ipl-logo

Effects Of Jim Crow Laws

713 Words3 Pages
Jim Crow laws were the many state and local laws that enforced racial segregation in the United States between the late 1870s and 1964. These segregation laws were enacted primarily by Democrats, many of whom were supporters of White supremacism both before and after the American Civil War. Jim Crow laws were more than just laws — they negatively shaped the lives of many African-Americans.

After the Civil War and the outlaw of slavery, the Republican government tried to rebuild relations with African-Americans during the Reconstruction Era. They did so by passing laws that helped protect those who used to be slaves, also known as “freedmen”, as well as to those who were already free before the war in the South. Although some African-Americans still faced some discrimination, the Reconstruction Era marked progress — African-Americans were even granted the right to vote. However, in the 1870s, with the help of rebel groups like the Ku Klux Klan and the White League, who intimated African-Americans from voting, the Democrats gradually regained power in the Southern states. These Southern Democrat governments, who were very angered by their defeat in the Civil War, and who held White supremacism beliefs, then scraped the freedmen protection laws and legislated Jim Crow laws, segregating the population in an attempt to disenfranchise and maltreat African-Americans.

The segregation laws were named after the fictional blackface character Jim Crow played by Thomas Dartmouth
Open Document