The Importance Of Separate And Equal Laws

Since the creation of our country, African Americans have dealt with prejudice. They have faced many challenges and obstacles, such as segregation. After all of the slaves were emancipated, most public facilities participated in the separation of colored and white people. One of the facilities that was segregated, included the bus system. African Americans had to sit in the back of the bus and, when necessary, had to give up their seat to any white bus rider. Document 1 and 4 show the segregation in schools, which invigorated children and parents, because this made many African Americans students feel inferior. The conclusion of “separate but equal” did not seem to be working in the education system. Restaurants were also segregated. White males and females were given much better service, and restaurants were often separated. Another way African Americans faced inequality, was through the denial of constitutional rights. In many instances, African Americans guaranteed rights were taken away from them. For example the 14th Amendment was violated, which guarantees equal protection of the law and it forbids any state from making laws that

Despite the black codes had provided rights such as the marriage legalization and the ownership of property, they violated the free labor principle and denied the African-Americans the right to vote, and sue any white man. Foner (2014) found “In response to planter’s demands that freed people be required to work on the plantations, the Black Codes declared that those who failed to sign yearly labor contracts could be arrested and hired out to white landowners” (p. 570) . In fact, it was a totally failure of what freedom was supposed to be.

     Certain black codes pertained to whites as well. It was unlawful for a black to marry a white, or vice versa. Anyone found convicted of the crime could be sent to prison for life. Many contracts were drawn up as ‘permissions’ for certain blacks. If a freedman ever broke a work contract, he would be forced to forfeit his wages for one full year. Any civilian was permitted to capture and return freedmen who broke their contract. They were rewarded five dollars plus ten cents for every mile he was captured from his owner. However, if anyone was found attempting to persuade a black to break his contract, or give a deserting black any aid, he/she could be convicted of a misdemeanor and forced to pay a fine.

The Civil War was fought over the “race problem,” to determine the place of African-Americans in America. The Union won the war and freed the slaves. However, when President Lincoln declared the Emancipation Proclamation, a hopeful promise for freedom from oppression and slavery for African-Americans, he refrained from announcing the decades of hardship that would follow to obtaining the new won “freedom”. Over the course of nearly a century, African-Americans would be deprived and face adversity to their rights. They faced something perhaps worse than slavery; plagued with the threat of being lynched or beat for walking at the wrong place at the wrong time. Despite the addition of the 14th and

In conclusion, African Americans were denied of their amendments and whites were racist towards them. African Americans were not free even though they had rights that they could live

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

From the 1930s to the 1950s, African Americans were being severely persecuted and ostracized. The Jim Crow Laws allowed for legal segregation and continued control over blacks in the South. Those laws severely restricted the rights of the African American in the southern half of the United States and essentially continued to restrain them even though the United States Constitution forbid it. The North did not have such laws, but blacks still suffered. When African Americans migrated to the North, they were disillusioned by the fact that they were still not equal. The African Americans were instead delivered a subtler form of the discriminatory actions within the South. African Americans struggled for equality everywhere because of white

Jim crow laws were a complex system of laws and regulations set for the separation of races. Jim Crow laws were set on boundaries with the phrase “separate but equal”, however they not only were discriminatory but they also were used in many ways that abused the freedom of American rights. One example for this is, “The schools for white children and the schools for negro children shall be conducted separately (Florida, MLK, jr. National Historic Site SB 197).” Schools for African American students were provided with low quality supplies and and teachers were often not qualified, while white children received high education with quality resources. I can’t Imagine living in a world where you were discriminated and put down in every way,

