Guaranteed Quality. Affordable Prices. 100% Plagiarism Free. Secure Payment (PayPal)

The Jim Crow Laws Essays | Assignment Help | Essay Help | Write Essay For Me

Order Your Essay Now Assignment Help | Essay Help | Write Essay For Me 
The Jim Crow Laws
The Jim Crow laws were implemented in south of America in the 1880s with the general aim of enhancing racial segregation. The implementation of the racial segregation of the African Americans led to the loss and abuse of their civil liberties. Every aspect of life in the society was affected by the Jim Crow laws until the early 1960s the time when reasoning among the Americans about the true meaning equality among all citizens started being manifested. For the time the laws were in effect, the blacks in the United States of America were regarded to be people of the second class for close to a century (Morehouse, 2000).
This kind of treatment towards the blacks was evident by the fact that the facilities they used seemed were “separate but equal” to those used by the whites but this was contrary to the reality on the ground since evidence showed that such facilities were like second hand facilities if compared to those used by the whites (Robin and Kelley, 2005).
The Jim Crow laws robbed the blacks their benefits which were being enjoyed by the whites and this kind of situation forced them to seek alternative methods of making the world they are living in a better place to stay (Morehouse, 2000). This challenge was too mush for some of the African America and some of them rose to the challenge through violent means while others practised cowardliness. For a century, the force of the Jim Crow laws and the dominating ideas of the whites left the blacks in the country which enjoys world’s supremacy today without a voice and such ideas are also evident in today’s society. 
Order Your Essay Now Assignment Help | Essay Help | Write Essay For Me 
Origin of Jim Crow
The term “Jim Crow” originated from a minstrel show which was staged by a white performer (Thomas “Daddy” Rice) whose expressions were defined by the manner in which he sung and danced. Rice used clothes designed of vagabond and blackened his face by using a burnt cork (Robin and Kelley, 2005). His trait of acting and performing were interpreted in two different ways were some argue that he represented  black slaves who were elderly while others argued that his trait represented a poor black and a stable boy. His encouragement was mainly as a result of his African American singing.
The performances of Rice were staged in several cities across America such as Philadelphia, Louisville, New York, and Pittsburgh (Morehouse, 2000). The kind of lifestyle that Rice showed that of a black person in his performances gave the crowds false impression of his life approach. His lifestyle added insults to injuries in the lives of the blacks since all the viewers were left with a stereotypical image of the ambitions, traits and behaviors of the blacks.  The approach of Rice in stage performances attracted other performers from the superior fraternity and used the performance opportunity to show case all the negative attributes which were associated with the blacks (Morehouse, 2000). All the performances which followed the steps of Rice were used to enhance the understanding f the term “Jim Crow” across the nation.
Aspect of Jim Crow Laws
Every aspect of life of the blacks living in America was affected by the Jim Crow laws. Segregation in America become apparent and the order of the day and was evident in several instances such as in churches, hospitals, cemeteries, saloons and all other social avenues and even in the manner in which public school textbooks were sold (Morehouse, 2000). The blacks were denied the right to access certain locations such as swimming pools and amusement parks.
The most intimidating part of the Jim Crow laws is that some of the whites used it as an avenue to demoralize the blacks as it was evident in the entrance of public parks which had signs reading “Negroes and Dogs Not Allowed”. This kind of sign was very intimidating since it compared the blacks with the dogs. Medical services were denied to the blacks in several hospitals despite the fact that healthcare is primary need of every human being (Robin and Kelley, 2005). This was worsened when a requirement was passed that nurses in every hospital should only help and treat only patients who came from the same race.
 If a black had the urge for entertainment, they had to purchase different tickets to those being purchased by the whites and even in the halls there were different seating for the different races this forced the Africans to seat in the balcony which was later named after as “nigger heaven” (Robin and Kelley, 2005). The consumption of goods such as clothes and shoes was not spared by the Jim Crow laws since in most of the white stores blacks could not be allowed to try anything as they were believed they will rub the clothes due to their indecency. The segregation laws in America were also evident in the lives of prostitutes.
The Jim Crow laws forced blacks to lose every other earned recognized position in the society. Before the enactment and enforcement of the laws in 1880s, blacks had the opportunity to show case their skills in playing baseball in recognized leagues (Robin and Kelley, 2005). This kind of privilege was short lived after the Jim Crow law came into force since the blacks were forced out of the league altogether (Morehouse, 2000). Two years down the lane, the blacks were nowhere to be found even in the minor baseball leagues. The wounds of the black from this kind of segregation were not to be over any time soon because their elimination from jockeys in all races by Kentucky Derby came in hand in 1911 few decades after the law was effected.
