Jim Crow Era

Today, I learned about the Jim Crow Era. During this time, there was a racial caste system which functioned primarily in the southern states. Jim Crow was intact from 1877 through the mid-1960s, not only was it a set of laws but this was a way of life. This was put into place because of the white southerner’s fear of the sudden change within the society; the wanted to ensure that the blacks were still inferior. These laws were a series of anti-black laws which supported the oppression against blacks. These laws controlled every aspect of African American life; from where they sat on buses, to custody of children, education and even where they could purchase alcohol. One example of this was sundown towns. Sundown towns were areas where black citizens had to leave the town by sundown; and if they did not it could result in death. Another is Political Gerrymandering; which is when parties establish a political advantage for a party group by manipulating district boundaries. They used the strategies of stacking, packing and cracking. The Black Codes were also put into effect during this era. The codes were established in the Southern States in 1865 and 1866, post-civil war. The Black Codes were established to restrict the African Americans’ freedom. This was just another action by the white majority to discriminate the FREE blacks. These kinds of social norms were in place until the case of Brown vs. Board of Ed. For years cases, such as the Dred Scott Case and Plessy v. Ferguson were the ones that dominated congress, until Brown. Brown officially overturned the verdict that separate but equal was constitutional in Plessy. Plessy allowed for the creation of the Jim Crow laws and Black Codes to be established, so Brown’s cases is what brought an end to the Jim Crow Era.