Tuesday, February 7, 2012

What led to the creation of the Jim Crow Laws?

What led to the creation of Jim Crow laws were the withdrawal of a federal presence from the South after the Civil War and a South that sought vengeance for its losses and wished to maintain what it had had before the Civil War, complete subjugation of African-Americans. 


After the Civil War, when slavery was banished, the federal government sent personnel to the South to be sure that that former slaves were given a fair shake and integrated into society. This was the era of Reconstruction.  When Reconstruction was over, the Southern states, still angry over the loss of the war, the end of slavery, and the decimation of their plantation economy, took revenge on the former slaves and made it nearly impossible for them to be equal citizens, much less to succeed in any way. They were accustomed to considering African-Americans as property, not as people, and they made every effort possible to prevent African-Americans from integrating into society.


These laws covered every conceivable aspect of life in which African-Americans might try to be treated equally. Included were separate drinking fountains, separate bathrooms, separate schools, which African-Americans had to build themselves, no use of "white" facilities such as restaurants or hotels, space only at the back of the bus, and poll taxes to make it impossible for African-Americans to vote. African-Americans were not permitted to marry white people. It was difficult, if not impossible in some places, for them to own land. There were hundreds of such laws across the southern half of the country. I sometimes think that southerners believed that if things were dreadful enough for African-Americans, they would volunteer to become slaves again.  Reading about some of these laws really could give a person that impression. 


In all fairness, it should also be pointed out that there were such customs in the northern states, too, separate schools, the barring of African-Americans from various public facilities such as hotels, for example. Generally, though, none of this was a matter of law. This is, though, why a distinction is made between de jure segregation and de facto segregation, the former being southern segregation by law and the northern segregation being a matter of fact and custom. 


It is sad enough that such situations were customary, but the fact that there were laws on the books in the southern states, laws that were strictly enforced, I might add, makes for a very sad chapter in American history, one that the country has not really ever recovered from. The Civil War seems to be a war that the southern states still want to fight, ever-seeking to get back their "property." 

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