Jim Crow was a dance made up by a white American. The dance and song itself were written by a comedian Thomas Dartmouth Rice, also known as Daddy Rice, in 1828, which depicted African-American culture. On the other hand, the performances were deriding slavery whilst poor African-Americans had to deal with the indignity. That was what the jumped Jim Crow dance and song was all about. Immigrants, lower class and colored people faced hard times. Although progressives responded to the ills of inner cities and working-class immigrants with important reforms, they largely failed to address the horrors of Jim Crow rule in the South.
The Jim Crow laws can be defined as a system of racial oppression. Not long after the Civil War had passed, in 1865 America still had those Southern governments that were controlled by Confederate forces. The southern white democratic-dominated legislators would pass such things called Black Codes right after the Civil War that severely restricted the rights of the new freed man. Such Black Codes were based on vagrancy laws. If you were black, you had to prove that you were employed with a job that the whites would have to approve of but if African-Americans were not able to do that, they would be forced into labor. After the reconstruction in 1867, the situation changed significantly since the republican-dominated congress pushed through the enforcement of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. This was the period known as the reconstruction that lasted 10 years, from 1867 to 1877, during which the Black Codes were eliminated. As a result, African-Americans were able to vote and were even elected to high office such as governors, senators, state legislators. The situation began to get better, but was all being held by military occupation. In 1873 there was an incident in Louisiana called the Colfax Massacre. This was really a southern democratic force trying to unite around groups in order to just take back what they saw as their rightful place as leaders of these southern governments. During the massacre in Louisiana, there were groups throughout the south such as the white league and the red shirts. They were completely open about their opposition to African-American rights and their craving for power. The Massacre was basically the attack of the white league on the courthouse, which was being held by republican forces. More than 150 African-Americans were murdered during the Colfax Massacre.
Everything came to a peak after the convicted people were forced to federal trial when the 1870 Enforcement Act gave the Congress the ability to prosecute people who were violating the rights of freed man. In 1876 the Supreme Court came up with a decision called United States v. Cruikshank, which basically crossed out the 1870 Enforcement Act. They said that because the White league was a private organization, not a government group, the Enforcement Act did not uphold groups that were private. In order to deal with the situation, you would have to turn to local courts, which were not the best idea back then. The 1867 presidential election was what made all of it fall apart. There was a deal in the presidential election where the southern democrats had to give their votes to the Republicans thus resulting in the end of military occupation in the south by reconstruction forces. So what were the Jim Crow laws talking about? How did it affect freed man African-Americans in the south?
Congress passed the Civil Rights Act in 1875, which was basically a reclaim to the 14th Amendment in terms of public accommodations. There would be no segregation in places of public accommodations such as restaurants, hotels, etc. All of this was torn apart in the 1896 Plessy v Ferguson case, which was all based on the concept of segregation. It was always illegal for blacks and whites to ride in the same car, but the Separate Car Act of 1890 in Louisiana a calcification for mixed races was added. Even if you had some percentage of African ancestry, you were considered colored so you were not allowed to ride on the train. The Plessy v Ferguson case of 1892 was an organized effort by the blacks and colored to fight the new law. Homer Plessy, who was one-eighth black, who had a light complexion, walked onto a train one day and sat in the area designated for only the use of the whites, announced that he was a colored man since just by looking one might not see, and proceeded to get arrested since he was supposed to sit in the colored car. The Supreme Court upheld the decision of Louisiana to have done so by stating that such people are separate but equal by the rights given by the Constitution on account of racial segregation.
The Jim Crow rules were laws that were passed, which segregated the African-Americans from whites. These laws “segregated public schools, forbade or limited African-American access to many public facilities such as parks, restaurants, and hotels, and denied most blacks the right to vote by imposing poll taxes and arbitrary literacy tests.” Parallel to the Jim Crow there were immigration restrictions. They were not as strict as for the blacks, but made it difficult to travel, attend schools, use transportation that required identification and even get a job for the illegal immigrants. Although this was the case, many “illegal immigrants were free to use any form of transportation that didn't require identification.” 2 Immigrants that lived in the US illegally were able to ride the bus just like a US citizen would. Transportation such as planes required identification so it was not an option if you were an immigrant. Children of illegal immigrants faced tough times attending schools. Several hundred immigrants would die each year when crossing the border. “In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed, which limited immigration but also directly violated the 15th amendment by stating that a Chinese person could never become a citizen.” As a result, the immigration flow slowed down. The legislative and judicial authority of the South to separate, Jim Crow rules were passed to sort out public schools, libraries, hospitals, transportation and even voting restrictions. “Only the use of streets and most stores was not restricted according to a person’s race.” Despite African-Americans ability to be voted in place for high office, governors, senators and legislators in Louisiana, they now were noticeably restricted to voting. Only a few were registered to vote. In North Carolina, no one who was colored was able to vote. This was done by passing a series of poll taxes so in order to vote you had to pay, which African-Americans were not able to do since they could not afford it. To add to that, literacy and comprehension tests were given as well to prove that you were smart enough to vote. If African-Americans were not able to vote then their interests would not be served.
One could not possibly uphold slavery and inequality. Immigrants that were illegally living in the United States wanted much, but as a result received many restrictions, then again, it was a consequence of breaking the law. The blacks, however, were innocent and were mistreated only due to their race. Laws, rules, amendments and acts such as the Civil Rights Act of 1864 turned the situation around.
Bibliography
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Hamby, Alonzo. Outline of U. S. History. Washington, D.C.: Bureau of International Information Programs. U. S. Department of State, 2005.
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—. “A Blood Red Record: The 1890s and American Apartheid.” Jim Crow and the 1890s. Accessed June 22, 2016. https://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/122/empire/1890s.html.
