Jim Crow Laws

From the late 1800’s through the 1900’s, many laws were created to segregate blacks from whites in multiple ways. They also created laws to ban right for anyone to defend them, which goes against there amendments. The government then overturned the civil rights act by allowing laws of racial segregation. The laws of segregation which were created after the Reconstruction were known as ‘Jim Crow Laws’. People protested these laws by having sit-ins in restaurants, sitting in the white sections of busses, schools, bathrooms, and etc. after several years of protest, the Civil Rights act of 1964 made it illegal for any states, northern or southern, to have laws demanding segregation of blacks and whites and other ethic groups.

The name Jim Crow comes from a character which was played by a white actor, named Daddy Rice. During his performances he wore heavy black make-up and sang and made jokes that were all degrading towards African Americans. These performances portrayed the image to whites that blacks were lazy, stupid, and less human. Though it is uncertain how, eventually this character that was portrayed became to describe the laws of segregation.

The laws ranged from blacks having poor schooling to white nurses ordering not to provide health care for blacks and to even blacks being denied certain burial locations due to whites being buried there as well. Public transpertation, restrooms, and drinking fountains were also segregated. In some states, such as North Carolina in 1896-1904, denied blacks the right to vote. And those who were not eligible to vote, were also not allowed to serve on juries and could not run for local government offices.

It wasn’t until the 20th century that segregation began to change in a more positive direction. In the Buchanan v. Warley 245 US 60 (1917) case reveled that Kentucky could no longer require residential segregation. In 1946, n the Irene Morgan v. Virginia case, it became unconstitutional