Advantages And Disadvantages Of Jim Crow Laws

How the Jim Crow Laws Hindered the Education of African-American Students The Jim Crow laws are one of the first things learned by students about black history in America. They were enacted on state levels in 1876 and became famous the phrase “separate but equal” Their purpose was to segregate blacks by giving them their own schools, restaurants, public transport, and bathrooms. This was a huge disadvantage especially when it came to education. At first this was a good opportunity for any African-American children to get an education and increase their literacy but many of the public schools offered to African-American children were far from equal. These public schools were often poorly funded, they lacked proper teaching materials such as text books and the teachers were paid little compared to the teachers in white schools (Bond and Puner, 446). In short, the Jim Crow laws created a disparity between the education received by black and white children that affected their chance for a career and the availability of higher education. Of course the passing of the Jim Crow laws sparked an outcry from parents who wanted their children to have an equal education. On many occasions parents sued
Many black families would move to urban areas to try to find work only to realize that the level of competition for jobs that was already so high that it was near impossible to settle down there. The populations of black families decreased and there was a severe decline in the black community (Heathcott, 707). This emigration back to rural areas further perpetuated the segregation that was already so prevalent at the time, a segregation that still exists today. The difference in education given in public schools in poorer areas is remarkably different than the one given in richer areas, this can attributed to the segregation started by the enacting of the Jim Crow