Jim Crow Laws
Political Science
The Laws That Knew Color: Racism Then and Now
Are we free or are we limited, men of color often wondered in the late 1860s. Twenty years earlier they were given rights to vote and have all equal opportunities as the white men. Then they were struck with laws that stood in the way of allowing them act as freemen. Those laws were called “Jim Crow” laws, and they were designed to stop desegregation amongst black and white men. There are many stories to tell about them, and how they degraded black men at that time. They allowed the use of any type of tactic to insult black men. Times really have not changed so much with the law and people of the United States often wonder if they cannot trust the people who are suppose to …show more content…
protect us then who shall be trusted in this land we call free.
“In 1868, with Amendment XIV, the Constitution had finally given black men full citizenship and promised them equal protection under the law. Blacks voted, won elected office, and served on juries.” [Blacks became hopeful and urged to be free] however, 10 years later, federal troops withdrew from the South, returning it to local white rule. And now, the Republican Party, champion of Reconstruction and freedmen’s rights, had fallen from national power.” This is from the article, “A Brief History of Jim Crow” from the Constitution Rights Foundation, and it explains how even though black men were given the same rights as white men, white supremacist found a way to overpower what the governments said and took over. They felt if they keep everything separate that they could stay superior and try to make it seem as though everything was separate, but equal. I say pretend because blacks were still often poorer in finances, poorly educated, and poorly treated as human beings. At this time Jim Crow had become a slang term for a black man, and the laws were to be different from blacks and whites. Surprisingly the north passed the laws first and towards the 1890s it soon spread to the south. The soldiers left home after fighting and come home to laws like these: “"It shall be unlawful for a negro and white person to play together or in company with each other at any game of pool or billiards." This selection is an example of a Jim Crow law that was effective in the state of Alabama from the late 19th century to the early 20th century, Marriage - "All marriages between a white person and a negro, or between a white person and a person of negro descent to the fourth generation inclusive, are hereby forever prohibited." (Florida law), marriages of white persons with Negroes, Mulattos, Mongolians, or Malaya hereafter contracted in the State of Wyoming are and shall be illegal and void." (Wyoming law), in the health care fields: Hospitalization and Nursing stating "the Board of Control shall see that proper and distinct apartments are arranged for said patients [in a mental hospital], so that in no cases shall Negroes and white persons be together." (Georgia law),"No person or corporation shall require any White female nurse to nurse in wards or rooms in hospitals, either public or private, in which negro men are placed, and no person or corporation shall require any white female nurse to nurse in wards or rooms or hospitals, either public or private, where negro men are placed. (Alabama law) (Dictionary.com, 2013)” what type of welcome is that to come home to after fighting for freedom.
It had gotten so bad to stop blacks from voting that they had some plans or tactics up their selves. A known tactic that the whites used was the “grandfather clause”. This meant that if your grandfather could not vote, you could not either (Papadakis, 2013). This clause started in 1910 where it stated that if your decent was not a voter before or by 1867 you have no right to vote because you are not educated nor have enough wealth to do so (Grandfather Clause, 2013). “In the depression-racked 1890s, racism appealed to whites who feared losing their jobs to blacks. Politicians abused blacks to win the votes of poor white ‘crackers.’(Constitution Rights Foundation, 2013)”. Another tactic was the literacy test because, they knew blacks had little t none capability to read fluently where they would give blacks difficult reading material like Macbeth while giving whites easy reading material like Curious George. If you could not read it then you could not vote. (Papadakis, 2013).
As an example of how things have become more like a pattern of the old days I use Michelle Alexander in her book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.
Alexander states “mass incarceration is an explicitly race neutral, yet de facto New Jim Crow system of racial stratification and social exclusion of blacks far reaching consequences” This means that the method of mass incarceration is a strategy to separate minorities without being blatantly prejudice. The War or Drugs and mass incarceration gives whites/majority justification to imprison the African American population keep African Americans and other minorities in a lower caste system without the opportunity to advance in society. Alexander explains by stating that mass incarceration “deepens pre-existing patterns of racial segregation and isolation” (Alexander, 196). This is caused by the result of the War on Drugs and mass incarceration. The method of eliminating blacks from society does not stop by just imprisoning them. Even after they have been convicted, they do not hold the some rights and qualities as other members in society. She also gives the example by stating Institutions are also able to discriminate against African American solely based on income or education status. (3)Political disenfranchisement, which explains during time of Jim Crow, African Americans were denied the right to vote despite the fact it, violated the Fifteenth Amendment. Similar to today’s New Jim Crow laws, …show more content…
if a person is convicted of a felony they lose their right to vote during and after the time of incarceration.
