The Black Codes And The Civil War

As much as Reconstruction had initially tried to help the South, it was the sole goal of this movement to, “undo as much as possible of Reconstruction.” State facilities originally that were supposed to help everyone were closed down, and the gap between black and white expenditures on schooling increased. Due to the depression in the 1890’s this worsened the situation for black families trying to make a living in the South couldn’t keep up their farms or the places that their children would learn. “In 1900, no public high schools for blacks existed in the South. Black elementary schools, one observer reported, occupied buildings “as bad as stables””. New laws about segregation also affected blacks in more ways than just demoralization, it also showed what kind of jobs were considered good work for them. In the instance of segregation on railroads, “many blacks could be found in “whites only” railroad cars. But they entered as servants and nurses, not as paying customers entitled to equal treatment. The rise of lynching also affected the way blacks lived their lives, by controlling the way they vote, how they treated whites, and how they couldn’t rely on the justice system to address their grievances. An example of the reduced number of voters is best seen in Louisiana, where the number of voters dropped from 130, 000 to 1, 342, which is directly linked to the use of violence as a way to intimidate black voters. Blacks also had to be careful how they acted around white, since murder wasn’t a federal crime and was handled by the state, many blacks were lynched without fair trials and accused of crimes like raping white women, murder, and theft. A majority of the accused never when to trial. All in all blacks in the South were largely affected negatively as a result in policy changes, social factors, and widespread violence. This injustice carried on

Especially considering the Civil Rights Movement was over 50 years ago. “IT IS NO ACCIDENT that the pivotal Supreme Court decision launching the modern civil rights movement was an education case -- the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruling.” (Leadership Conference)

Even after the hurdle of being enslaved was passed, there were many more and difficult hurdles ahead. For example, the black codes were an earlier major hurdle. The codes prevented African Americans from owning weapons, votes, and land. While the Black Codes were quickly abolish; a group emerged called the Ku Klux Klan which aimed to bring down African Americans to be seen as less than then human. However, the Jim Crow laws caused separation, and that separation led to African Americans having unequal opportunities. These laws were claimed to be constitutional, because they didn't deprive any person of life, liberty, or property; or trying to include slavery. From the Black codes to Jim Crow laws, African Americans had, and have many hurdles to overcome.

With the Union victory in the Civil War in 1865, millions of slaves were given their freedom. Although these millions of slaves are now free, the rebuilding on the South during the Reconstruction introduced many obstacles. These obstacles include sharecropping, tenant farming, the “black codes”, and not to forget the lack of education and rights African Americans had at the time. Sharecropping is consisted of a slave renting land from a white man and having to give up a portion of their crops at the end of each year. The black codes were basically laws against what type of labor African Americans can be given. In the state of South Carolina, blacks were only able to work as farmers or servants; the same jobs these free people worked as slaves. After decades of slavery, blacks were still under the control of the white people due to lack of education and rights.

For the greater part of the nineteenth century, black people were slaves for white men. The Fourteenth Amendment was placed into effect to protect the rights of the black community after emancipation. It stated that, “all persons born or naturalized in the United States” would be supported under the doctrine. However, this article failed to uphold the rights of the newly freed slaves. The blacks, ridiculed and scorned by the public, were greatly suppressed by the white backlash. The states put into effect laws that would suppress the blacks even further, even though they were protected under the Amendment. The states made stipulations on rights the African Americans were granted, like the right to own land, vote, and even hold certain jobs. Voting was a major controversy for the newly freed slaves, they wanted the chance to be heard through politics. Nevertheless, they were still denied the simple right to vote in many of the states if they could not meet the prerequisites for reading or could not pay a voting tax. They made contracts for them to work for white men, just as if they were slaves and nothing changed. Black people were still waiting for their salvation under this new piece of legislation, but were unable to grasp it through the government. African Americans stood for their newly given rights under the Constitution and were denied by the people who put

For my research topic I chose “Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws.” I chose this topic because I have heard about Jim Crow Laws many times through television, books, and history classes but never in depth. I wanted to know more about the topic, along with black codes, which I have never heard about and didn’t know existed. Choosing this topic allowed me to gain more knowledge on both of these topics. Before this paper, my knowledge of Jim Crows laws was that they were laws that White Southerners were using to keep former slaves as insubordinates to them. I learned that this is the basic idea and purpose of the Jim Crow laws, but they were also used to prevent complaints and issues, with the separate but equal laws, that said that black were to receive equal, but separate public facilities and buildings. What I wanted to know is how black codes differed from Jim Crow laws. To answer this question I found out the history behind them, the differences and the similarities, and in that, was able to grow as a researcher.

“It forbade all the states to deny the vote to anyone “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” This was the final blow to the southern states, which quickly ratified the amendment. By March 1870 the Fifteenth Amendment became apart of the Constitution. Now taking into consideration the hell that southern blacks were enduring, this short period of time consisted of three Amendments being passed that shed a light on the black population that most blacks at the time had given up on. Congress gave the opportunity for blacks to step out of slavery, accept citizenship, and take the power to vote and change the way the south had been ran. “The Radicals had at last succeeded in imposing their will on the South, Throughout the region former slaved had real political influence; they voted, held office, and exercised the “privileges” and enjoyed the “immunities” guarantied them by the Fourteenth Amendment…The spectacle of blacks not five years removed from slavery in positions of power and responsibility attracted much attention at the time and has since been examined exhaustively by historians.”

