Jim Crow and the Kkk
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Jim Crow was a pre-civil war character in a minstrel show, A white man was made up as a black man by make-up, an incorporated character called Jim Crow, in 1832. Soon the term Jim Crow became on euphemism for “Negro” and the term Jim Crow Laws became a euphemism for legal segregation.
Jim Crow was not just a set of anti-black segregation laws though but was a way of life. It was a racial hate system that ran mainly in southern states of America in between 1877 and the middle of the 1960s. Jim Crow portrayed the legitimization of black hatred. The highly intelligent as well as the poor white community saw black people intellectually and culturally inferior to themselves, all societies of white people including Christian ministers, supported the oppression of the black community.
The Jim Crow system was strengthened by many irrational beliefs such as: Whites are superior to Blacks in all important ways including intelligence, morality and civilized behavior; White and Blacks breding would produce a mongrel race which would destroy America; Treating Blacks equal would promote inter-racial sexual relations; if needed violence is acceptable to keep Blacks at the bottom of the hierarchy. Here are some examples of what was considered the norm in a life under Jim crow:
A black male could not offer to shake hands with a white male as it implied being socially equal. Nor to a white female could he offer any part of his body as he was accused of rape.
White motorists had the right-of-way at all intersections.
Blacks were not allowed to show public affection as it offended white people.
Jim Crow laws affected every aspect of normality. For example, in Birmingham, Alabama it was made illegal for black people and white people to play checkers or dominoes together.
Jim Crow signs where posted anywhere and everywhere, water fountains, toilets, entrances and exists. The where even separate schools, hospitals, prisons and cemeteries for black and white people.
Homer A Plessy was seven eights white and one eighth black, however was seen as a black person and was arrested, in Louisiana under Jim Crow Laws for sitting in a white only railroad coach. He was trailed and his lawyer augured that u cannot have the right to label one citizen as white and one as black for the purposes of restricting rights and privileges. The court upheld the law saying that racial segregation did not mean there was no equality. The Plessy case proved that there was a segregation, with white being an advantage and black being a disadvantage. It sent the message to Southern states that discrimination against blacks is acceptable.
Jim Crow laws were the basis of violence and crime. Any Black person that violated the law, e.g. Sat in the white side of a bar, risked their homes, job and even lives, it also put their family in danger. White people where allowed to beat black people and there were no consequences because the police, prosecutors, judges, juries and prison officers were all white, this gave a method of social control.
The most extreme forms of Jim Crow violence were lynchings. Lynchings are extreme, even sadistic forms of violence performed in public,