African Americans’ social rights were very limited partially because of the Black Codes and Jim Crow laws. These restrictions aided the system of sharecropping, maintained social hierarchy and segregation. Black Codes restrict civil rights for African Americans such as to carry a weapon, vote, getting involving in the court, marry white citizens and travel without permits. The code varied in different
Jim Crow laws (named after a black character in minstrel shows) were rigid laws used to discriminate against blacks. They were established in southern states and Border States between the 1870’s through the mid 1960’s. These laws were put into place to support the idea that blacks were inferior the whites. Pro-segregationists believed that any interaction between the black and white races would lead to a race that would cause the downfall and destruction of America. Jim Crow laws were used to insure that no blacks and whites would intermarry or
Following the Civil War, the legislatures of the southern states passed some laws that limited civil rights of each African Americans. They benefited by this decision because it allowed anyone who did not follow these new laws to be jailed. The blacks and whites pushed the ruling further than before by pushing the black and white communities further apart. 3. In 1954, Brown v. Board of Education overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision.
For nearly a century, the United States was occupied by the racial segregation of black and white people. The constitutionality of this “separation of humans into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life” had not been decided until a deliberate provocation to the law was made. The goal of this test was to have a mulatto, someone of mixed blood, defy the segregated train car law and raise a dispute on the fairness of being categorized as colored or not. This test went down in history as Plessy v. Ferguson, a planned challenge to the law during a period ruled by Jim Crow laws and the idea of “separate but equal” without equality for African Americans. This challenge forced the Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of segregation, and in result of the case, caused the nation to have split opinions of support and
Furthermore in the Southern states of USA the abolition movement was resented. Plantation owners were unwilling to end slavery because it provided them with a free labour force. Many white Americans had justified slavery by thinking of slaves as racially inferior, as people without human needs, rights or dignity. The legal system had supported these racist views, and the rights of the plantation owners for many years. After 1890 many Southern governments passed a series of laws that set up a system of segregation that would last until the mid-twentieth century.
Corruption Based on Color Alveda King once said “Racism springs from the lie that certain human beings are less then fully human. It’s a self-centered falsehood that corrupts our minds into believing we are right to treat others as we would not want to be treated.” Unfortunately in 1930’s Alabama people treated others based on their skin color causing racism to be a reoccurring problem. Therefore, racism and segregation was harsh, and seemed never ending for African American citizens, even after slavery, but it could have been avoided if people treated other the way they wanted to be treated. Segregation or “separation of the races,” was one of the many ways for people to promote racism in the 1930’s (Novak, Julie). Birmingham, Alabama was one of the most tightly segregated cities at the time (“Alabama”).
However, racial discrimination continued after the war. The Southern legislatures, former confederates, passed laws known as the black codes, which severely limited the rights of blacks and segregated them from whites. They were separated in schools, theaters, taverns, and other public places. Congress quickly responded to these laws in 1866 and seized the initiative in remaking the south. Republicans wanted to ensure that while remaking the south, freed blacks were made viable members of society.
How effective were protest against segregation the USA in the 1950s and the 1960s and why? Before the Civil Rights Movement, whites discriminated against African Americans. Blacks were not allowed to attend the same school or go to the same churches even; public facilities and transport was separated for the two groups. Blacks were also kept from voting. Organisations like the NAACP, The National Association for the advancement of Colored People, was set up in 1909 and campaigned against the `Jim Crow` laws.
One of the first achievements was the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case in which separate but equal treatment was ruled unconstitutional. This sparked the slow desegregation of schools. “Does segregation… on the basis of race … deprive the children of the minority group of equal education opportunities? We believe that it does” (Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case, 1954). One setback that occured was the struggle to desegregate schools.
Brown 2 The Brown versus the Board of Education was a Supreme Court case that was an enormous decision that impact the desegregation of schools between African American and Caucasian children and took place in 1954. The Supreme Court handed down the landmark decision Brown versus the Board of Education, in which the court ordered the end of state-mandated racial segregation of public schools (93 Harv. L. Rev.518(1979-1980). With this decision, it set off the revolution in the civil rights law and the political justice for blacks causing them more lead way in and out of court. This decision was a life changing experience for equality and is still continuing to this day.