Jim Crow Laws

Jim Crow laws, or the racial caste system which operated from the 1870s until the mid-1960s, were not just a set of laws designed to oppress people of color. Jim Crow and the system of segregation, degradation and exploitation became a way of life especially in the Southern and Border States. African Americans were consigned to the role of second class citizens. And through Jim Crow this was legitimized in the eyes of the ones perpetrating the anti-black racism of the times. The three representations learned about through the readings of Dr. David Pilgrim from the Jim Crow Museum point to belief structure that the Southern leaders tried to instill in their respective states and attempted to pass along as fact. The original Jim Crow and the Brute and the Mammy caricatures all contributed to the ideology and to rationalization for the rise of Jim Crow laws.
The original Jim Crow was a minstrel man in the late 1820s early 1830s depicting an exaggerated and stereotypical black man in the first instance of black-face. A song and dance routine based on singing dancing and grinning black fool took off in popularity very quickly. These aspects was incredibly successful and popular throughout America in the early 1800s and minstrels even traveled abroad. The term Jim Crow began to circulate as a racial epithet for black men but was not considered very offensive. However by the end of the century it was being strictly used to describe the laws and informal edicts that oppressed blacks. The depiction and stereotypes of blacks in these minstrel shows helped to propagate the beliefs that black men were slothful, senseless and less than human. All reasons some argued against the idea of integration and in defense of segregation.
Scientists, doctors, ministers among others were the ones to write about the idea of the Brute and how the end of slavery had brought him about. The idea was that slavery was actually beneficial to black men, that it kept them in order and their baser