Jim Crow Laws Vs Apartheid

As a result of racial segregation in both the United States and South Africa, the coloured people’s resistance escalated. In truth, this time of division strengthened nationalism – their weapon that “[transformed their] common suffering into hope for the future” (Mandela, Notes to the Future 2012, 84). Moreover, the American Jim Crow Laws and South African apartheid led to discrimination, activism, reform and most importantly reconciliation.

Racism, discrimination and degradation faced by Blacks and other ethnic minorities under the apartheid system was not unlike the segregation and intimidation faced by African-Americans in the Jim Crow south. Jim Crow system of segregation that kept Blacks from fully participating in public and civic activities and relegated African-Americans to substandard conditions at work, school and even in the home. Blacks in South Africa were under the clutches of an overt, national policy of racism and segregation implemented by the country’s highest level of government. Civil and human rights abuses of Blacks in South Africa at the hand of the country’s white minority occurred long before apartheid officially began, but the system’s official start brought strict, sweeping laws such as the rule that all persons in South Africa to be categorized as white, Black, colored and Indian, without exception. Like in the U.S. during Jim Crow, Blacks and whites were not allowed to marry and sexual relations between members of different races was a criminal offense.

As a result of racial segregation, resistance from coloured people in both the United States and South Africa escalated. Furthermore, the history of the African civil rights movement validated: “Nationalism has been tested in the people’s struggles . . . and [proved to be] the only antidote against foreign rule and modern imperialism” (Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom 2008, 156) . By comparing and contrasting the American Jim Crow Laws and South African apartheid, we have evidence that both nations’ constitutions led to discrimination, activism, reform and reconciliation.

A recent study has shown that there were “almost 4,000 lynchings of black people in the South during the Jim Crow Era” (Luckerson). This proves the statement that blacks were treated badly and weren’t equal to whites in the Jim Crow Era. The Jim Crow Era is very different than today in the sense of equality. Cases involving blacks would turn out differently in the Jim Crow Era than it would today in the South.

The South African Apartheid, instituted in 1948 by the country’s Afrikaner National Party, was legalized segregation on the basis of race, and is a system comparable to the segregation of African Americans in the United States. Non-whites - including blacks, Indians, and people of color in general- were prohibited from engaging in any activities specific to whites and prohibited from engaging in interracial marriages, receiving higher education, and obtaining certain jobs. The National Party’s classification of “race” was loosely based on physical appearance and lineage. White individuals were superficially defined as being “obviously white'' on the basis of their “habits, education and speech as well as deportment and demeanor”; an

Socially, African Americans were limited due to the Black Codes and the Jim Crow Laws.

Differences amongst people has been in existence for a very long time. The time of segregation of black people in America is proof of this differences. During this time black people have been regarded as second class civilans. The laws that were created during this time had the purpose of restricting black people from achieve anything in life and these laws were called Jim Crow Laws. Those laws were mainly used in the southern and border states of the United States. But segregation did not only happen in the US, it has occurred in countries all over the world, places like South Africa. In South Africa, there was a system of legislation, called apartheid. This system, like the Jim Crow Laws, made racial

After the Civil War, many southern states created laws called Black Codes. These laws were were way worse than the Jim Crow laws. They tried to keep something like slavery in the south even after the war. These laws made it hard for black people to leave their jobs and allowed them be arrested for just about any reason.

Apartheid originated as colonization came to an end in South Africa, in the hope of entirely segregating the nation. Under Apartheid, the rights of the majority black inhabitants were curtailed and the white minority rule was strengthened and put into action. Enforced through legislation by the National Party from 1948 to 1994, 3.5 million non-white South Africans were removed from their homes and forced into segregated neighborhoods, in one of the largest mass removals in modern history (Evans). The purpose of Apartheid was not only the separation of the races, but the separation of groups. White domination wanted to maintain power and did so through the enforcement of racist laws involving unequal social order (Apartheid). Apartheid forced South Africans into

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

Jim Crow laws were social practices of discrimination with white people against the opposite race as them, which was mainly against African Americans. However, the term was originally referred to a black character in the 1800’s minstrel shows in which white performers wore “blackface,” and pretended to be black characters. Once reconstruction ended, it opened a door to the “Jim Crow era,” and began a long period in which African Americans in the south were denied the full rights of Aamerican citizenship. “Although, there were a set of laws that have been passed in southern states, which after they had earned their freedom from slavery.” (““Presentation Name.” Emaze Presentations).,

The national party achieved power in South Africa in 1948 the government, usually comprised on “white people”, and racially segregated the country by a policy under the Apartheid legislation system. With this new policy in place the black South African people were forced to live segregated from the white people and use separate public facilities. There were many attempts to overthrow the Apartheid regime, it persisted to control for almost 50 years.

South Africa really began to suffer when apartheid was written into the law. Apartheid was first introduced in the 1948 election that the Afrikaner National Party won. The plan was to take the already existing segregation and expand it (Wright, 60). Apartheid was a system that segregated South Africa’s population racially and considered non-whites inferior (“History of South Africa in the apartheid era”). Apartheid was designed to make it

Many of the contemporary issues in South Africa can easily be associated with the apartheid laws which devastated the country. The people of South Africa struggle day by day to reverse “the most cruel, yet well-crafted,” horrific tactic “of social engineering.” The concept behind apartheid emerged in 1948 when the nationalist party took over government, and the all-white government enforced “racial segregation under a system of legislation” . The central issues stem from 50 years of apartheid include poverty, income inequality, land ownership rates and many other long term affects that still plague the brunt of the South African population while the small white minority still enjoy much of the wealth, most of the land and opportunities

In 1948, the driving force behind apartheid, the National Party, won majority seats in the general election. They won based on their policy of racial segregation (apartheid). Some laws instituted thereafter included: “Mixed Marriages Act”, which prohibited mix marriages. “The Immorality Act” which made sexual relations between a white person and a person of a different race a criminal offence. “The Population Registration Act” required all citizens to register as “white”, “black” or “coloured” – these races were determined by the following (Bobby-Evans, 2012):