Why Do African Americans Have Jim Crow Laws

African Americans finally experienced their first taste of freedom after the end of the Civil War in 1865. They were no longer subject to forced manual labor but instead finally had the freedom to choose. The freedom to choose freely was a powerful one; one that African Americans had fought so long to earn. Although African Americans were elated over finally having their freedom after hundreds of years of being enslaved, many African Americans soon came to realize that freedom was not what they expected. The so called freedom they experienced consisted of de jure and de facto customs along with segregation that limited and restricted the quality of their lives. These limitations and restrictions came to be known as Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow was a
Jim Crow was mainly used in the south where racism ran high and also in some southern border states. Jim Crow was a succession of racial laws aimed at trying to restrict and control African Americans. Ultimately Jim Crow Laws came to restrict almost every aspect of African American life including socially and politically and as a result many black activists stood up against these laws to fight for their rights. White southerners exerted complete control over African American’s social life with the use of Jim Crow Laws. The Jim Crow social caste ultimately came about because of the intense advocacy of white supremacy by major political leaders of the south. These laws subjected blacks to outrageous customs that were both degrading and humiliating. Jim Crow allowed for whites to experience a better quality of life while blacks were forced to use facilities that were old, run down, and unsanitary. Jim Crow laws were legitimized during the supreme court case of Plessey V. Ferguson in 1896 when the