...of the ways that Black Americans remained almost invisible in a white society. Despite the end of the Civil War and the emancipation of slaves, race continued to be a problem in early twentieth century America. One of the most critical issues surrounding the further entrenchment of racial segregation within the early twentieth century was the development of policies and laws that did not follow the emancipation guidelines for ex-slaves, but instead made segregation and discrimination of African Americans more prominent. These laws were at first called the Black Codes, allowing for differences in the way that African Americans were treated both privately and publically. Even Supreme Court cases, like Plessy vs. Ferguson, further allowed for racism to be a compelling factor within the nation. This case allowed for the expansion of the Black Codes instead of abolishing them by creating the “separate but equal” mentality that existed until the 1950s when “systematic segregation within the states was ended” (Plessy vs. Ferguson Judgment, 1895). The Black Codes were also eventually referred to as the Jim Crow Laws, based on a stereotype of an African American portrayed in public plays by a white man with black makeup on. This was one of the ultimate insults...
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...character in the story. The historical decisions Jim Crow Laws, Pace vs. Alabama, and Plessy vs. Ferguson impacted Richard Wright throughout his life in the book. First of all, The Jim Crow Laws had a tremendous impact on Richard Wright in the book. By making blacks obey these laws in the South, they were treated as less than by white people. For example, Richard could not speak his mind because he was expected to act a certain perfect way around white people. Richard was almost always let go from a job because he did not behave a certain way. One time a white man told him “Why don't you laugh and smile like the other niggers? I don't like your looks nigger, now get!” (Wright 182). To add on, as Richard grew a little older he had received death threats from white men when he would forget to comply to the Jim Crow Laws in the moment of a conversation. Richard is considered lucky when these white men let him go easy after hitting him with a empty glass whiskey bottle. One tells him “Nigger, you sure ought to be glad it was us you talked to that way. You're a lucky bastard, cause if you'd said that to some other white man, you might've been a dead nigger now” (Wright 181). These horrific events due to the Jim Crow laws in the south had most likely traumatized Richard and every other black person during those times. Altogether, black people would have had an easier life if it were not for the Jim Crow Laws. To add on, the Pace Vs. Alabama case impacted Richard wright tremendously in the...
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...The case of Plessy vs. Ferguson established the separate but equal doctrine that was prevalent throughout life in the South for over fifty years. The case involved a man by the name of Homer Adolph Plessy, who was a colored shoemaker from New Orleans, Louisiana. He was only 1/8 black and 7/8 white, but under Louisiana law he was considered black. It also involved a white Judge by the name of John Howard Ferguson. In 1892 Plessy was asked by the Citizens Committee which was a political group made up of African Americans and Creoles to help them challenge the Separate Car Act, which by Louisiana law separated blacks and whites in railroad cars. If a black was caught sitting in the white section of the cars, they could get either 20 days in jail or a $25 fine. He agreed to help the Committee. On June 7, 1892, Plessy purchased a first-class ticket at the Press Street Station in New Orleans to go to Covington, Louisiana. The railroad didn’t support the Separate Car Law, because of the expense and trouble involved with it. They chose this station for that reason and the station was in on the test as well. He sat in the white only section and waited for the conductor. When the conductor arrived he told him that he was only 1/8 black and that he refused to move to the colored car of the train. A hired detective told Plessy he was violating the law but he still refused. Since he would not move to the colored car he was arrested and jailed overnight and released on bond the next...
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...The Plessy Vs. Ferguson court case was an unjust and predjudice trial. An African American man who sat in the first-class section of a train on June 7, 1892 was asked to be seated in the Jim Crow Cars although he had already bought a first-class ticket. After refusing peacefully, Plessy was arrested and trial was set for five months later. The case ultimately moved up to the United States Supreme Court. Plessy Vs. Ferguson hearing would “challenge the definition of race itself” and eventually the case was overturned in 1954. The United States Supreme Court’s ruling was an unjustified verdict based on relativism and deontological ethics. Homer Plessy boarded a train that was on it’s way to Covington, Louisiana. He bought a first-class train ticket and was well dressed, but he was not accepted into first class because he was an African American. The train conductor, John J. Dowling asked Plessy if he was in the proper coach not because of his train ticket but because of his race which wasn’t easily seen. Plessy was so...
