Essay Example on Enduring Racism: Blacks in America During 18th & 19th Centuries

The 18th and the 19th century was hard times for the blacks in American especially those in the South. Racial discrimination had substantially grown roots in American, and this saw the blacks being segregated from public accommodations and their rights were not respected as the fellow whites were being treated. At that time the blacks had no relevance in the white's society; there were no laws amended that gave them the same powers and freedom to operate as the other white people lived. Stewart a black writer documents the genesis of the fight for the rights of the blacks. 1868 saw the amendment of the XIV laws which allowed the blacks to have voting rights and equal protection by the law, the blacks would vote elected officials, have representative s in the house, and they also served in the juries.

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Ten years afterward, Stewart documents that the rights were all withdrawn and white supremacy was again the order of events in the United States. The republicans who were the champion for African Americans in the south would thus fall, and the future of the blacks remained doomed to its core. Jim Crow laws were legislation that was passed to have different regulations from the blacks and the whites. The paper will thus look at the history and the documentation of the Jim Crow Laws.

Thomas Dartmouth Rice, a white actor, would paint his face black and did a song in the theaters that he says was inspired by a black slave he once saw somewhere. He named the act Jumping Jim Crow. Thomas put not only the black's man's face makeup but also imitated their way of dressing. His style of imitating the lacks was a great demeanor to the enslaved black people in Southern America. Jumping Jim Crow becomes a popular known name that represented the blacks Americans since Rice toured the world with his acts which used the name. Rice popularized the Jim Crow term that whenever someone referred to the term Jim Crow, it would not only relate to the African Americans but also reduced the individual to the type of caricature that he used while performing on stage. The popularity of the term Jim Crow would later be used in the Legislative arena where laws discriminating on the blacks were also referred to as the Jim Crow.

Jim Crow was a slang term derived from the blacks to represents the laws that had different rules for the blacks and the whites. These laws were based on the theory of the white's supremacy and the reaction towards reconstruction. These laws were passed to oppress the blacks because the whites were afraid the blacks would take over their jobs. The white politicians abused the blacks to win elections and votes of the poor whites. The suppression of the whites to the blacks did not stop there, in 1890; the general assembly of Louisiana passed into law legislation that demanded that the blacks and the whites were not allowed to use the same railroads. Though the law was challenged up to the Supreme Court, the whites upholding the legislation stating that the separation-use of railroads would remain but equality would remain.

Two years later, a Mississippi court made it worse for the blacks when they passed a law that denied the blacks the rights to vote. The South took the law to its advantage because they began to limit the rights to voting very blacks that owned property or were literate. Louisiana southern states which had about 130, 000 blacks would reduce the number to only 1 percent which was about 1, 342. The Jim Crow laws were hostile to all parts of the black lives. Black and white textile workers would not be in the same room, go in through the same door, or gaze through the same window. A majority of the industries couldn't hire blacks while other unions for workers excluded them. It was great to form of racism and isolation that the whites had on the black people. The Jim Crow laws were the most discriminative laws ever passed by the whites to suppress the blacks in the United States. The law derailed their free movement and the right to speak of one's rights. Jim Crow laws had the African Americans suffer under white supremacy which was brutal to their survival. Their everyday life was reduced to hardship with no laws that would protect o0rsafegoayrd them in case they entered into any danger. The legislations were effected right from every single piece relation that the blacks would have with the blacks. They ranged from transport, schooling and even in public associations where the whites could not associate with the blacks.

Hospitals, Prisons, and orphanages were segregated off for the blacks so were colleges and schools. The Jim Crow laws were so bad such that in schools, white and black students were not allowed to use the same textbooks. In courts, the juries had two bibles one for the blacks and the other for the whites. In social groups, the whites were advised not to address the blacks and the whites as 'brother.' The Jim Crow was a great humiliation for the black society. The laws subjected them to a severe situation because the theories of the law were based on the supremacy of the whites. The white suffered after that under the whites who initiated the Jim Crow which wo0uld discriminated totally against the blacks. Southern America was the most affected area because it led to total segregation of the whites against the blacks. Word ware I saw over 360 000 black men serve in the war, later in 1944 saw the complete exclusion of the blacks since at this time the whites would only meet the blacks when they were helping them.

1948 came as a relief to the Jim Crow because President Harry Truman led to the abolishment of the severe Jim Crow that painting a bad picture of the United States to the United Nations because the need to do away with racism was significantly becoming a subject in the world. The laws against poll tax and transportation were all aborted. The Jim Crow laws were worse in the Southern states which went to the extra mile to dicri9mnate the blacks. The blacks had a tough time with the Jim Crow laws because it subjected them to punishment and separation. The Jim Crows are remembered to be the worst in the discrimination for the blacks in the United States.

Conclusion

Jim Crow laws were legislation that has deep history chiefly in the 80s, Mr. Rice, a renowned actor who made famous the term Jim Crow through his stage act Jumping Jim Crow. Rice used the word to relate to the black African American in the States. The popularity of the word about the blacks led to it being adopted in legislation where laws discriminating against the blacks were then known as the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow Laws were a form of racism against the blacks which saw them being separated from the whites in almost all the activities. Transport segregation, school segregation and not being allowed to vote were some of the discriminatory act by the Jim Crow laws. After the Second World War, the need and protests against the Jim Crow laws led to their abolishment under President Harry Truman.

Works Cited

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/08/150806-voting-rights-act-anniversary-jim-crow-segregation-discrimantion-racism-hisrtory/

http://www.crf-usa.org/black-history-month/a-brief-history-of-jim-crow