Jim Crow Laws: a Historical Analysis of Segregation Laws & Its Effects

The Jim Crow laws were put into place for white people to feel superior to black people, and created even more segregation and racism for African Americans throughout the 1930s. The Jim Crow laws were created to reinforce the belief that white people were superior to black people in every aspect. The impact of Jim Crow laws ensured segregation to dehumanize African Americans in day to day life, in every aspect from riding public transport to personal relationships. Throughout the Jim Crow era, many people risked much to fight against the racist laws. The Jim Crow laws were created in 1876, and allowed for discrimination against African Americans by the ‘superior’ whites. The Jim Crow laws were created by state legislators in the late 1800s after the Reconstruction period. The origin of the name of the laws came from a live show where white actors portraying African Americans in a negative and mocking way. This Jim Crow laws essay analyzes the origin of the law and its impact in America.

According to the article Jim Crow, “Jim Crow was originally the name of a character in a minstrel show introduced in 1832 by a performer-writer named Thomas Dartmouth ‘Daddy’ Rice” (Flashfocus 75). In 1896, Supreme Court decided that public services and businesses could treat African Americans and whites differently; this is considered the first major legal step toward the Jim Crow laws. Under these laws, African Americans were legally considered lower class than white people, and could be treated as such. After the Jim Crow laws were created, life for black people was made more difficult and humiliating, as they were discriminated against in every aspect of their lives. Segregation laws were made to encourage lower class white people to keep thinking that they were better than black people, so that they wouldn’t form alliances with black people to overtake the upper-class whites. In The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander stated, “By the turn of the twentieth century, every state in the South had laws on the books that disenfranchised blacks and discriminated against them in virtually every sphere of life, lending sanction to a racial ostracism that extended to churches, housing, jobs, restrooms, hotels, restaurants, hospitals, orphanages, prisons, funeral homes, morgues, and cemeteries” (Alexander 35).

African Americans had a set of etiquette rules they were expected to follow when in the presence of ‘superior whites’. Some of these rules included never accusing a white person of being untruthful, never swear at or about a white person, never comment on a white females’ appearance, and other expectations. Black people also had social rules for when interacting with whites, which commanded how they were treated. These included sitting in the back of a vehicle, and being forced to give up their spot to a white person. A black man could never shake hands with a white male, or offer any part of himself to a white female. Black men could also not offer to light a white females’ cigarette, as this was seen as intimate. Blacks could also not show any form of public affection, as this offended white people. From its creation up until its abolishment in 1964, both colored and white people fought the Jim Crow laws and their segregation, and often paid for it with their lives. The Jim Crow laws were supported by the beliefs that white people were smarter, more civilized, and ‘clean’ than black people, and that relations between the two races would destroy the U.S.

In What was Jim Crow?, David Pilgrim said “Many Christian ministers and theologians taught that whites were the Chosen people, blacks were cursed to be servants, and that God supported racial segregation” (Pilgrim). Even with everyone saying this, some whites sided with African Americans, and were ostracized for it. People who fought or refused to follow the Jim Crow laws faced lynching, having their homes set on fire, being beaten, or even death. The Jim Crow laws were created for whites to feel superior to African Americans, and created more ways for legal discrimination for blacks throughout the early twentieth century. The Jim Crow laws were made to legally justify the fact that whites were superior to African Americans in every way. As seen from the essay, the impact of Jim Crow laws ensured racism that affected African Americans in every aspect of their lives. Throughout the life of the Jim Crow laws many people fought them, risking their lives doing so.

Works Cited

1. Alexander, M. (2012). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. The New Press.
2. Flashfocus. (n.d.). Jim Crow. In Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present: From the Age of Segregation to the Twenty-first Century Five-volume Set (Vol. 2, pp. 75-77). Oxford University Press.
3. Pilgrim, D. (n.d.). What was Jim Crow? Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia. Retrieved from [insert URL]
4. Anderson, J. D. (2016). The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935. The University of North Carolina Press.
5. Ashworth, J., & Palenchar, J. (Eds.). (2018). Segregation: A Global History of Divided Cities. University of Chicago Press.
6. Blackmon, D. A. (2009). Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II. Anchor Books.
7. Dailey, J. (2017). The Routledge History of the Twentieth-Century United States. Routledge.
8. Fairclough, A. (2010). Better Day Coming: Blacks and Equality, 1890-2000. Penguin Books.
9. Litwack, L. F. (2009). How Free is Free? The Long Death of Jim Crow. Harvard University Press.
10. Woodward, C. V. (2001). The Strange Career of Jim Crow. Oxford University Press.