Jim Crow Laws: The Causes Of Jim Crow Laws

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What if someone was to go to a restaurant and notice that there was a section, likely in much worse shape, for African Americans? Something such as this would have been extremely common in America in the 1930s when racial discrimination was abundant. According to Clive Gifford, “racial discrimination denies members of one racial group access open to others” (Gifford 19). Racial discrimination has taken place several times throughout history, especially in the form of laws, known as Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow laws were prejudiced laws that supported racial segregation in the United States for several decades. THE START OF JIM CROW LAWS Jim Crow was a stereotypical black character performed by a white actor in comic shows in the early 1800s (Osborne…show more content…
One of the most famous of these cases was Plessy v. Ferguson. Plessy v. Ferguson was a case that took place in 1896, in which the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of “separate but equal” (“Plessy v. Ferguson” 1). In a way, this served as the foundation of Jim Crow laws. The court said “separate but equal”, which people often referenced when discussing Jim Crow laws. However, there was a major flaw in that statement. They were separate but they were nowhere close to…show more content…
A group that was connected with nearly every fight against Jim Crow was NAACP. Standing for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People this group stood behind many of the cases and people that fought against discrimination in the 1930s (Feldman, 2). Along with groups there were court cases that helped remove Jim Crow laws such as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. This was a Supreme Court case in which the original ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson had been overruled (“Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas 1). This ruling was a turning point in the desegregation of America (1). AN END TO JIM CROW It took a great amount of hard work but over time Jim Crow laws finally came to an end. There were several acts that helped to defeat segregation and prevent it in the future. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was one of those. It was a bill that Kennedy wanted to pass and finally after his death it came to a vote and was passed (Buckley 37). A few other bills that helped put an end to these unfair laws was the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 (“Jim Crow Laws” 1). For the most part Jim Crow laws came to an end after several bills were passed but, there some segregation still existed. There were several unwritten rules and laws that blacks and whites followed for generations (Osborne 25). It would take many more

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