Preview

How Did Jim Crow Laws Encourage Segregation?

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
716 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Did Jim Crow Laws Encourage Segregation?
law for states to deny citizenship on the basis of race. Although this was a step in the right direction for a rationalized solution to citizen rights for more egalitarianism within the nation, the political and civil inequality was only set to grow further. Following the fourteenth amendment came the equal protection clause and fifteenth amendment, both set to help solidify the groundwork for a better United States. To all egalitarians dismay, the introduction of Jim Crow Laws, laws that promoted the segregation and discrimination of African Americans¬, paved the way for further inequality. Jim Crow Laws authorized the segregation of many public sites such as schools, hospitals, and even water fountains. This unjust practice was fought against by many, unfortunately, to add …show more content…
The case in point is Plessy v. Ferguson, in which Jim Crow Laws were challenged. Homer Plessy, a man who was one-eighth black, negated the norms of segregation by refusing to sit on the section of a train reserved for color people only. He was arrested as a result, convicted, and fined for disobeying the law. This case went to the Supreme Court where it was ruled by a judge under the legal basis that segregation was reasonable as long as provisions are provided for all of the races involved. In turn, the “separate but equal principle” came to be, in which an agreement was made that as long as the provisions are provided for African Americans, segregation cannot be questioned. The injustice from these significant events in the history civil and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Jim Crows laws enforced racial segregation in the south of the USA between the end of reconstruction which was during the Civil War in 1877 and also during the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950’s. Jim Crow is a minstrel routine that was performed in the beginning of 1828 by its author. In the late 1870’s Southern Legislatures passed laws requiring separation of whites from “persons of colour” in schools and public transportation. The segregation was then extended to parks, cemeteries, theaters, and restaurants. This was to prevent whites and blacks to being equal. In 1887 to 1892 nine states (one was louisiana) which they passed laws requiring separation in public. This included railroads, and streetcars. These laws affected…

    • 319 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    These laws were called Jim Crow Laws. These segregation laws required that whites and blacks use separate public facilities. In the most influential case in 1896, Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld a Louisiana law that required separate but equal facilities for whites and blacks in railroad cars. This decision influenced the "separate but equal" rule for more than 50 years.…

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Under their constant strain, blacks were forced to use inferior water fountains, phone booths, seats, doors, and more. These policies were supposedly separate but equal; however, the harsh conditions blacks often received treatment that was far less that equal (116). Despite the argument of the Supreme Court in the Plessy v. Ferguson case, these laws stripped African Americans of their rights and civil liberties guaranteed by the thirteenth and fourteenth amendments. Respectively, these two amendments abolished slavery (29) and protected civil rights (30). By segregating blacks from whites and providing accommodations that were vastly inferior to thost given to whites, both of these two amendments were violated. As courts often ruled against them when they tried to challenge these laws, blacks were forced to settle for inferior accommodations under the Jim Crow laws…

    • 501 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    After the abolition of slavery in the United States, three Constitutional amendments were passed to grant newly freed African Americans legal status: the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, the Fourteenth provided citizenship, and the Fifteenth guaranteed the right to vote. In spite of these amendments and civil rights acts to enforce the amendments, between 1873 and 1883 the Supreme Court handed down a series of decisions that virtually nullified the work of Congress during Reconstruction. Regarded by many as second-class citizens, blacks were separated from whites by law and by private action in transportation, public accommodations, recreational facilities, prisons, armed forces, and schools in both Northern and Southern states.…

    • 1038 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One court case that illustrates the power the Supreme Court has over our daily rights is Brown v. Board of Education. This case emphasizes the Supreme Courts influence throughout history. From the late 1800's to this case in 1954, public places were segregated for Blacks and whites and was said to be acceptable as long as they were equal. The Jim Crow Laws were set up to support segregation which significantly impacted African American rights. This "separate but equal" formula had been…

    • 486 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Racial segregation has been an American tradition since the Constitution was ratified back in 1789; granting only white, property owning men as whole citizens. The cases of Plessy vs. Ferguson, an Brown vs. Board of Education have broken this tradition to send off a wave of additional cases during the civil rights movement in the 1960’s. Brave men and women who fought against society have brought this issue into the light, granting them the ability to let equality revolutionize itself since slaves were freed.…

    • 618 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Plessy Vs Ferguson

    • 1371 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Plessy v. Ferguson is a court case that argued for “separate but equal” doctrine which the Supreme Court decided states could segregate public buildings, rooms, and other accommodations by race in 1896. Basically, the Supreme Court gave the stamp of approval to legally segregate facilities such as schools, streetcars and trains in Plessy v. Ferguson decision. Even though, the Negroes and Whites had their own school, the school for Whites were better than Negoes. The significance of Plessy v. Ferguson was that it lead to Jim Crow laws becoming the law of the land because the Supreme Court ruled that the Jim Crows laws didn’t imply that Negroes were of an…

    • 1371 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    On the contrary, in 1954, the Supreme Court of the United States of America reversed its ruling of the doctrine "separate but equal" after hearing the case of Brown vs. Board of Education. The Supreme Court's new decision was that segregation in public education was not equal and therefore conflicted with the fourteenth amendment of the constitution. Here there is an example of a change being made to a supreme court decision. Once again, the only way to change a Supreme Court decision is with another Supreme Court decision. This fact may have been the key reason why it took almost sixty years to change the national law of segregation in public…

