Jim Crow Laws : Overcoming Racism In The United States

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

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.

The idea of racism has evolved and has become less prevalent throughout the last century. Schools and public areas are unsegregated, voting rights, racial slurs being considered as unacceptable behavior etc. American sociologist and race theorist, Howard Winant states that’s “The ensuing approaches increased recognition of racial injustice and inequality, but did not overcome the discriminatory processes” (Winant,2000)Although the United states has come a long way to try to end racism, one cannot ignore the fact that it still exists. It is something that may seem invisible in society, but everybody knows that it still thrives and that it’s racial attitudes affect the way our society functions. One of these invisible forms of

What if you woke up one day and everything became separate? School, sports, and even parks; would you be able to cope with Jim Crow laws? Though many whites opposed the idea of integration and supported Jim Crow laws, many citizens of color fought for the right to use the same restroom, water fountain, go to the same schools, and even to intermarry. Jim Crow laws were instituted to separate those of color and whites, because of this, many blacks were discriminated against in social areas and job and school opportunities.

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,

“Racism still occupies the throne of our nation,” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. pronounced just before his assassination. Almost fifty years later, we are still faced with the same unchanged threat that makes the words of Dr. King true. As individuals, communities, and a proud nation we have made an everlasting fingerprint for the children of our future, yet we lack the strength of acknowledgment to alter the course of racial discrimination and conquer prejudice. Has the formation of structural discrimination rooted itself too deeply into our subconscious that hope for rehabilitation seems unattainable? As a nation, we voted a man with a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya as the first multiracial President of the United States. Racism has not been eradicated because of the racial background of President Barrack Obama and we have not accomplished victory because of his African decent because prejudice has been too deeply fixed within our society. Social circumstance and the insinuation of race continue to change over time, precisely because race has become a social construct that serves political ends. The prior and present leaders of our nation organize, generate, and endorse the laws and public policy that ensure racism continues to maintain itself against people of color. Our historically racist foundation, the rising effects of structural discrimination, and the view of modernized racism all actively participate in shaping our structural

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.

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.

In a country where many believe the hatchet of racism was buried with its first black president, many people of color, both non-black and black are still frustrated and disappointed in the progress to be made. Many progressives prefer to see America as a colorblind nation, a nation where if you work hard and do right, you 'll fulfill the American Dream. Often this dream is accompanied with challenge after challenge for people of color. Of course what first must be asked is if racism is still present in our justice system and in the fabric of our country? What must be understood first is that answers to these complex issues are never black or white, which leaves far too much gray area to be discussed.

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.

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,

The Jim Crow Laws have been reincarnated into a new form according to Michelle Alexander. The Jim Crow Laws were established in the 1800s. The Jim Crow Laws enforced racial discrimination and segregation. They were in place until 1965. However, according Michelle Alexander the Jim Crow laws have taken new forms. Alexander talks about the war on drugs, legalized discrimination, mass incarnation and more.

African American history plays an important role in American history not only because the Civil Rights Movement, but because of the strength and courage of Afro-Americans struggling to live a good life in America. They have been beaten, scorned, and embarrassed for centuries but they never gave up on freedom. African Americans underwent immense segregation and racism regardless the “equality” President Lincoln granted them in the earlier amendments.

Societies of culture and different histories from one another in America were once deprived of their essential civil rights along with laws made to separate dissimilar races from white people, this system is known as Jim Crow Laws. Jim Crow Laws were meant to keep certain races, like African Americans, away from the “main” race in numerous conditions, such as education, jobs, transportation, even in marriage. Notably, in the article Jim Crow Laws: Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site it states, “The marriage of a white person with a negro or mulatto or person who shall have one-eighth or more of negro blood, shall be unlawful and void.”(Mississippi SB 198). This law forbad many African Americans and white people from being married