How Did Jim Crow Laws Affect The Civil Rights Movement

Nearly 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans still suffered inequality in America. During the 1950s and throughout the 1960s African Americans started a movement for equal rights, known as the Civil Rights Movement. During this time many extraordinary people and events helped African Americans gain rights and equality in American society. On a cold December day in 1955 Rosa Parks boarded a city bus and sat down in the 5th row. After the seats began to fill up the driver of the bus asked Parks and three other African Americans to move to the back to give room for whites. Rosa refused and was arrested. (Independence Hall). News spread around Montgomery and a young pastor by the name of Martin Luther King Jr. decided

Laws and rules had prohibited them from doing the same things as white people. Jim Crow Laws were created in 1877 to subordinate blacks as a group to whites and enforce rules that favored the white population. (Pilgrim, David). They were created with the belief that whites were better than blacks in every way of life. The main goal of the Jim Crow Laws was to segregate the two races in ordinary life. Separate parks and schools were created for children, blacks could not use the same restrooms as whites, and restaurants would not allow any other race other than white. The Jim Crow Laws were used as social control, and if blacks violated these laws they risked their homes, jobs, and even their life. (Pilgrim, David). The Jim Crow Laws were around until the mid-1960s when the Supreme Court ruled them

The LA Riots took place over a five-day period in 1992. The riots were a result of the treatment that African Americans were receiving from the police departments. On March 3, 1991 Rodney King, a black male, was severely beaten by the Los Angeles Police Force. A video of the even shows King was hit more than 50 times, and as a result from the beating he suffered 11 fractures and other injuries. (CNN). In April of 1992 the officers of LAPD are found not guilty of beating Rodney King, because of the ruling the African American community felt that white police officers could get away with anything. Protesters took to the streets were they torched and damaged vehicles and buildings. Because of the riots over 1,100 Marines, 600 Army soldiers, and 6,500 National Guard troops patrolled the streets of Los Angeles. (CNN). The riots caused $1 billion of damage to the city, but they also forced the city to have a re-trial of the LAPD officers who beat Rodney King. Two of the four officers are found guilty and serve 30 months in prison. The Los Angeles riots has a buildup of anger towards the LAPD for the treatment that they gave African