Examples Of Jim Crow Laws In To Kill A Mockingbird

Did you know that the Jim Crow laws were named after a character named Jim Crow, who was played by a white man in blackface? This character, in the show “Jump Jim Crow”, made fun of African Americans, and the name Jim Crow was eventually turned into a derogatory term for African Americans. (Jim Crow Laws and Racial Segregation). In the book To kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the majority of the people in Maycomb show prejudice towards African Americans. This prejudice was stirred up by the Jim Crow laws, which heavily impacted the daily lives of African Americans and other colored people. While the Jim Crow laws aren’t directly mentioned in the book, the prejudice caused by these laws are very present, and this prejudice is shown in throughout

It was much harder to get an education as an African American because of the lack of having an available school near you or schools, or having a school that is sufficient for a proper education. Even if there was a school nearby, it would have less funding so there would be less materials that were of poor quality, not as well-maintained buildings, qualified staff etc. In some areas, African Americans were not allowed to use textbooks with the constitution or Declaration of Independence, so that the students wouldn’t get ideas that would lead them to wanting equality. This lack of an educational foundation made it even harder for African Americans to move up in a society that was already stacked against them, and it was almost impossible to achieve a life like white people. (Boyd, Natalie). This does not go along with the theory of “separate but equal”, but instead made the races more and more divided and

While a literacy test, elaborate registration systems, and a poll tax do not appear to be meant to eliminate a race from voting, these factors were designed to exclude colored voters, and it was successful. For example, in Mississippi, fewer than 9,000 of the 147,000 voting- age African Americans were registered after 1890. (Whites Only; Jim Crow in America). The Jim Crow laws also violated the fourteenth amendment. “, Anyone born or naturalized in the United States is a citizen and that “, no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the united States, nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person the equal protection of the law”. “The second section of the amendment said that if a state denies the right to vote to citizens of the United States, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens 21 years of age in such states”. This meant that if the South refused to let the Negro vote, it would be punished by a cut in the number of representatives each state had in the House”. (Latham 1969). Though there wasn’t technically a law that African Americans couldn’t vote, there were laws targeted towards