Racial discrimination in the 1800s was a war that had been waged in order to ensure that both whites and blacks were equal. For whites in that era, they preferred to have blacks serve them and maintain their position of servitude rather than have freedom. The United States had been divided into two regions the north and south. In the North, African Americans were free and did not experience the same conditions as those in the South, although they each faced similar circumstances with regard to racial discrimination 1 . There were many areas in which the black people, commonly referred to as “Negros” were denied of their basic human rights as they were seen as less than human beings due to their dark skin pigment. For many years, they were not allowed to air their own views or live a life that was free and just, instead, the White Society saw to it that the black community did not have a way in which they could escape from their status as slaves. There was no equality between the black and the white even in law 2 . The whites had come up with a system of law that judged and responded to conflicts originating from the black community. The black community was not allowed to have or obtain legal counsel or a jury of fellow peers for any crimes committed against them, instead, they were tried in the absence of a court or judge using the Jim Crow Laws. The following essay illustrates the demise of legal segregation/racism over the period of 1935 – 1975 through the observation of the Jim Crow Laws and their ultimate demise.
In 1875, the Civil Rights Act had made black segregation illegal, in addition to this, during Reconstruction of the Constitution, the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments had also given black Americans freedom, citizenship and voting rights 3 . For a time during the reconstruction, it seemed as though the segregation of blacks would come to an end, however in 1880 in Virginia, a court ruled that the restriction on juries being an all-white affair was unconstitutional and violated the 14th amendment in a case (Strauder V. West). The same court, in the same year, went ahead to try and convict two blacks using an all-white jury. The court argued that the black defendant/plaintiffs rights had not been violated due to the presence of an all-white jury. It is from this that the whites discovered they could discriminate the blacks using legal ways. Black people were captured and tried in all white juries and it was rare to find a white man who had been apprehended, convicted or even tried for any crimes against the blacks. In this way, crimes against blacks went unpunished and segregation increased. All that was required was an argument that the state was not culpable or responsible for any actions taken against blacks 4 .
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After the end of the Civil War, blacks’ civil rights were revoked by the court. It declared that the civil rights Act of 1875 had been unconstitutional. It argued that segregation of public facilities such as accommodation and eateries was an individual right that could not be denied by law. In 1896, Homer Plessy boarded a train to find the black only section of the train was full. He attempted to enter the whites’ only section where he was captured and taken to court. He argued that the Louisiana Segregation laws had violated his rights as stipulated in the 13th and 14th amendments. The Supreme Court in this way argued that the equal rights did not mean the two races had to inter-mingle. This paved way for the development and spread of the Jim Crow Laws across twenty six states in the United States.
Prior to the Plessy V. Ferguson case, Jim Crow was a derisive term that was used to refer to the people of black origin. It initially began as a slang term used to refer to a black man, however with time, it adopted a new meaning where it was used to mean any state law that was passed and had established different rules for the blacks and whites. The Jim Crow laws were all based on the supremacy of the white people and acted as a reaction to the Reconstruction of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments. The Jim Crow Laws allowed for segregation of all facilities that were publicly used. There were sections and facilities for blacks only and whites only. This was inclusive of smaller amenities such as entry and exit doors and toilets. There were penalties and punishments imposed for people who broke any of the statues or laws stated in the Jim Crow Laws. It was also illegal for interracial marriages and business operations. People had the right to deny services to members of a specific race with accordance to the Laws 5 . After the Civil War, there was the abolition of slavery, however the Jim Crow Laws served as a replacement for the whips, chains and the fear of death. It offered a system where the blacks were powerless and constant fear of death I jails. The Laws touched on every aspect of human contact, including playgrounds, cemeteries, and buildings, ticket offices for entertainment purposes, hospitals, libraries, newspapers, and restaurants. The main purpose of the law was evident, to prevent any form of contact between the whites and the blacks. These laws were well backed by the Supreme Court up until 1964 6 .
In Order for the Abolition of the Jim Crow Laws, the African American people had to come together and protest for many years against the segregation set in the laws. Prior to the demise of slavery, the black people had developed a union in which all over the States, they all recognized the need for freedom and acknowledgment of equality between the races. They had created a form of racial consciousness that had served as a recipe for future black nationalism 7 . From the time of Nat Turner (the black slave who initiated Slave riots), more black people rose up to challenge the white supremacy, this is also seen in the eradication of the Jim Crow Laws.
