Although slavery had been outlawed by the Thirteenth Amendment, it continued in many southern states. In an effort to get around laws passed by Congress, southern states created black codes, which were discriminatory state laws which aimed to keep white supremacy in place. While the codes granted certain freedoms to African Americans, their primary purpose was to fulfill an important economic need in the postwar South. To maintain agricultural production, the South had relied on slaves to work the land. Black codes were restrictive laws designed to limit the freedom of African Americans and ensure their ties to the land.
After the ratification of The 13th Amendment [Document A] in December 1865, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States..” Southern states put forth what was called Black Codes, which were deliberately meant to demean and beat down Black Americans. An example of a Black Code is [Document C] “It shall not be lawful for any freedman… to intermarry with any white person… and any person shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and… confined in the State penitentiary for life…” where it is considered a crime deserving of confinement for life when a Black person to marry a White person, classified as a felony. This is only one example of many other Black Codes that were made to press Black people in retaliation to the 13th
One of the Jim Crow laws states that “A black male could not offer any part of his body to a White woman because he risked being accused of rape”(a). Tom Robinson would know of this rule and would not even shake hands with Mayella, let alone kiss her. He would know that if anyone saw him going into her house he could be accused of rape. However, if he didn’t enter her house when she asked, he would be accused of not showing “superiority to blacks in all important ways”, another Jim Crow law. Since, Tom knows of these rules he makes the decision to enter her house and show respect, but when he see’s Mr. Ewell approaching her house he runs in fear of being accused of rape.
In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Maycomb is a town built on Jim Crow Laws. Regardless, Mrs. Gates, a teacher, thinks that Maycomb was “a democracy,” or a place where there are “‘Equal rights for all, [and] special privileges for none’” (Lee 249). However, the court trial of Tom Robinson proved Mrs. Gates wrong, as Tom is falsely accused of rape because he was of African American descent. A few minutes later, Mrs. Gates expresses that she is not prejudiced toward anyone.
In the United States, African Ameericans were governed under dehumanized tatics called the Jim Crow laws. These laws, from about 1890-1965, segerated African Americans from white Americans by law and made them second class citizens,
The first influence on Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird are the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws were cruel to colored people. “Jim Crow laws were an official effort to keep African Americans separate from Whites in the southern United States for many years” (“Jim Crow Laws”1). The Jim Crow laws were put in place to keep Blacks below Whites. People thought that they needed theses laws because they did not believe that there where equal to them.
Jim Crow laws were laws in the Southern United States that were state and local laws. These laws enforced racial segregation typically towards the blacks starting late in the 19th century. This was after the Reconstruction period, and were forced all the way until 1965. All public facilities were forced to be segregated in the states of the former Confederate States of America, which started back in 1896 with blacks having a “separate but equal” status. Segregation in public school was a thing all the way back to when it first established in most south after the Civil War.
This was a part of her campaign to teach… [her] to be a lady” (Lee 229). At the parties Scout wears a dress and sits with the ladies while listening to them gossip (Lee 228, 229-234). The ways Aunt Alexandra tries to eliminate the improper lady in Scout and tries to make her more like a proper Southern lady points to the motivation of Lee to write her novel involving similar events that she may have experienced herself. During this period, women were thought to be very weak and fragile. They suffered from lower paying jobs and people thought they needed to stay at home and not work.
During the end of the reconstruction era and through the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement, Jim Crow laws were enforced in order to maintain proper racial segregation. Originally, the Jim Crow laws were set to keep the Negroes separate but equal to the white race. In reality, the Jim Crow laws targeted the Blacks and made certain that the African-American race would never have superiority over the White men. The Jim Crow laws were named after a performance by Thomas Dartmouth Rice, who blackened his face during his performance to represent a black man.
An anonymous person once said, “Not all wounds are so obvious. Walk gently in the lives of others”. Every single person on this earth has a different story. Every person has something unique and special to bring to the table. No matter what color of skin you have, what religion you follow, or what country your from, everyone should be treated equally and not be discriminated from others.
“Many Blacks resisted…indignities… and, far too often, they paid for their bravery with their lives” (Pilgrim). The novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, utilized many historical events in order to provide life to the narration. There are accounts relating to the Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and racial dilemmas of the Great Depression Era. To start, one connection of between the novel and American history is the Jim Crow laws. These were a set of rules that limited the respect blacks received in society.
In the period of reconstruction, there was a lack of racial equality and racism towards blacks. The 13th amendment abolished slavery, with the exception of allowing it as a punishment for a crime (“Thirteenth Amendment” 19). Although it abolished slavery, there was still a lack of equality towards blacks. The Black Codes were state laws in the south, that were implemented in 1866. These laws limited the rights of African Americans and were
Slavery ended in 1865, not "300 years ago". Slavery was allowed and defended by the law up until that date. As soon as the war was over, Jim Crow laws and the KKK prevented black people from advancing economically. Redlining was legal. All of this legally protected economic explotiation of black people has resulted in centuries of theft of labor from people over their skin color.
In The Help, Stockett accurately portrays how Jim Crow Laws affected society during the 1960’s. Jim Crow Laws were laws that affected almost every aspect of daily life, segregation in public places was all over the place. There were signs placed all over cities with postings of where blacks and whites could stand. The phrase “Separate but equal,” was developed and although it said blacks and whites were equal; blacks were never treated in the same ways whites were (PBS.org Staff). In The Help, Skeeter gets ahold of a book that states some of the Jim Crow Laws and she has to keep it a secret that she was looking into them, otherwise the women of Jackson would judge her.
The Jim Crow Laws are a set of laws that were put in place to separate different races, such as african americans and caucasians. The name Jim Crow was often heard as a black, minstrel show character (Castleman, Tammy). These laws were put in place around 1875 following the easing of reconstruction, to make sure african americans use different public facilities than whites. After slavery was abolished, whites weren 't quite sure why african americans existed, because most whites figured blacks were put on earth to work. Along with new laws, came new problems that people didn 't know how to deal with.