Jim Crow Era Research Paper

In the Late 1800s, there was an era called the Jim Crow Era. Jim Crow was a character that was created in 1863 by white men to amuse white people. This character began to grow to symbolize one of the most tragic events in American history, known as, racism. African-Americans would become slaves simply because they were African-American in 1865. Even though, we do not have slaves in today’s society, we do still see some rippling affects from the Jim Crow Era. Some of these rippling effects include, jobs and unemployment, the criminal justice system, and the state and law enforcements. The first rippling effect that we see is in jobs and unemployment. One in six African-Americans, one in eight Latinos, and one in twelve whites are unemployed. Six of the seven occupations with the highest salaries are overrepresented by whites, while, three of the six

Michelle Alexander says in her book, “The New Jim Crow” that millions of African-Americans are arrested for minor crimes every day. These African-Americans remain marginalized and disfranchised, trapped by a criminal justice system that has forever labeled them as felons and denied them basic rights and opportunities that would allow them to become law-abiding citizens. Michelle Alexander also says that people are swept into the criminal justice system especially in poor communities of color for minor crimes. More than 108,000 New Yorkers are currently disenfranchised with the law. Eighty percent of those being African-Americans. This is deeply rooted in the Jim Crow Laws. When citizens are released from prison, at some point they have to re-engage in their community and by not allowing them to vote these states are not allowing that. It is almost like they are still in prison. The prisoners that are released are still considered an United States Citizen and should be treated as if they never were charged of those