African Americans : The Dangers Of The Jim Crow Laws

The Ku Klux Klan, known as the KKK, has been one of the most feared groups in America since the end of the civil war during post-war reconstruction.. The civil war was not just about the rights of the black man, but it was a very important part. People in the north mostly believed the black person was due the same liberties insured by the U.S. Constitution. The 14th Amendment of the constitution gave equal protection to former slaves. However people in the south saw the black man as inferior and a slave needed to work on the plantation. This led to continued unrest after the war. Some felt the black man and those that supported his cause needed to be stopped. They wanted to control the black population. The Klan also would torture white people who were sympathetic to the blacks and their situation.

In The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander develops a compelling analogy on how mass incarceration is similar to the Jim Crow era, and is a “race-making institution.” She begins her work with the question, “Where have all the black men gone?” (Alexander, 178) She demonstrates how the media and Obama have failed to give an honest answer to this question, that the large majority of them or in prison. She argues that in order to address this problem, we must be honest about the fact that this is happening, and the discrimination with the African American communities that is putting them there.

Before there were players such as Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Barry Bonds, Major League Baseball was strictly white players only. The color line of Major League Baseball excluded black players until the late 40’s. This didn’t stop the colored men of America from playing the beloved American sport. The creation of the Negro Leagues in 1920 by Rube Foster gave colored men a chance to play in their own professional league, similar to the Major Leagues, but for African-American men. The creation of the Negro Leagues was a result of the Jim Crow Laws, state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Enacted after the Reconstruction period in the U.S., these laws continued in force until 1965. These laws created

Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: New Press, 2010.

Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment which made segregation illegal. Eventually, the Supreme Court came to the conclusion that separate public facilities were “inherently unequal” (McBride 1). Brown vs. Board challenged and signaled the end of Jim Crow and “separate but equal” clause.

Elie Wiesel, a holocaust survivor and the only surviving member of his family who spent several years in a concentration camp, stated, “I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure

Since the end of slavery, African Americans have been able to live their lives as they wished. The KKK (Klu Klux Klan) took away some of that freedom by killing and terrorizing African Americans. By 1924, the KKK gained more membership due to the belief that if African Americans had rights, they would take the white man’s job.

By the turn of the 20th century, African Americans who were once slave, less than 50 years ago were now full pledge citizens who can vote and exercise their rights as Americans. Reconstructive efforts were issued to aid the newly emancipated black population, more several in the south. Programs such as the Freedman’s Bureau, provided free blacks and poor white with food, housing, schooling and medical assistance in attempts for a better transition. However, freed blacks were met with challenges with discrimination and segregation among their white societals. These challenges came in forms of locally organized laws such as the Black Codes, and the Jim Crow Laws. When those barriers were challenged or wasn’t doing enough, violence is referred to in the epidemic of lyncing. African Americans endured these hardships under restrictions both socially and economically as blacks had little non economic mobility. Majority of the black population were sharecroppers, household personnel and many were also illiterate. Not only did African Americans suffered socially and economically but politically as well. Numerous cases are brought to the courts to exercise their rights as citizen but were often shut down. The 1896, Plessy v. Fergusson, voted in favor of segregation; as long as they are equal in what is being offered. But a break was in for the African Americans to move north. The industrial cities of NY and Philly have already attracted African Americans prior and in the year 1914,

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

There are many different policies in the United States but I am only going to discuss two of them. The first policy that I am going to discuss is the Jim Crow Laws. The Jim Crow laws were a set of law’s that segregated all public facilities between the whites and the blacks. After the Civil War, there was a time period, which was called the Reconstruction period. “The reconstruction period from 1865 to 1877 was a time of patchwork laws regarding the legal status of Black Americans” (Civil). After the reconstruction period was over, the Jim Crow laws were born.

According to Michelle Alexander there is a new Jim Crow happening in America today but it disguises itself in multiple ways. The new Jim Crow refers to the criminal justice system and the way that it is used to control poor people of color. It involves mass incarceration because it is a form of social control used to oppress poor people of color, but mostly targets African-Americans. The U.S. Supreme Court has also contributed to the new Jim Crow by setting precedents that make it easier for trial judges to send black people to jail for the maximum sentence possible. Not only has the Supreme Court denied a black defendant equal protection when he is put on trial before a jury, but in juries as well but having black jurors struck for any ridiculous reason. Michelle Alexander is correct when she says there is a new Jim Crow because it happens in our court system each and

In the novel, The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander makes the statement that “Under the terms of our country’s founding document, slaves were defined as three-fifths of a man, not a real, whole human being. Upon this racist fiction rests the entire structure of American democracy” (Alexander 26). I agree with Alexanders statement, that slaves were not created equal based on the Constitution, and this has influenced American democracy. Throughout my analysis, I will analyze Alexanders statement and support my argument with reasoning based on historical background, essential laws that were enacted, and current racial segregation.

The years leading up to the 1960’s were ones full of worldly and civil unrest. Wars raged, blood spilled, and many lives were lost. However, these wars weren’t always fought across continents and countries. Some were fought internally, without involving assault rifles or trenches. The war I’m speaking did involve two sides, but not Axis and Union. This war dealt with racial segregation and hatred among races . This movement sprouted all the way from the roots of slavery and the oppression of those enslaved. Nearly a hundred years after the end of slavery a clash between races was still very prevalent in the United States. Segregation was in full effect and blacks everywhere were being treated beyond unfairly. Blacks and even some others,

After reading and viewing the Jim Crow pieces, I conclude that those laws were very unfair and treated black people horribly. One reason I think this is because of all of the laws I found in the article. For example, Pilgrim writes that if a black man did as little as touch a white woman it would be considered rape. He also stated that black people were not allowed to eat with white people, go to school with white people, show affection in public, etc. Another reason I believe this is because of what was shown in the picture. To illustrate, V.,E. argues that the black man in the front has very torn up clothing where as the people/animals in the bottom corner have very nice neat clothing. I think this represents how bad they were treated and

The New Jim Crow is a book that discusses how legal practices and the American justice system are harming the African American community as a whole, and it argues that racism, though hidden, is still alive and well in our society because of these practices. In the book, Michelle Alexander, author and legal scholar, argues that legal policies against offenders have kept and continue to keep black men from becoming first class citizens, and she writes that by labeling them as “criminals,” the justice system and society in general is able to act with prejudice against them and subordinate black Americans who were previously incarcerated, on probation, or on parole, by limiting their access to services as a result of their ‘criminal status’ and therefore, further degrading their quality of life. The New Jim Crow urges readers to acknowledge the injustice and racial disparity of our criminal justice system so that this new, more covert form of racism in society can be stopped.