Segregation During Jim Crow

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Segregation during Jim Crow On January 1, 1863 President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, a document that abolished slavery in all Confederate states. Although slavery was ended, segregation lived on. For nearly a century after gaining their freedom, African Americans living in the south endured harsh racial oppression in the United States. This period, dubbed “Jim Crow” after a popular 19th-century song that stereotyped blacks, was a time in which blacks were viewed by whites as a disgrace to society and treated them as such. Nearly every aspect of life was segregated between whites and blacks. From bus seats to public schools and from drinking fountains to city jobs; African Americans were forced to fight for everything and were given nothing. One work of literature that shows this struggle is Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. It is the story of a black man being falsely accused with the rape of a white woman in the “Jim Crow” south. It shows the true southern stereotype of a racist lifestyle. While reading the work of Harper Lee, the following truths are revealed more completely: (1) emancipation brought an end to slavery, but it didn’t bring an end to racism; (2) African Americans in the “Jim Crow” south had to endure incredible punishment from the whites in their community. While reading Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, it becomes apparent that the southern stereotype is true. Nearly all whites during the Jim Crow era looked upon African Americans in an extremely negative light. They saw them as outcasts and segregated them from life’s activities as much as possible. Interracial fraternizing was frowned upon by all in society and was cause for punishment and ridicule from those surrounding. In To Kill a Mockingbird, one prime example of this is at the Christmas get-together with Aunt Alexandra and Francis. Although he is a
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