| Creation of the Jim Crow South |
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Segregation in the South
Jim Crow laws were laws that imposed racial segregation. They existed mainly in the South and originated from the Black Codes that were enforced from 1865 to 1866 and from prewar segregation on railroad cars in northern cities. The laws sprouted up in the late nineteenth century after Reconstruction and lasted until the 1960s. Prior to the enactment of Jim Crow laws, African Americans enjoyed some of the rights granted during Reconstruction. Gains included the addition of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments and the Civil Rights Act of 1875. However, rights dwindled after Reconstruction ended in 1877. By 1890, whites in the North and South became less supportive of civil rights and racial tensions began to flare. Additionally, several Supreme Court decisions overturned Reconstruction legislation by promoting racial segregation.
The Supreme Court set the stage for Jim Crow laws by several of its decisions. The Court held that the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was unconstitutional and ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment did not prohibit individuals and private organizations from discriminating on the basis of race. However, it was the Supreme Court's decision in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) that led the way to racial segregation. In 1890, Louisiana passed a law that required blacks to ride in separate railroad cars. Blacks protested and challenged the law. Homer Plessy, a carpenter in Louisiana who was seven-eighths Caucasian, was chosen to test the constitutionality of the law. On June 7, 1892, Plessy boarded a train and sat in a car reserved for whites. He refused to move and was arrested. A local judge ruled against Plessy and in 1896 the Supreme Court upheld the lower courts ruling. It held that "separate but equal" accommodations did not violate Plessy's rights and that the law did not stamp the "colored race with a badge of inferiority."[1] The Court provided further support for separate accommodations when it ruled in Cumming v. County Board of Education (1899) that separate schools were valid even if comparable schools for blacks were not available.
With the Supreme Court's approval, the Plessy decision paved the way for racial segregation. Southern states passed laws that restricted African Americans access to schools, restaurants, hospitals, and public places. Signs that said "Whites Only" or "Colored" were posted at entrances and exits, water fountains, waiting rooms, and restrooms. Laws were enacted that restricted all aspects of life and varied from state to state. Georgia in 1905, passed a law requiring separate public parks, in 1909 Mobile, Alabama created a 10 p.m. curfew for blacks, and in 1915, South Carolina blacks and whites were restricted from working together in the same rooms of textile factories.
By 1915, the strength of Jim Crow laws were slowly beginning to erode. The Supreme Court in Guinn v. United States (1915) ruled that an Oklahoma law that denied the right to vote to some citizens was unconstitutional. In 1917, in Buchanan v. Warley (1917), the Court held that a Louisville, Kentucky law could not require residential segregation. Additionally, the decisions in Sweatt v. Painter (1949) and McLaurin v. Oklahoma (1950) helped break down the ruling in Plessy. But it was the Supreme Courts decision in 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education that overturned the Court's decision in Plessy. It held that separate schools were unequal and its ruling helped dismantle racial segregation. The Court provided momentum for the growing Civil Rights Movement that eventually led to the end of racial segregation.
[1] Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896).
Perry Redd’s commentary
What has truly changed in the South-or America as a whole? I see remnants of Jim Crow on a daily basis.
Though the overt separations on the walls over bathroom stalls and water fountains no longer exist, the separations between blacks and whites are far more obvious once one leaves his/her home. The ride through subdivisions in surburban areas of moderate to major cities prove me right. The walk through housing projects in the inner sectors of moderate to major cities nationwide bear witness to my claims.
Only the truly blind or oppressive-minded individual could dispute the fact that in the workplace, the color of those gets lighter the higher up the echelon you look. Supervisors, front office personnel and management are still those of the Caucasian persuasion. In the school systems and local governments, the decision-makers are white.
White 2005 approaching, the new minority majority, Hispanics, are now taking the low-end of the totem pole where blacks once stood; and because of intergration, blacks are slowly fading from the radar screen. This fading only strengthens the desires of the white power establishment. Their claim that laws meant to envoke and ensure the execution of fairness are no longer needed. The voice of the black community is overshadowed by blacks that have "made it". The 1-in-10 minority give credence to the white power establishment by saying, "I made it...you can too!" Unfortunately, the fact of reality in our society doesn't bear witness to the take on things.
Let's look at the Black Codes of the South and see what's really changed:
Louisiana Black Codes
AN ACT
Relative to apprentices and indentured servants.
Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Louisiana, in General Assembly convened, That it shall be the duty of Sheriffs, Justices of the Peace and other civil officers of this State, to report to the Clerks of the District Courts of their respective Parishes, and in the Parish of Orleans (left bank) to the Mayor of the City of New Orleans, and on the right bank to the President of the Police Jury, on the first Monday of each month, for each and every year, all persons under the age of eighteen years, if females, and twenty-one, if males, who are orphans, or whose parent, parents, or tutor, have not the means, or who refuse to provide for and maintain said minors; and, thereupon, it shall be the duty of the Clerks of the District Courts, Mayor and President of the Police Jury aforesaid, to examine whether the party or parties, so reported from time to time, come within the purview and meaning of this Act, and if so, to apprentice said minor or minors, in manner and form as prescribed by the Civil Code of the State of Louisiana; provided, that orphans coming under the provisions of this Act shall be authorized to select said employers when they have arrived at the age of puberty, unless they shall have been previously apprenticed; provided, that any indenture of apprentice or indented servant, made before a Justice of the Peace and two disinterested witnesses, and the original deposited with and recorded by the Recorder of Mortgages for the Parish, in a book provided for that purpose, shall be valid and binding on the parties, and when made by the clerk, shall be also deposited with the Recorder of Mortgages, and all expenses for passing said acts of indenture shall be paid by the employer.
Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, &c., That persons who have attained the age of majority, whether in this State or any other State of the United States, or in a foreign country, may bind themselves to services to be performed in this country, for the term of five years, on such terms as they may stipulate, as domestic servants and to work on farms, plantations or in manufacturing establishments, which contracts shall be valid and binding on the parties to the same.
Sec. 3. Be it further enacted, &c., That in all cases, when the age of the minor cannot be ascertained by record testimony, the Clerks of the District Courts, Mayor and President of the Police Jury, or Justices of the Peace aforesaid, shall fix the age, according to the best evidence before them.
Sec. 4. Be it further enacted, &c., That all laws or parts of laws conflicting with the provisions of this Act, be, and the same are hereby repealed, and that this Act take effect from and after its passage.
DUNCAN S. CAGE, Speaker of the House of Representatives.
ALBERT VOORHIES, Lieutenant Governor and President of the Senate.
Approved December 21, 1865.
J. MADISON WELLS
Governor of the State of Louisiana
