How Did The Jim Crow Laws Affect The Civil Rights Movement?

The Jim crow laws where a series laws from 1877 to the 1950s that enforced racial segregation across the United States of America. They started at the end of reconstructionism and ended at the beginning of the civil rights movement. The effect of the Jim Crow Laws had a very negative effect on the black community in those times.

The author Nick Treanor wrote a book on the topic titled “The Civil Rights Movement” written in 2003 which had a short section dedicated to the topic. The book gives a wonderful definition of the Jim Crow Laws when tt states that the Jim Crow Laws had, “the effect of which was to reduce the civil rights of blacks in the south” (Treanor pg.15). The Jim Crow Laws were meant to strip away the rights of the African

Alexander makes a claim calling the criminal justice system corrupt do to the jim crow laws. This is shown when she says’ “The criminal justice system was strategically employed to force African Americans back into a system of extreme repression and control” (Alexander pg32). Because of the Jim Crow laws the criminal justice system was designed in a way to specifically target black and for them in to a slave like state with little to no chance of getting out. This is all in part of the government no longer supporting the civil rights movement. This is found when it says, “The federal government no longer made any effort to enforce federal civil rights legislation” (Alexander pg31). After the government took away support from the african americans the jim crow laws could basically go as far as they wanted to in order to keep the discrimination against blacks

It discusses the result of black people trying to better themselves in this time saying, “African-Americans did not like the way of life and wanted to do things to fix it, but usually when they tried they suffered severe consequences. Even some Caucasians were murdered by their own people trying to help the African-Americans gain equality and respect” (Classroom help ph4). When a black person at this time attempted to better themselves they almost always harassed and worst case scenario killed. Now sometimes there were white people who would attempt to help blacks but many of there were murdered or to scared to help do to the possible