See something wrong with this picture yet? Well, let’s talk about how a 17 year old boy who was unarmed shot and killed in the state of Florida, but the person that killed him was freed. This young boy I speak of is Trayvon Martin who was walking down the street and stalked by “George Zimmerman, the man accused of murdering Trayvon Martin, [and] was found not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter Saturday night (USAToday, 2013).”Did I forget to mention the boy was black and the offender is White/ Hispanic? If someone is continuously told you do not follow someone and you do it anyway and are armed, it is safe to say you are picking a fight. It also gives the person who is being followed a right to defend themselves. This would make them the victim not the offender. “Trayvon was targeted and killed for racial reasons. Trayvon, 17, was black and Zimmerman is Hispanic.’ You have a little black boy who was killed,’ said Benjamin Crump, an attorney for the parents of Trayvon. ‘It 's going to be reported in history books and 50 years from now, our children will talk about Trayvon Martin 's case like we talk about Emmett Till. ‘Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black young man, was tortured, grossly disfigured and murdered in 1955 in Mississippi after being accused of flirting with a white woman. In Zimmerman 's case, State Attorney Corey stepped in and charged Zimmerman with murder on April 11, 2012. Prosecutors never argued that Zimmerman racially profiled the teen and instead said the teen was profiled as a criminal.” (USAToday, 2013). In that same state a woman who was being abused shot warning shots and no one was harmed at a wall and she was sentence 20years in prison. Did I also fail to inform you that she is black? “Marissa Alexander, 32, an African American who was sentenced to a mandatory 20 years in prison for firing a warning shot into the wall of her home in 2010 to end a violent argument with her abusive husband. ‘In one case Mr. Zimmerman kills a young man and walks away, free to kill again,’ Jackson said. ‘And Marissa shot no one, hurt [anyone], and she 's in jail for 20 years.’ Jackson said the contrast in the Zimmerman and Alexander cases exposed injustices in the justice system (Cooper Eastman, Reuters, 2013).” How is this any different from the KluKluxKlan being able to make up crimes, lynch blacks, and rape them, but blacks could do no such crimes and were trailed differently in the 1800? This next quote is an example how it is no difference it’s just learning how to adapt and evolve: “Newspapers fed the bias of white readers by playing up (sometimes even making up) black crimes. (Constitution Rights Foundation, 2013).”
To sum it up of why it happened was because after the war whites were scared and felt threatened that blacks would take over their jobs, communities, and families.
I ask myself the question why is it still happening? Jim Crow laws were so that blacks would never be able to progress after slavery. White supremacist came up with different ways to keep blacks from having the right to vote and have a voice. Even though on paper all of these things are suppose to be over and we are land of the free it is still happening. If you are an ex convict you cannot vote in the same year of the election. Problem with that is men of color make up majority of the jailhouses. Messages are being sent to young people that there will be no hope for young black men. That if he looks a certain way he will be targeted, even if his white friend next to him looks the same could be killed. On top of that the white killer will be let free on a bogus call about stand your ground law when they were the ones being chased. Sounds like some one of those tactics are coming back. Then a woman who was being abused by her husband, and sent warning shots to the wall where no one was killed nor injured can never see her kids again, because she is serving twenty years behind bars. This is sending the message that you are a black keyword black woman and it means that you are more dangerous and may next time kill someone who has already assaulted you before. As a system the government protects who has the money,
because everyone knows the saying money talks and bull crap walks. Who has the money you ask? White people… this system was set on an uneven scale which leaves the future generations of black kids to fight for survival in a system that was set up for failure in the first place. As time goes on more things will happen and as species we will have to adapt to it, even if it means to die for it.
Works Cited
Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York, NY: New, 2012. Print.
"A Brief History of Jim Crow." N.p., n.d. Web. July 2013.
"Examples of Jim Crow Laws." N.p., n.d. Web. July 2013.
"George Zimmerman Found Not Guilty." USA Today. Gannett, n.d. Web. 25 July 2013.
"Grandfather Clause, The (1898–1915) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed." Grandfather Clause, The (1898–1915) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 July 2013.
In Class Notes, Papadakis, James, July 2013
"Zimmerman Trial Draws Attention to Florida Woman Jailed for Warning Shots." El Paso Times.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 July 2013.
