Racial Segregation
The Jim Crow laws were laws that enforced racial segregation in the United States between 1876 and 1965. They called for racial segregation in all public facilities in the South.
Keywords
- racial segregation (n.)
- discrimination (n.)
- inferior (adj.)
- equal (adj.)
- justify (v.)
Jump Jim Crow
The Jim Crow laws were a set of laws named after a theatrical show called Jump Jim Crow, which was performed at the end of the 1820s by white actors who had painted their faces black and impersonated and ridiculed African Americans.
The Laws in Practice
The Jim Crow laws led to discrimination of blacks, who were considered inferior to white Americans. The laws led to the segregation of black and white Americans, and a lot of economic, educational and social disadvantages for black people. Segregated places would include public schools, public places and public transport, as well as restrooms, restaurants and drinking fountains. Even the U.S. military was segregated. The laws intended to maintain the notion that African Americans were of an inferior race.
Did you know
that, in the North, there were no segregation laws? Nevertheless, discrimination against blacks was common in areas such as housing, bank lending practices and jobs, including union practices.
Segregation by Law
In 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court formally legalised segregation in the case Plessy versus Ferguson. The case arose in Louisiana, where racial segregation had been introduced by law two years earlier. When a black man named Homer Plessy refused to ride in a railway carriage designated for black passengers only, the case was tried at the Supreme Court. Even though the 14th Amendment to the American Constitution forbade public discrimination, the court argued that racial segregation was not discrimination if there were equal facilities for both races.The ruling was not overturned until 1954.
How the Laws Were Justified
Many white Americans justified the laws by saying that the exclusion of black Americans from public society was for their own protection. Some scholars even suggested that if you allowed blacks into white schools, they would be subjected to racism. This perspective took for granted that the blacks would be discriminated and harassed, and thus, used it as an excuse for doing exactly that.