Rosa Park was one of the activists who led to the Modern day Civil rights movement. Due to the Jim Crow Laws, there was segregation in all arears including the buses and railroad cars. Whites were to seat at the front and blacks were to seat in the back. The “Separate but equal” laws were not as equal. The white cars and seats were assumed to extend to the back, and if the white cars were all full, they would occupy black cars and more coloured people would be forced to stand in the back even if there were empty seats in the all-white sections 8 . On Buses, the same concept applied, the bus driver had the right to move the sign post separating blacks from whites, hence, when the white seats were all filled, he would move the sign post backwards leaving more room for the whites and the blacks would have to stand. On December 1st 1955, Rosa Park boarded the Cleveland bus to head home. She had taken the first of seats dedicated to the coloured passengers. As the all-white section continued to fill up, the bus driver moved the sign separating the sections back in order to give room for white passengers who were standing on the isle. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat and the bus driver had her arrested 9 . Her story spread throughout the Black community and consequently caused the boycott of city buses all through Montgomery. This led to the formation of the Montgomery Improvement Association with Martin Luther King Jr as the minister for the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.
The “Montgomery Bus Boycott” as it was later known was a success. Many of the African-Americans chose to walk to work instead of using the city buses. Over the next several months, the city buses faced losses due to the lack of clientele. The boycott was met with retaliation by segregationists who used violence. Martin Luther King Jr. and E.D. Nixon’s homes were bombed and many black churches were burned to the ground. Black citizens were continually arrested for violating the laws that prohibited boycotts 10 . The African American community responded to this events through the law using the Brown V. Board of Education court decision. The segregation of schools and other public facilities all over the United States, due to the Plessy V. Ferguson (1896) case decision held that all facilities had to be segregated but equal. In the Brown V. Board Of Education case, Oliver Brown argued that the Separate but Equal clause had been violated with reference to the equality of the facilities. The all-white schools had better facilities than the coloured schools. The Federal District Court dismissed this claim, however on appealing, the Supreme Court, declared that racial segregation in public schools went against the equal but separate clause and even though the facilities were similar, racial segregation in schools was “Inherently unequal”, with this, a decision was reached upon where the schools were forced to integrate. The Plessy V. Ferguson decision was overruled with respect to Public Schools. A black legal team, using the ruling in the Brown V. Board of Education case sought to fight the issue of segregation on transit systems with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama. In June 1956, the court ruled that the Jim Crow Laws with respect to Public Transit systems was unconstitutional. The boycott ended on December 20th 1956 with the City of Montgomery giving in to the court’s ruling and having attained losses during the period of the boycotts 11 .
In 1964, a Civil rights movement was enacted in order to fight against the segregation of public places all together. Prior to this event, it had been impossible to get any civil rights legislations to get past the Senate. However, not all Southern congressmen were unaffected with the Civil rights fight. Senator Claude Pepper continued to challenge his colleagues in the southern region and continued voting with northern dealers. The civil rights Act of 1957 had been introduced and received strong support from Senator Lyndon B. Johnson. Other members of congress continued fighting against passing of any civil rights legislation. President Eisenhower was against angering any democrats in the southern region and hence, the civil rights legislation passed did not touch on any of the Jim Crow Laws. However it had been the first Civil Rights legislation that had been passed since 1875 12 . The Civil Rights Legislation of 1964 was far much powerful compared to that of 1957. Lyndon B. Johnson who was president at the time, focused on passing the Legislation through congress in its original form unlike that of 1957 which had been watered down. His persistence saw the passing of the Civil Rights legislation of 1964 into law after six months. The Act barred discrimination with respect to race in public places of learning, accommodation, museums, and hospitals. It did not touch on the right to vote however. Most of the Jim Crow Laws at this point had been overruled. In 1965, the final law that ended all Jim Crow Laws was passed. It constituted of the Voting Rights of 1965 that allowed members of all races to have equal chances at selecting their leaders. It declared that it was illegal to use any literacy or character based tests to determine who was eligible to vote 13 .
Through the events that occurred subsequently from the time of Jim Crow Laws were enacted to when they were abolished, it is evident that laws had prior discriminated against the African-American Community. It is with this that the accurate account of the events leading up to the demise of the Jim Crow Laws forced the abolition of legal racism and discrimination to come to a complete halt in 1965, where all Americans irrespective of colour and race could finally have true and equal rights that were not similar to the “equal but separate” Acts. All this occurring between the years of 1935 – 1975 where complete segregation was abolished.
Bibliography
Brown, Nikki L.M., and Barry M. Stentiford, eds. The Jim Crow Encyclopedia . Vol. 1–2. A-J vols. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002.
Hazen, Walter. The Civil War to the Jim Crow Laws: American Black History . Milliken Publishing Company, 2004.
Latham, Frank Brown. The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, 1865-1964 . F. Watts, 1969.
PBS, Public Broadcasting Service. “The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow. A National Struggle . The Supreme Court | PBS,” 2002. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/struggle_court.html.
Robinson, Jo Ann Gibson. The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It: The Memoir of Jo Ann Gibson Robinson . Univ. of Tennessee Press, 1989.
Theoharis, Jeanne. The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks . Beacon Press, 2015.
Tischauser, Leslie V. Jim Crow Laws . ABC-CLIO, 2012.