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...The term “Jim Crow” came from an old African American song called “Jump Jim Crow.” In 1828, a white man named Rice would wear a black face make up, sing, dance and act foolish. Many people started calling black people “Jim Crows” to offend them. Jim Crow laws took place in America and they were laws that segregated the white from blacks. These laws supported the idea that blacks were inferior to whites. Blacks and whites weren’t allowed to interact with each other. Jim Crow was the informal term for types of precise separation utilized by whites against African Americans from the second half of the nineteenth century through the main portion of the twentieth. The expression implies the legal parts of the shading line, additionally incorporates the social and typical traditions of progressive race relations. Jim Crow laws separated blacks and whites. These rules stated what a black person...
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...Constitutional Law: CRJS400 - 1402B - 01 Individual Project: Unit 3 Human Rights Analysis Human Rights Analysis The case of Plessy vs. Ferguson established the separate but equal doctrine that was prevalent throughout life in the South for over fifty years. The case involved a man by the name of Homer Adolph Plessy, who was a colored shoemaker from New Orleans, Louisiana. He was only 1/8 black and 7/8 white, but under Louisiana law he was considered black. It also involved a white Judge by the name of John Howard Ferguson. In 1892 Plessy was asked by the Citizens Committee which was a political group made up of African Americans and Creoles to help them challenge the Separate Car Act, which by Louisiana law separated blacks and whites in railroad cars. If a black was caught sitting in the white section of the cars, they could get either 20 days in jail or a $25 fine. He agreed to help the Committee. On June 7, 1892, Plessy purchased a first-class ticket at the Press Street Station in New Orleans to go to Covington, Louisiana. The railroad didn’t support the Separate Car Law, because of the expense and trouble involved with it. They chose this station for that reason and the station was in on the test as well. He sat in the white only section and waited for the conductor. When the conductor arrived he told him that he was only 1/8 black and that he refused to move to the colored car of the train. A hired detective told Plessy he was violating the law but he still refused...
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...The enforcement of the Jim Crow Laws began shortly after the Reconstruction Era around 1890 and continued to be enforced until 1965. Starting in 1890 America came up with a “separate but equal” status for African Americans. The Jim Crow Laws were were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. This body of law institutionalized a number of economic, educational, and social disadvantages. In essence the Jim Crow laws were about power, power of one race over the other. These laws really highlighted the flaws and weakness of human nature. It was a group of people asserting power over another for the pride of a political system that was the cost of many American lives during the Civil War. One of the many court cases that was very important especially concerning the Jim Crow laws was the Plessy vs. Ferguson court case. Homer Plessy a man of mixed race (one eighth African descent) boarded a train in Louisiana that had a “whites only” sign. When he sat in the white section he was asked to get up and once he refused he was then arrested and put on trial. Plessy’s lawyers argued that the state law which required Louisana to segregate trains had denied him his rights under the 13th and 14th amendments...
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...Segregation was a very substantial issue in the 1930’s to the 1950’s. Segregation is the when people are set apart from others because of anything such as their race, religion, or even gender. In the 1930’s to 1950’s there were separate schools, water fountains, and even bathrooms. These were set apart from each other because of someone’s race. During this time period, many groups were targeted. Even though all groups were affected, African Americans were hit the hardest. In the northern cities, the whites were out of jobs so they wanted all the blacks to be fired so they would have a better chance of getting a job. In the southern cities, they took a much more inhumane approach. The whites started racial violence which included lynching. Jim...
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...slaves to the Caucasians. However, they faced a new challenge in the form of segregation. Segregation is defined in the dictionary as the enforced separation of different racial groups in a country, community, or establishment. Segregation was horrible in America after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. JIm Crow laws were made halting the expansion of the African American influence on America. There were laws that...
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...An incident in 1892 involving an African American man Homer Plessy refused to sit in a Jim Crow car breaking a Louisiana law. In 1890 the law was put into play providing for “equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races” on its railroads. Plessy brought before Judge John H. Ferguson of criminal court for New Orleans, who upheld the law. The law later challenged by the Supreme Court on the grounds that it conflicted within the thirteenth and fourteenth amendment. The court later said that the law did not conflict with the Thirteenth amendment. The Court avoided discussion of the protection granted by the clause in the Fourteenth Amendment that forbids the states to make laws depriving citizens of their “privileges or...