    • 521 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Reconstruction Dbq

    • 1142 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In 1865, Amendment Thirteen of the United States was ratified. The article states that all slaves residing in the nation or any of its corresponding territories are deemed emancipated. (Document A) Though the article does publicly mandate emancipation, it fails in successfully granting freedom to previous slaves. Southern states imposed “black codes” upon the newly freedmen. These diminishing codes restricted various activities and behaviors of the black community. Many included the prevention of interracial marriage, black testaments against whites in court of law, and jobs outside of agriculture. Clearly, the Thirteenth Amendment was not strictly imposed upon the once rebellious southern states. Three years later, congress decided to enact another article that would annul the previously mandated Dred Scott Decision of 1957, which states that blacks could not be legal citizens. This newly established document was titled the Fourteenth Amendment. The amendment itself stated that all persons born or naturalized in the…

    • 1142 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the main ways was that becoming employed became a challenge. If they could find a job it was usually an agricultural job, that put them in a economic decline. At this time whites viewed African Americans with “disgust”, to most people they were no higher than animals. This lead to many whites not wanting to higher African Americans. The Jim Crow laws made it to where many blacks became unemployed. The separate-but-equal doctrine let whites keep this in place for so long. The Jim Crow Laws were in place for nearly a century, during that time many factors let whites in the south defend the segregation laws. According to William “The Supreme Court’s landmark Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896 established the principle of separate-but-equal in a ruling upholding a Louisiana law that required segregation on railroad cars. The separate-but-equal doctrine would serve as the constitutional underpinning of legal segregation until the mid-1950s.”. The separate-but-equal doctrine was one big factor that let whites and states defend the Jim Crow Laws. Even though some whites and most all African Americans wanted to rid the Jim Crow laws,…

    • 854 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Even though the fourteenth amendments granted blacks citizenship, they didn’t get all the freedoms the whites had. Blacks needed a permit in order to carry a fire arm opposed to whites who didn’t need a permit. With the fifteenth amendment granting the right to vote to all male citizens poll taxes and literacy tests were derived by the southern state governments to keep blacks from voting. Since many blacks wouldn’t read or write it was made so only literate people could vote. Also, poll taxes were set as a prerequisite for voting which most blacks couldn’t afford.…

    • 508 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Result of Reconstruction

    • 528 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Under the Civil Rights Act of 1875, racial discrimination in public accommodations such as hotels,railroads, and theaters was prohibited. The end of Reconstruction did not help much in giving African-Americans real freedom because in 1883 the Supreme Court ruled in the Civil Rights Act was invalid becauseit addressed social as opposed to civil rights. Furthermore, the Court noted that the Fourteenth Amendmentprotected people against violations of their civil rights by states, not by the actions of individuals (for example,when the owner of a hotel refused to rent a room to an African-American). Segregated facilities, whetherschools or public transportation, were rarely equal. Legalized segregation also reinforced the notions of whiteracial superiority and African-American inferiority, creating an atmosphere that encouraged violence, andlynching of blacks rose significantly. Despite these obvious…

    • 528 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Slavery ending in the United States in 1865, once slavery ended there was the belief that the end racism and oppression would soon follow. However, almost 150 years later racism and the oppression of people of color is still very present in society. The most prevalent form of racism in the United States is institutional racism. Institutional racism is any kind of system of inequality based on race that can occur in institutions. Once slavery ended slaves did not automatically become integrated in society.…

    • 1489 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Harlem Renaissance Essay

    • 547 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Fifteenth Amendment prohibited discrimina- tion in voting rights of citizens on the basis of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.1 Though slavery was abolished, it was replaced with Black Codes, restricting the natural rights of black people. The Codes were established to make black people the inferior race and to reduce the influence of freed blacks on those who were enslaved. Some of the laws included restricting their right to vote, bearing a weapon, and learning to read and write. The motivation behind cre- ating the Black Codes was to preserve slavery. Disobeying one of these laws lead to a person be- ing put in jail. In an effort to unify the state, Congress passed the Reconstruction Act in 1867. The purpose of this Act was to change the United States from a country that was, half slave and half free, to one which constitutionally guaranteed liberty to the entire population. This included former slaves and their descendants. With that came the disestablishment of the Black Codes. Racism and discrimination still remained. When Reconstruction ended, Southerners created new laws which strongly enforced the racial divide between blacks and whites. These laws were called the Jim Crow laws. The term comes from a fictional white character who, in blackface, and depicted what white people thought a uneducated black person was like. During the start of the Harlem Renaissance, white supremacy was rampant in the…

    • 547 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Seperate but Equal

    • 482 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In different states over the United States similar cases have been going about. Each of these cases has to do with black students obtaining entry into public schools of their community. Linda Brown was a student that lived a few blocks from a public school but was still denied because of her skin color. This segregation was apparent to deprive the plaintiffs of the equal protection of the laws under the 14th amendment. In spite of other cases, a three judge federal district court rejected relief to the plaintiffs on the separate but equal doctrine announced by the court in Plessy vs Fergson. That doctrine accorded equality of treatment when the races are provided noticeable equal facilities, even though these facilities are separate. The Supreme Court of Delaware obeyed to the doctrine but ordered that the plaintiffs be accepted to the Caucasian schools.…

    • 482 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays