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How Did Jim Crow Laws In African Americans Affect Our Society

1080 Words5 Pages

Even though the Civil War was won, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, and the 13th Amendment had come into effect, African Americans were still not free. Vigilantes of the South continued to oppress them everyday in their daily lives. How? By using the Jim Crow laws. It was all about segregation and disenfranchisement laws that continued for three quarters of a century after African Americans were freed. African Americans were freed in 1864, but the war of oppression was far from over. These laws reminded them of this everyday. It was mandated that schools were segregated along with parks, libraries, drinking fountains, restrooms, buses, trains and restaurants. In case anyone, black or white, would forget the laws - there were always signs posted “Whites Only” and “Colored”. They were a constant reminder that this racial order would be enforced. The local governments upheld the Jim Crow system. Just in case it wasn’t carried out, there were vigilantes who would reinforce acts of terror on African Americans. In 1896, the Supreme Court established the doctrine of Separate But Equal in Plessy v. Ferguson, after a black man in New Orleans attempted to sit in a whites-only railway car. Observed by Ray Stannard Baker, journalist, in 1908 that “no other point of race …show more content…

They ask for a school bus for their children but the county denied their request. Risking retaliation, they demanded that their children have the right to attend white schools. Living in a community where white landowners and business leaders had always ruled the land, made these parents very courageous indeed. NAACP came to their legal aide. Briggs v. Elliott was filed the the United States District Court, Charleston Division on December 22, 1950. The plaintiffs were Harold Biggs and 19 other parents. The federal district court ruled against the plaintiffs. Their appeal reached the US Supreme

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