The Influence Of Jim Crow Laws

The time of Jim Crow was a horrible time for the African-American population. The court case Plessy v. Ferguson ruled that segregation was okay as long as it is equal facilities (Pilgram, 2). This caused the laws of Jim Crow to take off and expand rapidly. Ben Tillman, the governor of South Carolina in 1892, said he would “willingly lead a mob in lynching a negro” (Klarman, 11). This demonstrates just how integrated segregation and racism was into southern society. In 1944, a Swedish man visiting the south said that segregation was so complete that the only time the different races saw each other was when the blacks served the whites (Costly, Web). Many people believed that the blacks were completely inferior in every way to the white race.
Restaurants refused to let blacks even dine in the same as whites. It was a crime to for a landlord to have unsegregated apartment buildings, if they got caught doing so they would receive a misdemeanor (“Jim Crow Laws” National, Web”). In Florida, blacks and whites could not use the same textbooks and the they could not even be stored together (Costly, Web). In some states, blacks could not play billiards with a white. If it is found that a white and a black slept in the same room one night, they could be punished by up to one full year in prison. Even in death, there was segregation. An officer should not allow the burial of a dead black man in a cemetery where whites were buried (“Jim Crow Laws” National, Web). The most famous of the segregation laws were the bus laws. The busses were not the only segregated part though, all of the bus stations had to have separate waiting rooms and ticket windows for whites and blacks (“Jim Crow Laws” National, Web). The worst part about these laws were all of the people that disagreed but did not do anything about
Many of these people were African-Americans themselves. The trials that challenged Jim Crow started off by losing the first few. Plessy v Ferguson was actually set up by the Afro- Creole organization to challenge the Jim Crow laws (Klarman, 8). Cumming v. Richmond County Board of Education (BOE) ruled that separate and unequal education was okay under the circumstances. In 1903, Giles v. Harris had the Supreme Court state that they were powerless to stop the disfranchisement of blacks, even if it is unconstitutional (9). The Mississippi Burning trial was a slight win for Civil Right in that it was the first time a person was charged for the murder of a Civil Rights Activist (Black History Milestones, Web). A very famous ruling that signaled the start of the end of segregation is Brown vs. the Topeka BOE. On May 17, 1964, Brown v BOE completely reversed the ruling of Plessy v Ferguson. Chief Justice Earl Warren said “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal” (Black History Milestones, Web). The results of some trials and even other things resulted in