11/12/17
Period 1
Jim Crow Laws
The term known as Jim Crow Laws originated from a television show where whites were attempting to display an African American man known as Jim Crow during the Harlem Renaissance. Although Jim Crow was a fictional character he still depicted many of the problems that African Americans were facing during this time period. However, the show itself was controversial and ironic as Jim Crow was played by a white man that had been painted black. Thus showing how white Americans didn't believe African Americans were prominent enough to even act in a show displaying themselves. The laws themselves that are called Jim Crow laws were created after this show in order to separate whites from blacks without doing so illegally. They would give whites cleaner bathrooms, drinking fountains, lines to stand in, etc than the African Americans. Although these laws were mainly upheld by local governments and vigilantes opposed to the federal government they still lead to major political issues such as the trial, Plessy v Ferguson. In Plessy v Ferguson, an African American man was punished by the federal government and supreme court for sitting in a white man's cable car. 
Gavin, your post was very straight to the point and explained the origins and contents of Jim Crow Laws. It was interesting to see the disparities between the treatment of whites and blacks, as seen in cleaner bathrooms, drinking fountains, etc., and also the pretentious outlook whites had on blacks. The Jim Crow Laws involved poor treatment and racism towards blacks, and the Era persisted for centuries to follow. At the same time, it's also interesting to see how the Jim Crow Era developed or changed in the 1930's. I recently did a blog post on the Scottsboro cases, and in 1931, the Jim Crow period finally diminished. It took nearly 60 years for this change, but the change eventually did end up occurring. This brings up an interesting question: How do you think time changes the beliefs of Americans?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.crf-usa.org/black-history-month/a-brief-history-of-jim-crow
I think that this is a really interesting question which can be answered in many ways. For many of the white people in the south, I think that time really doesn't have an affect of their beliefs. Even today, I am sure that many white people have held on to their deeply racist views, and are unwilling to change. While these people have undergone little to no change, I think what has changed is the government, and the freedoms and rights Americans as a whole have. As people have more of a right to free speech, they can speak out and oppose these laws with less of a risk to their own personal safety. Additionally, the government also plays a large role in regulating these laws in a more objective manner.
DeleteI just learned this year about the origin of Jim Crow and I realized it was worse than I thought. I always thought it was a man named Jim Crow who passed these racist laws and was a leader of segregation but this year I have learned that the origin is more surprising and racist than I would have thought. Do you think the actors portraying Jim Crow felt any sympathy towards blacks or were they just as racist as everybody else in those times?
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