Introduction
Historical Analysis
Foremost, to understand the grounds on which Jim Crow laws emerged, there is a need for one to consider the situation that developed in the United States in the years leading to the mentioned Civil War. On one hand, Southern plantation owners assumed a pro-slavery stand as a means to protect their economic interests. The growth of cotton in the South was dependent on the free and hard labor that the institution of slavery availed. On the other hand, Northerners voiced their anti-slavery sentiments and called for the freedom of all black slaves. The endorsement of the Compromise of 1850 by Congress to “resolve the slavery question” emphasizes the fact that the South and the North were no longer in one accord (Keene, Cornell, and O'Donnell, 2013, p.348). The Compromise pacified the Southerners by enacting the Fugitive Slave Act, which called for all Americans to return runaway slaves to their owners, and calmed the North by admitting California as a non-slaveholding State (Keene, Cornell, and O'Donnell, 2013, p.348). Still, the agreements did not deal with the issue of slave brutality and as one would expect, on the eve of the war the United States was a divided country since States took up arms against each other as per their perceptions on the matter of slaveholding. Already noted is the reality that war did little to nothing to change the cultural norms of the people and with a particular emphasis on the Southern States the nineteenth century witnessed the rise of efforts to rebuild the social norms of antebellum South. White supremacy was on the mend.
Promptly, both private and public facilities including schools and parks adopted the discriminative laws: Plessy v. Ferguson allowed the central government to turn a blind eye to the conditions in Jim Crow South. However, there was a problem as separate but equal was a mere illusion. African American children were subject to inferior schools and learning opportunities as opposed to the Caucasian students. In “Race, School Integration, and Friendship Segregation in America”, James Moody (2001) concurs with the given assertion as he grounds his article on the 1954 case of Brown v. Board of Education. In his words, “Brown was the recognition that separate could never be equal”; after all, the informal social relations that defined the United States went on to influence one’s education experience (Moody, 2001, p.679; p.707). Segregation replaced slavery by promoting the social, political, and economic standings of the whites. In fact, African Americans were a disfranchised lot and had no influence on the politics of the nation; at the same time, poor quality of education meant high levels of illiteracy. Therefore, before the Civil Rights Movement that brought both the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, blacks remained the stepping stones for Caucasians in all spheres of society (Foner, 2013, p.776). It is only after a person can influence who represents his or her person in the State and federal governments that he or she can have his or her needs met. Otherwise, when only a single group has a say in matters of politics, then the other group[s] cannot expect change or aid in their respective areas of concern. Such was the case in the United States when African Americans could not vote or hold office; notably, segregation ended when blacks protested and influenced white politicians outside the ballot boxes.
With the given facts in mind, it is worth mentioning that the Civil Rights Movement did not necessarily mean that segregation became non-existent in the United States. On the contrary, the American education system reveals that since the Brown v. Board of Education hearing, children still deal with segregation in learning institutions. Andrew Highsmith and Ansley Erickson’s “Segregation as Splitting, Segregation as Joining” reports that immediately after the evident win of the Civil Rights Movement white segregationists “actively resisted federal desegregation demands” (p.584). It is no wonder that even today, many black children continue to attend schools in racially and economically isolated neighborhoods, as they come from families residing in lonely islands of poverty. According to a study published by the United States Census Bureau and conducted by Camille Ryan and Kurt Bauman (2016), by 2015 the situation did not change for blacks. Interestingly, the researchers found that a mere 22 percent of blacks had a bachelor’s degree or higher as opposed to the 36 percent that represented more than one-third of non-Hispanic whites (Ryan and Bauman, 2016, p.5). Additionally, among the black societies, “foreign-born adults were more likely to hold a bachelor’s or higher than native adults”: a finding that reflects the poor state of learning conditions for colored persons (Ryan and Bauman, 2016, p.7). In that sense, while segregation is no longer equal, certain circumstances remain intact to separate the races. For example, when students choose their friends based on skin color informal or “friendship” segregation becomes evident and hinders desegregation in learning institutions (Moody, 2001, p.680).
Conclusion
The fight for equality in the societies of the United States continues even today. A perfect illustration of the given view is apparent in the fact that any unpleasant interaction between white law enforcers and black citizens warrants cries of racism from not only the United States but also other countries that can access news about the nation. While politics remain too complex for an individual to analyze and understand, the education system is not as hard. Hence, on a personal level, performance ought to be the only determinant factor in school admissions and racial profiling prevent the exercise from being fair. Whether one is a Caucasian or an African American, all men and women have a right to proper education without the interference of the government. Camille Ryan and Kurt Bauman (2016) found that foreigners of African descent hold more bachelor’s degrees than their native counterparts (p.7). If one considers their research findings, it is safe to reason that even African Americans can achieve a better education with the right conditions. Ethnic groups have no influence on a person’s ability to understand concepts and perform well in examinations. However, poor learning conditions are a certain cause for concern.
References
Foner, E. (2013). Give Me Liberty!: An American History (4th ed., Vol. II). New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Highsmith A., R., & Erickson, A., T. (2015). Segregation as Splitting, Segregation as Joining: Schools, Housing, and the Many Modes of Jim Crow. American Journal of Education, 121(4), 563-595.
Keene, J. D., Cornell, S., & O'Donnell, E., T. (2013). Visions of America: A History of the United States (2nd ed., Vol. Combined Volume). New Jersey: Pearson.
Kousser, J. M. (2003). Jim Crow Laws. In S. I. Kutler, Dictionary of American History (pp. 479-480). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
Moody, J. (2001). Race, School Integration, and Friendship Segregation in America. American journal of Sociology, 107(3), 679-716.
Ryan, C., L., & Bauman, K. (2016, March). Educational Attainment in the United States: 2015. Retrieved from United States Census Bureau: http://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2016/demo/p20-578.pdf