The Laws That Knew Color: Racism Then and Now
Are we free or are we limited, men of color often wondered in the late 1860s. Twenty years earlier they were given rights to vote and have all equal opportunities as the white men. Then they were struck with laws that stood in the way of allowing them act as freemen. Those laws were called “Jim Crow” laws, and they were designed to stop desegregation amongst black and white men. There are many stories to tell about them, and how they degraded black men at that time. They allowed the use of any type of tactic to insult black men. Times really have not changed so much with the law and people of the United States often wonder if they cannot trust the people who are suppose to …show more content…
protect us then who shall be trusted in this land we call free.
“In 1868, with Amendment XIV, the Constitution had finally given black men full citizenship and promised them equal protection under the law. Blacks voted, won elected office, and served on juries.” [Blacks became hopeful and urged to be free] however, 10 years later, federal troops withdrew from the South, returning it to local white rule. And now, the Republican Party, champion of Reconstruction and freedmen’s rights, had fallen from national power.” This is from the article, “A Brief History of Jim Crow” from the Constitution Rights Foundation, and it explains how even though black men were given the same rights as white men, white supremacist found a way to overpower what the governments said and took over. They felt if they keep everything separate that they could stay superior and try to make it seem as though everything was separate, but equal. I say pretend because blacks were still often poorer in finances, poorly educated, and poorly treated as human beings. At this time Jim Crow had become a slang term for a black man, and the laws were to be different from blacks and whites. Surprisingly the north passed the laws first and towards the 1890s it soon spread to the south. The soldiers left home after fighting and come home to laws like these: “"It shall be unlawful for a negro and white person to play together or in company with each other at any game of pool or billiards." This selection is an example of a Jim Crow law that was effective in the state of Alabama from the late 19th century to the early 20th century, Marriage - "All marriages between a white person and a negro, or between a white person and a person of negro descent to the fourth generation inclusive, are hereby forever prohibited." (Florida law), marriages of white persons with Negroes, Mulattos, Mongolians, or Malaya hereafter contracted in the State of Wyoming are and shall be illegal and void." (Wyoming law), in the health care fields: Hospitalization and Nursing stating "the Board of Control shall see that proper and distinct apartments are arranged for said patients [in a mental hospital], so that in no cases shall Negroes and white persons be together." (Georgia law),"No person or corporation shall require any White female nurse to nurse in wards or rooms in hospitals, either public or private, in which negro men are placed, and no person or corporation shall require any white female nurse to nurse in wards or rooms or hospitals, either public or private, where negro men are placed. (Alabama law) (Dictionary.com, 2013)” what type of welcome is that to come home to after fighting for freedom.
It had gotten so bad to stop blacks from voting that they had some plans or tactics up their selves. A known tactic that the whites used was the “grandfather clause”. This meant that if your grandfather could not vote, you could not either (Papadakis, 2013). This clause started in 1910 where it stated that if your decent was not a voter before or by 1867 you have no right to vote because you are not educated nor have enough wealth to do so (Grandfather Clause, 2013). “In the depression-racked 1890s, racism appealed to whites who feared losing their jobs to blacks. Politicians abused blacks to win the votes of poor white ‘crackers.’(Constitution Rights Foundation, 2013)”. Another tactic was the literacy test because, they knew blacks had little t none capability to read fluently where they would give blacks difficult reading material like Macbeth while giving whites easy reading material like Curious George. If you could not read it then you could not vote. (Papadakis, 2013).
As an example of how things have become more like a pattern of the old days I use Michelle Alexander in her book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.
Alexander states “mass incarceration is an explicitly race neutral, yet de facto New Jim Crow system of racial stratification and social exclusion of blacks far reaching consequences” This means that the method of mass incarceration is a strategy to separate minorities without being blatantly prejudice. The War or Drugs and mass incarceration gives whites/majority justification to imprison the African American population keep African Americans and other minorities in a lower caste system without the opportunity to advance in society. Alexander explains by stating that mass incarceration “deepens pre-existing patterns of racial segregation and isolation” (Alexander, 196). This is caused by the result of the War on Drugs and mass incarceration. The method of eliminating blacks from society does not stop by just imprisoning them. Even after they have been convicted, they do not hold the some rights and qualities as other members in society. She also gives the example by stating Institutions are also able to discriminate against African American solely based on income or education status. (3)Political disenfranchisement, which explains during time of Jim Crow, African Americans were denied the right to vote despite the fact it, violated the Fifteenth Amendment. Similar to today’s New Jim Crow laws, …show more content…
if a person is convicted of a felony they lose their right to vote during and after the time of incarceration.