A quote from Document 8 says “ In May 1872, because of pressure from the libral Republican, Congress passed a general amnesty act which restored the right of officeholding [and voting] to the vast majority of those who had been disqualified.” Previously most black men had been disqualified from voting because of the lack of education, but all of that went away in an attempt to restore equality. White men were firious and would not stand to see this happent. Document four says “Let there be White Leagues formed in every town, village and hamlet of the south...they will not stand idly by and see us borne down by northern radicals and half-barbarous negroes.” White people formed grooups such as the KKK to torture the black people and prevent them from effecting white

Blacks were treated as lower than whites and were stripped of the rights others had, which included voting. “…Blacks bent on remaining in America would naturally seek the right to vote and, equally as a matter of course…blacks contended that denying them equal franchise [suffrage] with whites contravened [contradicted] the principles of the Declaration of Independence.” (Doc. 2) African Americans had no civil rights, especially as slaves. In 1840, a rally in support of the Liberty Party took place in New York and they stood up for what was right. They told the statement of how all humans should have equal rights (including blacks) and those would deny the right would be going against the Declaration of Independence. During 1861- 1865, one of the bloodiest clashes in America took place, the Civil War. This was a battle between the North and the South. With the North’s victory, three amendments took almost immediate effect, the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment. These resulted in the abolition of slavery, civil rights, and Black suffrage (Doc. 3). If the South were to win, these amendments would most likely not exist and would result in the opposite direction. Without the North’s efforts to win the war, there would have probably still have been racial issues with slavery, unequal civil rights, and also no voting privileges for the African

From Reconstruction through the end of the 1920s, there were multiple encounters of people from all different types of races that have dramatically changed the face of the United States. Old immigrates, White Anglo Saxton Protestants, were the only people who were thought of as true Americans and not outsiders at the time. The 13th amendment abolished the majority of slavery and African American hoped to be finally freed after years of bondage. However, this is far from the end of their issues and there are many more racial barriers to be crossed from not only African Americans, but also for others coming into the country.

In 1865, the United States government implemented what was known as Reconstruction. Its’ purpose was to remove slavery from the south, and give African-American’s the freedom in which they deserved. However, the freedom that they deserved was not the freedom that they received. With documents like The Black Codes restricting them from numerous privileges that white people had and the terroristic organization known as the Klu Klux Klan attacking and killing them, African-American’s were still being oppressed by their government as well as their fellow man. Slavery may have been abolished, but African-American’s were not yet given the freedom and rights that their white counterparts took for granted.

Without black suffrage, free blacks had no way of changing these laws, which could keep them in a perpetual state of servitude. Blacks were forced to rely entirely on national republican legislation to

Jim Crow was the name of the racial caste system which operated primarily, but not exclusively in southern and border states, between 1877 and the mid-1960s. Jim Crow was more than a series of rigid anti-black laws, it was a way of life. Under Jim Crow, African Americans were relegated to the status of second-class citizens. Some of the laws excluded blacks from public transport and facilities, juries, jobs, and neighborhoods, voting, holding public office, and school. Although the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution had granted blacks the same legal protections as whites. After 1877, and the election of Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, southern and border states began restricting the liberties of blacks.

Those who felt threatened by the massive amount of African-Americans who would now be participating in the government criticized this Amendment, which allowed all male citizens the right to vote regardless of race. Ex-Confederates, many of which were not allowed to vote after bitterly losing to the north, argued that African-Americans were not ready to vote because they were ignorant to the political system of the U.S. The political power of the south would be in the hands of the formerly oppressed, as opposed to their oppressors, who would be practically powerless. The debate on this topic would cause more tension in southern society, which was already undergoing a difficult period of adaptation. Another problem which arose in the south were laws which would further the oppression of the African-American population. Commonly called Black Codes, these laws also punished white persons who supported emancipation during the Civil War. These Black Codes were often unreasonable or unneeded to keep order within society. They were simply created as bitter retaliation by the ex-Confederates who were not pleased by the integration, which had just taken place. Black Codes were created and enforced on a State level which became superior to the Fourteenth Amendment. The laws would be psychologically damaging to the African-American population, who would be forced to feel

Since the beginning, the United States` government, racial slavery had conquered various American identities. “Racism sprung early colonial times due the slavery riot incidence misinterpretations, leading full men, women, and children racial slavery of all different ethnic backgrounds” (Hooker 1). African-Americans held a life long work and Caribbean island shipment originating and affective progression to American colonies. “An importation of 4,000,000 Negroes were held in bondage by Southern planters” (Webstine).Advanced time went, and Northern states nurtured a rapid industrial revolution; Factory introduction, machines, and hired workers replaced any agricultural need of existing slaves. Southern states, however, maintained