African Americans Late 1800's Early 1900's

Although African Americans were freed from physical slavery after the civil war, their oppression was far from over. The Supreme Court enacted the Jim Crowe laws to keep blacks from intermingling with whites. Many blacks suffered financially because companies refused to hire them. Even the music made by African Americans was thought of as infectious. The reason for all of these mistreatments is not solely that there were a few prejudiced politicians that did everything in their power to oppress African Americans. This injustice can actually be traced back to a defective and racist worldview held by the vast majority of white Americans during this time period.

The Jim Crowe laws (or “black codes”) were laws that segregated African Americans and white Americans in nearly every way imaginable even prohibiting blacks and whites to live on the same street (A18). In the Supreme Court case “Plessy vs Ferguson” the justices ruled that these laws were completely constitutional assuming that the separate facilities were equal in quality (S,338). This decision was a huge precedent that allowed state governments comfortable with creating as many Jim Crowe laws as they desired (G,2,5). The justices may have been the catalyst for the mass-creation of these unjust laws, however any claim that the Supreme Court is completely responsible for “black codes” is not valid. As stated earlier, the problem at this time in history is with the prejudiced beliefs of white America. The state governments did not have to follow the pattern set by the Supreme Court, but because of their prejudice attitudes they were more than eager to.

Despite all of this, some African Americans were still able to succeed in America. Among them was Booker T. Washington. A born slave, Washington established Tuskegee Institute to provide higher learning to African American (S,342). In 1892, Washington gave a speech that encouraged African Americans with the concept of a “New South” where industrial racism...