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...Jim Crow Laws- In U.S. history, statutes enacted by Southern states, beginning in the 1880’s, that legalized segregation between the blacks and whites. www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/jim-crow-laws.html W.E.B. DuBois- William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was an American civil rights activist, he was a leader, Pan-Africanist, sociologist, educator, historian, writer, editor, poet, and scholar. He became a naturalized citizen of Ghana in 1963 at the age of 95. http://www.naacp.org/pages/naacp-history-w.e.b.-dubois Booker T. Washington-Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856 – November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and advisor to presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American community. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booker_T._Washington Malcom X- Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little and later also known as el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, was an African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist.- https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=malcolm+x Civil Rights Act Of 1964- The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Pub.L. 88–352, 78 Stat. 241, enacted July 2, 1964) is a landmark piece of civil rights legislation in the United States that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964 Brown Vs Board Of Education- Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483, was a landmark United States Supreme Court case...
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...The Southern Manifesto declared the Supreme Court decision on Brown vs Board of Education to be unconstitutional and uses the case of Plessy v. Ferguson to support their claim. Jim Crows laws permitted “separate but equal” facilities for Black and Whites and was supported by Plessy v. Ferguson– Supreme Court decision (GML! 668). The. This case emerged in Louisiana when railroad companies were required to have separate cars for Black passengers and a light-skin African American man named Homer Plessy refused to move to the ‘colored ‘section of the train, leading to his arrest. The idea of “separate but equal” was imbedded in the belief that the 14th amendment enforces total equality without distinction based on color By stating that the Brown vs Board of Education case is unconstitutional is to also admit the unconstitutionality of laws, such as Jim Crows created in opposition of the 14th and 15th amendment to restrict African American liberty and rights as citizens. This was their way to legally rationalize their support for segregation, even though it demonstrated their hypocrisy toward the constitutionality of laws and amendments. In the Manifesto, they mention how in “the original Constitution does not...
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...In 1896, a Supreme Court ruling deemed Homer Plessy guilty for sitting in the whites- only section and refusing to get up. He and his lawyers argued that the “separate but equal” doctrine was unconstitutional by breaking the 13th and 14th amendment. In fact, plessy and his family were considered “free people of color.” He also became a social activist(1). Because of that, he joind the Comite des Cotyens which was also known as The Citizens’ Committee to Test the Constitutionality of the Separate Car Law(2). THe unfair decision of the Plessy vs. Ferguson Case influenced the way society ran in the south, the caste system and how the separate but equal doctrine was enforced. During the civil rights movement,, hte government enfocred a strict...
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...* Corrupt powerful in machine politics 3. Credit Mobilier Scandal: * Union Pacific railroad company created a construction company to steal money from the government- gov. pays for railroads * Important because government money was stolen 4. Panic of 1873: * production was greater than demanded * soft (paper) vs. hard (gold and silver) money; Greenback labor party- wanted more greenbacks- they elected 14 members of congress (party of farmers) 5. Gilded Age: * known as the “era of good stealing’s” * politics used the term “waving the bloody shirt” 6. Compromise of 1877: * Hayes (rep.) and Tilden (dem.) ran in the 1877 election * Hayes wins and reconstruction ends and the creation of the Jim Crow laws happens 7. Sharecropping: * after the slaves were freed they went back to work on the plantations but as sharecroppers * Sharecroppers always in debt 8. Jim Crow: * Southern states passed laws to deny civil rights to freedmen; white supremacy * Pole tax- pay tax because you exist- only enforced on freedmen- right to vote 9. Plessy v. Ferguson: * Supreme Court case- a black man bought a first class train ticket. * Court ruled “separate but equal” is constitutional 10. Chinese Exclusion Act: * West Coast laborers were threatened by Chinese laborers * act bans all Chinese immigrants 11. Pendleton Act: * begins to mark end of spoil system * Not about who you know but what...
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...Throughout the 19th and 20th century, African Americans have been fighting for basic rights, equality, and abolishing slavery. This is all the same movement, from Dred Scott, to the Martin Luther King Jr.’s march on Washington. The basic idea was to achieve equality. And African Americans never stopped doing that. When Dred Scott brought his case to court, he started a fire. A fire that grew and grew, until a whole movement was created. And that movement was never stopped, until African Americans were given equal rights as whites were. The Civil Rights Movement, and the abolitionist movement, are just parts of a larger fight, the equality movement. For many African-Americans, Brown vs. Board of Education was a very important case. It was a...
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