The newly passed laws became known as “Black Codes” and socially, they directly impacted the lives of all freedmen and indirectly benefited the white race. These laws restricted the rights of free African-American men and women (Doc A). In Opelousas, Louisiana, some of these restrictions were the denied right to keep or own a house in the town, the denied right to enter the town without special permission, the denied right to hold public meetings, the denied right to carry firearms or any kind of weapon, and a requirement that every negro must be in service of some white person (Doc A). The elite members in the South did everything they could to prevent blacks from gaining civic power, and the reasoning for supporting these codes ranged from fearing black political influence to the comfort of knowing farmers still had a stable and reliable work force. Even in the post civil war North, people believed blacks were unfit to be government officials (Doc E). Pro-freedman presses ran racist letters arguing blacks were not fit for the proper exercise of political duties, and their generation needed a period of probation and instruction in order to learn the ways in which society ran (Doc E). Many northerners felt blacks were incompetent to hold important jobs; therefore, the government was in no way aiding the reconstruction efforts to provide equality to all people in America.

The “separate but equal” doctrine was quickly extended to cover many areas of public life and encouraged many states to legally regulate all African Americans to an inferior status by enacting strict laws that were passed to forcibly separate blacks from whites in every sector of society including education, restrooms, hotels public transportation, sports, hospitals, prisons, and even cemeteries.

lso, In July 3, 1865, there was a document that was passed in Opelousas,Louisiana,called “Black Code” to keep color people in check.In the document of the “Black Codes” Created by Many Southerners after the civil way one of the law was,”No negro shall be permitted to rent or keep a house within the limits of the town under any circumstances” and “No public meetings of negroes shall be allowed within the limits of the town of Opelousas under any circumstances without the permission of the mayor or president of the board of police”.Also, this is an perfect example of how they(African Americans) were being violated of their laws, because in the first amendment 1, it states, “Abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble” and that they were told you “CANNOT HAVE A MEETING” which again across the freedom to have a assemble.Therefore, that this document,”Black Codes” is one of the best examples of how even though they were free after the civil war according to the documents.Some historians might say or people that african americans were, free during the reconstruction era but however, from the point of views of slaves and other such documents they were

One-hundred years before it was socially acceptable for white people to own people with dark skin, forcing them to partake in grueling, harsh physical labor. Then the abolitionist movement came and changed the ethics and morals of those ideas that were viewed as acceptable at the time. African-Americans were freed, but were still limited in rights. After many protests and many acts that would now be considered hate crimes, they were given equal rights. In a relatively short period of one hundred-fifty years, African Americans went from being treated as if they were work-horses or pigs, to being treated as normal American citizens, and the ethics of how African Americans are treated all changed, and if people treat African Americans in such a way again, it would be considered unconstitutional and a hate crime, showing how much ethics

According to the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendments, blacks had the same legal protection as whites. The Supreme Court contradicted this when they allowed so called “restrictions” in the South against blacks. Those who supported Jim Crow generally lived in the South. They believed that whites were above the blacks, in things ranging from intelligence to morality. They thought sexual relations between the two races would ruin the nation, and violence could be used on blacks if needed. So, hospitals, beaches, parks, prisons, public restrooms and even water fountains were separated by color of skin. In certain areas, there weren’t even facilities for colored people (Pilgrim). African Americans also had to treat whites with respect, whereas whites did not have to, and most of the time would not treat the blacks the same. Blacks had to use titles when speaking to whites, they could not eat with the whites, and black men could not offer to shake a white mans hand. Preachers did not help with the problem, but in some situations made it worse. They would preach that God supported segregation, “the whites were the chosen people, and Blacks were servants” (Pilgrim).

Even after about a century since the ratification of the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans in the southern part of the United States still experienced severely hateful and unequal treatment. The saying “separate but equal” was used mostly to justify this unfair treatment as well as things like the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws separated African Americans from being in places that were of the same quality as those that white people went to. These places were always of poorer condition and mostly unbearable but African Americans went to them nonetheless because they could only work with what they were given. As the plights of African American became worse the Civil Rights movement, a campaign intended to better the living conditions

At the time the law must have seemed better than being a slave for their whole life but in retrospect they would be faced with being free but still doing the work of a slave, of being stolen and sold back into slavery, of being killed by a mob for falsified transgressions, law upon law made to disenfranchise African Americans as a whole, as well as systematic oppression for