work and progress is tremendously depended on people of color and the discrimination towards them. The fact that both the Dakota pipeline and the mass incarceration systems hugely relays on those of color being oppressed and controlled is in its self a blatant act of racism.

The term, “history repeats itself” has held true throughout the years; however, the real question is whether it “repeats itself” or if it is an ongoing issue. Jim Crow laws, segregation, and civil rights are all a part of the never-ending cycle that has been passed on generation, by generation. After all, this can be seen by the examples of Thurgood Marshall, the NAACP, the Groveland Boys, modern-day struggles, and firsthand experiences. After all, the struggles of finding equality in our society, no matter how much it seems like we “get along” with another race, or classification on people, doesn’t mean that there is an underlining of respect.

The Jim Crow era, 1877 through the 1950s, ushered in still another wave of unfair imprisonment for black people. Minor offenses continued to be disproportionately enforced and carried excessive sentences. Once again, this proved that prison sentences did not fit the actual crime, but rather were a form of deliberate racial control targeting men and women of color. Alexander (2012) further points out that the aggressive enforcement of these minor criminal offenses opened up an enormous market for convict leasing, in which prisoners were contracted out as laborers to the highest private bidder (p. 31). Essentially, African Americans continued to be slaves of the state for the duration of their prison term.

Jim Crows laws was a statute created that agreed to segregation. These laws were enacted by the Southerners and the municipalities in the early 1880s. The Jim Crow saying had become so popular that any law passed in the South dealing with blacks and whites was titled under; Jim Crow. Besides all the negativity towards the blacks, the “16 black members of the Louisiana General Assembly passed a law to prevent black and white people from riding together on railroads”. Jim Crows law touched almost everything in the South; such as little things like separating black and white textile workers in South Carolina. This law was taking over the African-American’s lives tremendously. To the point where the court had ended off upholding a Mississippi

The assignment for this week consist of the students choosing between an organization, a person and a specific event during the Rise and Fall of Jim Crow. Jim Crow laws were implemented throughout the deep south and around the United States. The law for everting from restaurants, churches and even modes of transportation was segregated. Also during that time many cities were operating not only on Jim Crow, but also establishing sundown towns. The civil rights movement was full swing and tensions were high between both whites and blacks. Especially black men because they were fighting for equal rights in how to be treated.

For many in the South during the 50’s and 60’s Americans equaled whites. Whites were the superior race and should be kept separate from those deemed inferior. This separation was perpetuated by the enforcement of Jim Crow Laws. The reactions to this segregation differed from race to race and from region to region.

Excessive force and police brutality have become common terms for anyone keeping up with today’s current events. In 2014, the media covered numerous cases of excessive force that resulted in the deaths of several people of color (Nelson & Staff, 2014). The most widely covered cases by the media in 2014 were of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black male shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri; and Eric Garner, a 43-year-old black male in Staten Island, New York who was put into a choke by police officer Daniel Pantaleo until he lost consciousness and stopped breathing (Nelson & Staff, 2014). These cases brought attention to the seriousness of police brutality and the curiosity of how often it occurs (Brown, 2015).

Police brutality is not a new subject. It has been around for numerous years, and like most issues, has resurfaced to the public’s eyes. The recent events brought up the question: Does there need to be a reform in the system in the police system? In this year alone, there have been countless cases of individuals being harmed or even killed by police officers for reasons that continuously are not explained. What has people more attentive to this injustice are statistics showing that most victims in these police attacks happen to be African Americans and other minorities.