If you are familiar with America’s Declaration of Independence, you have heard the line, “All men are created equal!” However, those who lived during the initial years of independence before the Civil Rights Movement would say that equality was illusory in America. African Americans worked as slaves in the South. Since the issues of slavery and racial inequality ate away at America’s collective conscience, the North and South fought a bitter civil war over the inequality behind slavery. African Americans received freedom and liberty in 1863. This incident took place in the year when President Lincoln officially outlawed slavery. However, most African Americans remained socially and economically enslaved by the various Jim Crow laws that white Southern males created and implemented.
What is Jim Crow?
You may have wondered, “What is Jim Crow?” It is basically a hoard of denigrating legislations epitomizing race discrimination. These laws ensured that the race-based caste system operated since the first English colony in America (Jamestown in 1607) remained.
White Southern males may have created Jim Crow laws, but many Northerners also practised it deliberately. The white establishment officially legitimized institutionalized racism and anti-black sentiments and laws. The Jim Crow era started after the end of the (Northern imposed) reconstruction period in the South in 1877. It ended with the start of the civil rights movement in 1964.
The Effect of Jim Crow Laws
Jim Crow laws date back to a time when America was less racially and ethnically diverse. America was also much less tolerant of anyone who was not white and Christian. Jim Crow law set the stage for the civil rights movement. It also set the stage for institutionalized racism against African Americans. This outrageous discrimination is presently a key and somewhat decisive issue. To elucidate, the Whites inflicted pain on the coloured skin in the name of “equality with a difference.”
What is the Jim Crow definition?
You may have wondered what the Jim Crow laws definition is. It is a set of discriminatory laws and statutes that created the Jim Crow South. The South became synonymous with intolerance and race-based hatred for several decades after the initial implementation of Jim Crow laws.
White Southerners derived inspiration from an African American minstrel play that was popular after the civil war. It was called Jim Crow, and they decided to name the new set of racially unequal laws after it. These laws formed an informal code that marginalized African Americans. For example, it took away their right to vote; it took away their right to access equal education and health care, it took away their right to obtain similar employment, among other things.
Of course, since the drafting occurred legally and passing of laws officially took place, anyone (white or black) who defied them could expect to be harassed by a group of racist white Southern males who were (and still are) known as the Klu Klux Klan (KKK.) However, others who defied Jim Crow laws were not so lucky. They were either jailed or fined. They got the death penalty in a few rare and extreme instances.
Some examples of what were the Jim Crow Laws
Jim Crow laws encouraged racial segregation. For example, some laws outlawed white and African Americans from accompanying each other in public. They were also not allowed to play certain pool table games together in public. A landmark ruling Plessy v.s. Ferguson in 1985 legalized and rationalized the Jim Crow system stating that African Americans could attend segregated schools as long as they were ‘separate but equal.’ The same applied access to health care and employment opportunities.
The South began to industrialize and urbanize in the 1980s. Many African Americans moved into the rapidly growing towns and cities in both the north and the South. This intrusion made many white Americans angry and nervous since racism was still socially acceptable. They began to extend Jim Crow laws formally.
African Americans often faced harassing trials in different courts. They had to use separate bathrooms and drink from other water fountains. They were also not allowed to associate or socialize with whites in public at all.
When did Jim Crow Laws end?
Taking a trip down the lane of history, “when did Jim Crow laws end?” Records state that “they ended in the mid-1960s when the civil rights movement took off.” But the Jim Crow era was slowly coming to an end even before that. Rosa Parks was an African American woman who got arrested because she refused to give up her seat to a white person on a public bus. This remarkable incident dates back to 1957. She went to court and began to prove that ‘separate was inferior’ for African Americans. The American establishment and legal system began to (slowly) respond by passing laws that encouraged racial integration.
The Jim Crow era is over!
The Jim Crow era may be over, but its effects are resoundingly real. For example, the African American middle class is struggling. One-third of all young African Americans are in jail, African Americans tend to be less educated than whites; African Americans are more likely to live in poverty. The list goes on and on.
When we see a Black Lives Matter protest flocking the streets of America, do we not recall Jim Crow Laws? Until racism gets wiped out in entirety, making America great again will only be a distant dream. Indeed, White supremacy has not disappeared, and subtle racism exists in every nook and corner. Enlightenment, education, and compassion are the only way forward. We can only hope for the World to heal and be better for the entire Human Race.
