Jim Crow Laws In The 1950's

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

The State of Tennessee enacted 20 Jim Crow laws between 1866 and 1955, including six requiring school segregation, four which outlawed miscegenation, three which segregated railroads, two requiring segregation for public accommodations, and one which mandated segregation on streetcars. The 1869 law declared that no citizen could be excluded from the University of Tennessee because of race or color but then mandated that instructional facilities for black students be separate from those used by white students. As of 1954, segregation laws for miscegenation, transportation and public accommodation were still in effect. - See more at:

1. Jim crow laws were started and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the southern united states. Enacted after the reconstruction period, these laws contained in forces until 1966

In the late 1800s to the early 1900s segregation was one of the biggest issues in the court of law. After slavery was finally abolished African Americans were able to have more freedom, but they were still treated different than any other race. The Jim Crow laws are an example of the law that affected everyday life in the African American community in the beginning of the 1890s. This law segregated schools, parks, libraries, drinking fountains, restrooms, buses, trains, and restaurants. The struggle to achieve equality was made even more difficult by the legislation of racism in the Plessy v Ferguson case.

During the 1880s to the 1960s, many American states enforced the Jim Crow Laws that allowed for segregation. A few states affected by this were Delaware to California, and from North Dakota to Texas. Legal punishment could be inflicted if people were to consort with other races. The most common law was to ensure that people would not marry people outside their race and to separate business and public institutions by black and white.

In the early 1800’s, derogatory minstrel shows were created to mimic African Americans; these led to the formation of the Jim Crow laws. The minstrel shows were popularly done in blackface, theatrical makeup used by a nonblack performer in the role of a Black person. The characters often had comedic roles that displayed stereotypes and negative qualities of Black people. The Jim Crow laws, established in the 1870’s, were named after one of the earlier minstrel shows, Jump Jim Crow, a song and dance routine first performed in 1828. The minstrel shows catalyzed racism in the South and reinforced the support the laws would later need to be successful.

Jim Crow was not a person, yet affected the lives of many. Originally named after a 19th-century minstrel song that harshly stereotyped African Americans, Jim Crow laws were in place from around 1880 to the 1960s. Though this idea of separation may be hard to understand in today’s society, it was very relevant and thrived in America for a good eighty years! These laws and practices in the South were very successful because they were sanctioned by the national government ("The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow"). “The actions -- or, more frequently, inactions—of the three branches of the federal government were essential in defining the lifespan of Jim Crow” ("The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow"). From this support spurred extreme support from racial groups directed by white clergymen. One group, called the Klu Klux Klan—KKK for short—practiced cross burning and defacement of property in order to ridicule African-Americans. As hard to believe as it is, it “continues today

In the book the New Jim Crow Laws there is racial discrimination on the African American people in the American society. What is racial discrimination? It is refusing somebody based on race. In the United States we have been racial discriminate on the African American people and that is what cause the south and north to go civil wat was because slavery and racism that existed and even still to this day. In the south the black were less and treated unequal to them historically even today were are still experiencing a civil rights movement. In the recent years society had a civil right movement when Obama become the first black president in history in the 2008 and still serving until 2016. In this book is comparing the pre Jim Crow laws to Current the Jim Crow laws.

The Jim Crow laws were everything but fair, and equal. Jim Crow is the name they used in the laws on separating the African Americans from the Caucasian men and women. These laws deprived African Americans from their civil rights because of the many things they were not allowed to experience due to these laws. Jim Crow laws oppressed the educational rights, voting rights, and social freedoms of American citizens, this essay will be discussing the oppression of these rights and freedoms.

Jim Crow Laws were mainly found in the southern states of the the US, but could also sometimes be found in northern states. These laws were created around the time the 14th amendment was created in which all races had the right to vote. Jim Crow Laws were meant to limit the freedom of Africans-American. These laws included,”A black male could not offer his hand to a white man” and that blacks and whites were not suppose to eat together. An African-American couldn’t even look in the direction of a white person without being punished.

Jim Crow laws dominated every aspect of African American life from its inception after Reconstruction up to the civil rights era and its affects can still be felt today. During this era of Jim Crow African Americans had different ways of coping with these oppressive laws. These ways of coping included these three methods, migration, agitation and accommodation. Out of these three methods the most effective at defying Jim Crow laws and fighting segregation was agitation.

Enacted by lawmakers bitter about the loss against the North, Jim Crow Laws blatantly favored whites and repressed those of color as many refused to welcome blacks into civic-life, still believing them to be inferior. These laws were essentially a legalized legislative barrier to the freedom promised by our constitution, and the newly won war against the southern states to end slavery. This institutionalized form of inequality spread like a wildfire in the subsequent decades, separating the races in every way imaginable; in all walks of life. Although these laws varied from state to state, we see a common trend of laws keeping blacks and whites separated, particularly in social settings and social institutions. Some of these laws include but are not limited to marriage, hospitalization, restrooms, public transportation, and prisons; all of which isolating blacks from whites. We even find laws regarding liquor licensing such as a law in Georgia which required all persons licensed to sell alcohol, to serve exclusively whites or exclusively colored people; prohibiting sales to the two races simultaneously (NPS, 2015). Laws such as this were not few and far between. Segregation of blacks became a defining custom in nearly every aspect of life in the mid-nineteenth century well into the mid-twentieth century.

Why was it that the white race feels superior to other races, such as Hispanics, Asians, and African Americans? The problem with people is that many don’t like to see other ethical culture succeed. What people don’t know is that if that ethical group does not succeed then they together can not succeed as a racial community. The end of slavery but the rise of Jim Crow laws brought the acts of inequality, separation, and the mistreatment of the colored.

“The Jim Crow era was one of struggle -- not only for the victims of violence, discrimination, and poverty, but by those who worked to challenge (or promote) segregation in the South” (“Jim Crow Stories”). It is important to know the history of this significant period where everyone was treated differently based on how they looked instead of their character. During the Jim Crow era, the lives of African Americans were severely restricted making it difficult for them to succeed in everyday life.

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.