Causes And Effects Of The Jim Crow Era

The Jim Crow Era, immediately following the ratification and abolishment of slavery, was a very impactful time in history. It was a struggle for those during the era as well as continuing to affect groups of people today, although the causes and effects may be different from the original laws there is still no doubt that segregation and discrimination exists today. According to History.com, Jim Crow laws were a series of state and local statutes that were put in place in order to legalize racial segregation. These laws lasted for about one hundred years from the civil war era until 1968. The laws were meant to marginalize and dehumanize the African American race by denying their basic human rights. Some of these laws were called Black codes which were strict local and state laws that controlled when, where and how formerly enslaved people

Restrictions were imposed by the Black codes which made it hard for formerly enslaved people to gain economic independence due to the lack of civil rights and being able to live and work where you wanted, instead the government chose for you. The world became segregated through everything, bathrooms, transportation, schools and even water fountains. This made it hard if maybe even impossible for people of color to travel and live life. The Doctrine “Separate but Equal” resulted in inferior facilities for colored people ranging from schools, transportation, housing and employment. This meant that even though colored people were separated from whites that they would still be able to have the same opportunities and they’d be seen as the same. Yet this was untrue, Black adults and children still remained to have unequal opportunities compared to white Americans which demonstrates the fact they were not treated as equal whatsoever, they were segregated and treated as a lesser