Jim Crow Laws Paper
Essay Preview: Jim Crow Laws Paper
Report this essay
After the United States Civil war the Jim Crow Laws emerged in the Southern. In the 1880s a few lawmakers that were bitter about their loss to the North and the end of Slavery enacted the Jim Crow Laws. Most states in the south passed anti-African American legislation and this was the Jim Crow Laws. The party that legislated these laws was the Democratic Party. The laws consisted of segregation of public places, public schools, and restrooms, restaurants and the public transportation. These laws made it hard on the African Americans to survive and live. The African Americans had a hard time finding work especially when they were going up against the white person. Lots of jobs went largely to the whites for example employment at mills. The African Americans could get work in the white residents but the only thing they could do is being a servant and hired help. The penalties for a crime were harder on the blacks then it was for the whites even for the same crimes. African American would get whipped, beaten, and lynched for crossing the color line especially in the South.
The Jim Crow Laws made the African Americans relegated to the status of a second class citizen. Many Christian ministers and theologians taught that Whites were the Chosen people, Blacks were cursed to be servants, and God supported racial segregation (“Jim Crow Laws “, 2011). Blacks could not eat with the whites and whites were to be served first. Black could not show public affection toward one another in public because it offended whites (Baker, 1996). The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution give Blacks the same right as the whites. Most people think of the Jim Crow they think of the laws not the Jim Crow etiquette which excluded Blacks from public transport and facilities, jobs and neighborhoods (“Jim Crow Laws “, 2011). After 1877 the election of Republican Rutherford B Hayes, southern and Border States began restricting the liberties of the blacks. Unfortunately for Blacks, the Supreme Court helped undermine the Constitutional protections of Blacks with the infamous Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) case, which legitimized Jim Crow laws and the Jim Crow way of life (Baker, 1996).
Ida B. Wells was one of our nations important leader for the African Americans. Ida Wells was asked to give up her seat to a white man and ordered her in the Jim Crow car in 1884. Wells went to her seat, biting the conductor on the hand after he tried to remove her by hand. The conductor got help from other men to remove Wells from the train. Wells wrote many good words in the fight against discrimination. This event sparked her career as a journalist. There were many papers that wanted to hear about the experiences she had.
In 1889 wells became a partner in the Free Speech and Headlight and this paper was also owned by Rev. R. Nightingale. Then in 1892 Wells three friends were lynched. They were Thomas Moss, Henry Stewart, and Calvin McDowell. These people were apart of the Peoples Grocery Company, their grocery store was taking away customers from competing white businesses. The white owners of the other store were angry and thought they could stop them by attacking the blacks grocery store owners. The three black men fought back by shooting one of