The elimination of the blacks from sports was a small aspect of the problems which were about to face the prestigious nation. All the positions the blacks struggled to achieve were being lost to the supremacy of the whites. Some people in the country through articles in newspapers advocated for the disintegration of black employment which would be a big setback to the blacks who deserved the earned jobs.  With the rise of the Jim Crow laws, the suffering of the blacks was increasing day by day, week by week and year by year since they were losing their positions in the society to the whites. The country started enacting laws which would see the segregation of streetcars in 1880s which would later become a controversial issue (Morehouse, 2000). The cars designed for the blacks were cars which the whites would not ride on since they referred to them as second-class cars (Robin and Kelley, 2005). On to of the designing of particular cars for the blacks, some streetcar lines developed with the main aim of ensuring that the blacks remain at the back of the cars.
Courts cases against this issue were not avoidable as it was the case for Plessy versus Ferguson where Plessy was against the laws which segregated the railroad passengers in entering a car designed for a given race. Plessy lost the case after the Supreme Court ruled against his wishes. The case argued that equal rights did not necessarily refer to commingling. The segregation was allowed by the court on the ground that the facilities which are being used by the blacks equaled those being used by the whites.
With the growing Jim Crow influence across the country, the public attitude towards the blacks developed to be unreceptive than it was expected as noted by Robin and Kelley, (2005). This un-receptive attitude and behavior was evident in the manner which the whites treated the blacks such as the blacks stepping aside on sidewalk to give the whites enough space to pass. In certain cases, blacks were not allowed to pass the whites while driving since they were believed that hey will dirty the whites because of their second-class vehicles (Morehouse, 2000). Finding a good employment for the black women was a nightmare since the Jim Crow laws was enacted in the way that it ensure that the white women secured the best desirable jobs in the market. Therefore, the black women were left with only one option that of working in unfavorable jobs which included working in the automobile industry and food processing.
 The Jim Crow laws led to the decline in public freedom which subsequently led to the decreased political rights. This was evident because many states wrote new constitutions with the aim of denying the blacks suffrage through the use of law instead of using fraud to deny them. States used varying means to get rid of the blacks from the political realms which included the inequality in accessing educational facilities, disfranchisement and segregation as argued by Robin and Kelley, (2005).  Most of the whites believed that blacks would seriously demand equality in the manner which the whites live if the blacks had equal voting rights. The development of residential areas for the blacks which were dumped “darktowns” and “niggertowns” propped up because the blacks could not afford to live in the same residential as the whites.
The World War II also felt the effects of the rapid spread of the segregation. The African Americans were kept in units which were segregated and were required to perform specific duties instead of regular combat roles (Robin and Kelley, 2005). Applications offices disregarded volunteers from the black community on basis of their race. On dismissal from volunteering work, they were informed that lack of housing in the segregated area was the main cause why their application was not successful.
A selective Service Act was enacted in 1940 which was to ease the life of the blacks in the recruitment of jobs in the country as a noted by Robin and Kelley, (2005). The selective act was to ensure that the number of the blacks recruited for a particular job equaled the percentage of the country’s black population and it required that there should not be any kind of discrimination whatsoever during the recruitment process. Within the military arena, the act was categorical that the blacks can only be recruited in the unit that is specifically made for the blacks in the army.
Conclusion
The era of Jim Crow transformed United States of America for the worst. The lives of many blacks were lost at the hands of the whites even if there was no justifiable reason for them to lose their lives. The Jim Crow ensure that the whites worked tireless to segregate and discriminate the blacks from enjoying the America life by all means (Morehouse, 2000). On the other hand, he laws provided an opportunity for the blacks to show that they can fight for their own rights and that their race should not be used in any way to discriminate them. They fought tirelessly to diminish the principal of “separate but equal” policy which defined their livelihood in America (Robin and Kelley, 2005). After the overcoming segregation and the issue of using second-class facilities, the blacks revolutionized any negative notion which was associated with them (Morehouse, 2000). However, despite the fact that Jim Crow is dead, the beliefs of this era are still evident in the social and economic fields of America.

References
Arsenault, Raymond. Freedom Riders. New York, New York: Oxford University Press, Inc,  2006, 323
Davis, Ronald L. The History of Jim Crow. 8 Feb. 2007 <http://www.jimcrowhistory.org>.
Kozol, Jonathan. Savage Inequalities. New York, New York: Crown Publishers, Inc, 1991.
Morehouse, Maggi M. Fighting in the Jim Crow Army: Black Men and Women Remember, World War II. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2000.  
Ramla M. Bandele, Black star: African American activism in the international political economy, University of Illinois Press, 2008
Robin D. G. Kelley, To Make Our World Anew: Volume II: A History of African Americans Since 1880, Oxford University Press, USA, 2005
Wolters, Raymond. “From Brown to Green and Back: The Changing Meaning of  Desegregation.” Journal of Southern History. 2 2004. 317. eLibrary. Proquest. HARWICH HIGH SCHOOL. 18 April 2011. <http://elibrary.bigchalk.com>.
Order Your Essay Now Assignment Help | Essay Help | Write Essay For Me