Essay About The Destabilizing Effects of Jim Crow

The prejudice that black people faced throughout the 1870’s-1960’s was fueled by a series of racial laws that divided Americans. The 1930s was a time in history where the United States was left in shambles after the stock market crash of 1929 causing the great depression. Millions were left with hardships, hunger, homelessness and unemployment. To add on to, black people were targeted for violence because they occupied the lack of jobs. Another major issue that was going on during the 1930’s was the establishment and the popular following of the Jim Crow laws. Today I'll discuss the Jim Crow laws and the negative effects it had towards society.

First, we have to start off by understanding what the Jim Crow laws were and what they did. Jim Crow was the name of a set of racial laws that were primarily enacted, but not limited to the South. These sets of laws allowed segregation to be legalized. The earliest record of unofficial Jim Crow laws occured after the ratification of the 13th amendment that resulted in the abolishment of slavery. Soon after the ratification, followed the enforcement of black codes that limited the rights and liberties that black people were allowed to have.  Every now and then, people were concerned with the opinion that heads of power had regarding the Jim Crow laws “Monroe torter asked the president if he considered blacks “diseased or independant as to their persons? Inferior beings of a lower order”-O’Reilly, Kenneth. However the establishment of Jim Crow laws never truly raised an eyebrow due to the fact that the people in office at the time consisted of white supremacists and ex-confederate members.

What effects did Jim Crow have on a prejudiced South? Jim Crow laws interfered with nearly every aspect of black citizens' lives. These interferences included the smallest of stuff such as drinking fountains to more extreme segregations such as separated workplace facilities that oftentimes would not be equal to their counterpart. Although not all workplaces were segregated white people could never have enough and thus would sometimes protest that their work spaces were being invaded - “The most troublesome form of white protection manifested itself in “hate strikes”...White workers walked off their jobs to protest the absence of worksite segregation” -Terry, David Taft. Apart from segregated facilities POC were held up to double standards in the Jim Crow Era, Jim Crows South included literacy tests, poll taxes, the grandfather clause, and restrictions on voting meant to keep black men from casting a ballot. The multitude of restrictions resulted in POC having difficult and impossible chances of gaining position of office, serving a jury, and participating as equals in both an economic and social life. As an escape to segregation,violence, and racism many black people chose to migrate to north and west areas that were more progressive.

 During the enactment of the  Separate but Equal doctrine, the struggle for civil rights was harder to acquire for black Americans, since it actively violated the 14th amendment and the equal protection clause. If you've previously known anything about Jim Crow, then you most likely know what the equal but separate doctrine is, but if you haven't i'll give you a brief introduction. The equal but separate doctrine basically allowed white people to make their own rules and let segregation slide although the 14th amendment strictly aims to contradict this. The doctrine claims to be innocent and equal, but the only thing it achieves is further push a social stigma. You can't claim something to be equal and separate, that sort of defeats the purpose of something being equal. That's besides the point though, the separate but equal doctrine further pushes a harmful agenda because it reinforces the idea that black citizens can’t cooperate with the rest of society and thus require segregated facilities.  As perfectly stated “The declining significance of race, symbolic racism, color-blind racism, and unconscious racism missed the structural regressions brought on by the “Southern strategy” to mask indirect and covert ways to continue racial oppression.”- Wilson, William J. As previously mentioned, Facilities that were segregated would commonly be a downgrade to their counterpart and faced harsh vandalization.

The harmful stereotyping of black people was heavily influenced, and brought up upon a theatrical stage by Jim Crows America, In the early 1900’s white performers would blacken their face, exaggerate their lips, and put on wooly wigs, and portray black people as brutish, uncivilized, and dumb individuals. These black face characters and the racist caricatures is what many people in the west and north recognized black people as, since they had never come across a black person. Hate groups such as the khu khlux khlan, during Jim Crows South would become glorified as the majority of the South saw them as those who tamed the “brutish beasts” through lynchings.

To sum up, Jim Crow managed to build a society that created a broken America. Over the next several decades Jim Crows America brought upon detrimental effects to black people including stereotypes,segregation, and a fake notion that they are being treated equally to whites. It is now time that we as civilized Americans should always stand against structures that make up racism and to speak against racist safe spaces to prevent a future reincarnation of Jim Crow