Jim Crow Law

The Jim Crow laws were termed from “Jump Jim Crow”, a song and dance character portrayed as a black man by a white man in 1832. This performance was made to be against Andrew Jackson’s populist policies. People then began using “Jim Crow” to refer to African Americans. The “Jim Crow” laws were sets of laws between 1876 and 1965, they regulated racial segregation.

These set of laws were in the former confederate states, while some northern states had them they weren’t as enforced. In the Progressive Era of 1890 the law of “Separate but Equal” took place. The laws made conditions way more severe than that of a white person. Many African Americans experienced job discrimination, which made it very hard to support themselves let alone their families.

Segregation of African Americans included public transportation, public schools, restaurants and even restrooms. This segregation of public schools led to the case in 1954 out of Topeka, Kansas “Brown v.s. Board of Education” the case was held at the supreme court, where Oliver Brown a welder at the Santa Fe Railroad and parent of a student wanted the racial segregation to stop and have equal learning conditions. The case won and the Supreme Court ordered that any state sponsored segregated school was unconstitutional. This case became a major break in the “Jim Crow” laws and helped pave the way for further civil rights.

After World War II African American Veterans began to speak out debating that African Americans should be treated equal and not segregated because they are American just as the white men are and served their country. In 1948 this led the current president, Harry Truman to take notice and he ordered desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces. On July 2, 1964 Lyndon Johnson signed the “Civil Rights Act” which gave all sexes, races and ethnic groups the same and equal rights. This act however didn’t stop voting discrimination this still continued until an attack on peaceful marchers were heading...