The American Version of Apartheid
Like apartheid in South Africa, the segregation and disenfranchisement laws known as the Jim Crow laws affected every aspect of life of African Americans living in the American South from the 1890s until the 1960s when the Civil Rights Movement began reversing the system of laws that turned blacks into second-class citizens. The term Jim Crow is an insulting slang for a black man. “Jim Crow” originally referred to a character in an old song and was the name of a popular dance in the 1920s. Around 1928, Thomas Daddy Rice began dressing in old clothes, painted his face in black and danced and sang in imitation of an old dilapidated black man. In time, the term came to be understood as any statute passed in the South that decreed different rules for blacks and whites. These laws were based on the idea that the white race was a superior race and were the result of the period Reconstruction. By oppressing the black population, white Southerners asserted their superiority and clung to the privileges they had lost after the Civil War. Jim Crow laws made segregation of libraries, schools, parks, and other public facilities legal across the South.
In theory, blacks and whites received equal treatment under the law, but in practice, public facilities for blacks such as schools and libraries were of inferior quality to those enjoyed by whites. The segregation of the races was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Plessy v. Ferguson case (1896), which said that blacks and whites could use separate facilities as long as they were equal. In most of the rural south, Blacks were also prevented from exercising their voting right by the application of literacy tests and other racially motivated practices.
No aspect of everyday life was left untouched by the Jim Crow laws. A brief sample of such laws attests to their invasiveness of private life. These laws and others are detailed in Martin Luther King Jr. History Site fully cited in the foot note below.
Buses: All bus stations in the state of Alabama must have separate ticket windows and waiting rooms for black and white passengers.
Restaurants: It is unlawful in the state of Alabama to operate a restaurant or other place where food is served in the city, to serve white and black people in the same room. If restaurants want to serve blacks and whites, they must provide separate facilities as well as separate entrances.
Intermarriage: The marriage of a Caucasian person with a member of any other race is invalid in the state of Arizona.
Education: Educational instruction for white and Negro children shall be conducted separately. Florida
Barbers: No colored barber can serve white women or girls. Georgia
Burial: No black person shall be buried in ground set up for the burial of whites. Georgia
Public parks are meant to be used by the racial group for which they were designed. No blacks shall frequent a park designated for blacks and vice versa. Georgia
Such laws went practically unchanged during the first half of the twentieth century until World War II brought drastic changes to America. The link between white supremacy and Hitler’s master race was inescapable. The Jim Crow practices shocked the United Nations delegates who reported Jim Crow practices to their home countries. To international leaders, no matter how friendly they were to the United States, Jim Crow laws cast doubts on America’s commitment to democracy, and Communist regimes could use this knowledge to fuel negative propaganda against the United States. In 1948, President Truman attempted to promote racial equality by urging Congress to abolish the poll tax, enforce fair voting and hiring practices and end Jim Crow transportation practices between states. He also ordered complete integration of the armed forces. Truman did not wipe out racism, but his actions marked the beginning of the disintegration of the Jim Crow system. Other important events such as the 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education, which overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, the Montgomery bus boycott, and the lunch counter sit ins, would further erode the Jim Crow system until it was finally abolished by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other government policies such as affirmative action in an attempt to reverse so many years of racial discrimination.
Despite the fact that Jim Crow laws are now off the books of Southern states and the fact that many blacks now have access to better education, housing and jobs, the gap of education and income inequality between blacks and whites continues to exist. Blacks continue to be plagued by poverty, drugs and broken homes. Some legal scholars, namely Michelle Alexander have argued that Jim Crow is still alive today, undercutting whatever rights were secured by the Civil Rights Movement. This is due to the imprisonment of large numbers of black Americans because of the war on drugs. She states that many African Americans who have been arrested for minor crimes remain marginalized and excluded from participating in the political system. The American criminal justice system has permanently labeled them as criminals, depriving them of the most essential rights and opportunities that would provide them with the tools to become productive citizens. She adds that when young black males are released from prison after committing minor crimes, they are often relegated to a permanent second-class citizen status, stripped of the very rights gained by the Civil Rights Movement such as the right to vote, the right to an education, a job and public benefits.
Bibliography
“A Brief History of Jim Crow.” Constitutional Rights Foundation, 24 June, 2016, http://www.crf-usa.org/black-history-month/a-brief-history-of-jim-crow
“Jim Crow Laws.” American Experience. Freedom Riders. Issues. Jim Crow Laws. PBS, 1996- 2010, 24 June, 2016, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/issues/jim-crow-laws
“Jim Crow Laws. “Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site, Georgia, National Park Service. 25 June, 2016, https://www.nps.gov/malu/learn/education/jim_crow_laws.htm
“Jim Crow Laws.” United States History, 2016, 24 June, 2016,
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1559.html
“Legal Scholar: Jim Crow Still Exists In America.” National Public Radio, 26 January, 2012, 25 June, 2016, http://www.npr.org/2012/01/16/145175694/legal-scholar-jim-crow-still-exists-in-america