See something wrong with this picture yet? Well, let’s talk about how a 17 year old boy who was unarmed shot and killed in the state of Florida, but the person that killed him was freed. This young boy I speak of is Trayvon Martin who was walking down the street and stalked by “George Zimmerman, the man accused of murdering Trayvon Martin, [and] was found not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter Saturday night (USAToday, 2013).”Did I forget to mention the boy was black and the offender is White/ Hispanic? If someone is continuously told you do not follow someone and you do it anyway and are armed, it is safe to say you are picking a fight. It also gives the person who is being followed a right to defend themselves. This would make them the victim not the offender. “Trayvon was targeted and killed for racial reasons. Trayvon, 17, was black and Zimmerman is Hispanic.’ You have a little black boy who was killed,’ said Benjamin Crump, an attorney for the parents of Trayvon. ‘It 's going to be reported in history books and 50 years from now, our children will talk about Trayvon Martin 's case like we talk about Emmett Till. ‘Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black young man, was tortured, grossly disfigured and murdered in 1955 in Mississippi after being accused of flirting with a white woman. In Zimmerman 's case, State Attorney Corey stepped in and charged Zimmerman with murder on April 11, 2012. Prosecutors never argued that Zimmerman racially profiled the teen and instead said the teen was profiled as a criminal.” (USAToday, 2013). In that same state a woman who was being abused shot warning shots and no one was harmed at a wall and she was sentence 20years in prison. Did I also fail to inform you that she is black? “Marissa Alexander, 32, an African American who was sentenced to a mandatory 20 years in prison for firing a warning shot into the wall of her home in 2010 to end a violent argument with her abusive husband. ‘In one case Mr. Zimmerman kills a young man and walks away, free to kill again,’ Jackson said. ‘And Marissa shot no one, hurt [anyone], and she 's in jail for 20 years.’ Jackson said the contrast in the Zimmerman and Alexander cases exposed injustices in the justice system (Cooper Eastman, Reuters, 2013).” How is this any different from the KluKluxKlan being able to make up crimes, lynch blacks, and rape them, but blacks could do no such crimes and were trailed differently in the 1800? This next quote is an example how it is no difference it’s just learning how to adapt and evolve: “Newspapers fed the bias of white readers by playing up (sometimes even making up) black crimes. (Constitution Rights Foundation, 2013).”
To sum it up of why it happened was because after the war whites were scared and felt threatened that blacks would take over their jobs, communities, and families.
I ask myself the question why is it still happening? Jim Crow laws were so that blacks would never be able to progress after slavery. White supremacist came up with different ways to keep blacks from having the right to vote and have a voice. Even though on paper all of these things are suppose to be over and we are land of the free it is still happening. If you are an ex convict you cannot vote in the same year of the election. Problem with that is men of color make up majority of the jailhouses. Messages are being sent to young people that there will be no hope for young black men. That if he looks a certain way he will be targeted, even if his white friend next to him looks the same could be killed. On top of that the white killer will be let free on a bogus call about stand your ground law when they were the ones being chased. Sounds like some one of those tactics are coming back. Then a woman who was being abused by her husband, and sent warning shots to the wall where no one was killed nor injured can never see her kids again, because she is serving twenty years behind bars. This is sending the message that you are a black keyword black woman and it means that you are more dangerous and may next time kill someone who has already assaulted you before. As a system the government protects who has the money,
because everyone knows the saying money talks and bull crap walks. Who has the money you ask? White people… this system was set on an uneven scale which leaves the future generations of black kids to fight for survival in a system that was set up for failure in the first place. As time goes on more things will happen and as species we will have to adapt to it, even if it means to die for it.
Works Cited
Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York, NY: New, 2012. Print.
"A Brief History of Jim Crow." N.p., n.d. Web. July 2013.
"Examples of Jim Crow Laws." N.p., n.d. Web. July 2013.
"George Zimmerman Found Not Guilty." USA Today. Gannett, n.d. Web. 25 July 2013.
"Grandfather Clause, The (1898–1915) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed." Grandfather Clause, The (1898–1915) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 July 2013.
In Class Notes, Papadakis, James, July 2013
"Zimmerman Trial Draws Attention to Florida Woman Jailed for Warning Shots." El Paso Times.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 July 2013.