Jim Crow



Jim Crow

Introduction

Jim Crow was a series of laws which represented the anti-black system during 1877-1960. Under this legal system the Blacks were treated as the second class citizen. It was a racial cast system for the African Americans (www.ferris.edu). Even Churches considered blacks as neglected people and as servants to serve the chosen White people of God. Blacks were treated inferior to whites and were considered as the cursed people who were not even allowed in the Churches of White people. In that society Blacks were named as niggers, coons, and different other such names. Jim Crow was a system under which this racial discrimination was more prominent and it draws boundaries between Blacks and Whites. It was a law during nineteenth century for the racial segregation in United States, which was named after a stereotypical ministerial song 'Jim Crow', which created this racial discrimination more prominent (www.pbs.org).

Thesis Statement

Jim Crow was a legal system for the discrimination of Blacks and Whites.

Discussion

From Social Norms to Law

Jim Crow laws were evolved from the common beliefs of that society. It is generally considered that the Blacks are inferior to the Whites and these people are only to serve the Whites and their children (Tischauser, 2012). There were some social norm and etiquette that were common in that society:

No Blacks are allowed to shake hand with Whites

Black males were not allowed to take White female in marriage.

Blacks were not allowed to eat with Whites and they were supposed to serve the Whites first.

Whites are superior in all the social, legal and cultural perspectives

The Blacks were never allowed to be addressed with the courtesy titles etc.

All these general and social rules become more and more prominent in creating the racial segregation. With the passage of time these social norms become more defined and boundaries became more distinguished. This was the reason that it resulted in the proper and defined set of rules to bound the Blacks to follow these social norms. This led majority of U.S states to enforce proper legislation for the segregation of Blacks from Whites. This resulted in the formulation of proper laws under the government of United States which defined these boundaries more clearly. This racial discrimination was more prominent after the 'Separate Car Laws' in 1890 (Tischauser, 2012).

Jim Crow Laws

There were Strict Jim Crow Laws for the Segregation of Blacks and Whites. After the legalization ...