Jump Jim Crow: Enforcing American Racism 1
Jump Jim Crow: Enforcing American Racism
Barry Marshall
Professor James Jones | CJ-101
JUMP JIM CROW: ENFORCING AMERICAN RACISM 2
Jump Jim Crow: Enforcing American Racism
The contents of this document will contain a detailed overview of what exactly Jim Crow
laws were, how the laws were enforced in American society, and the inevitable demise of the
laws.
“Jim Crow,” was not a person as some may falsely believe at first glance. The term itself
implies racially demeaning connotations towards African Americans (Olson & Mendoza, 2015).
This was only fitting as the laws that followed the name served to be a racial barrier between
whites and blacks (Olson & Mendoza, 2015). These laws were voted on, passed, and enforced by
state and local governments in the American south during the 1890s through the better half of the
1900s (Olson & Mendoza, 2015). After the abolition of slavery in 1865 a vast amount of the
white population in the southern United States became determined to keep their higher-class
status over blacks (Kendall, 2016). The white population’s first method for doing so is referred
to as the, “black codes,” which are famously said to be slavery under a different name, they
served to fill the “segregation void” that southern whites craved after abolition (Olson &
Mendoza, 2015). After the Black codes were abolished in 1870s and 1880s, although fairly
different in many ways, the Jim Crow laws became the new way to enforce American racism
(Olson & Mendoza, 2015 & Kamalu, 2013). Jim Crow laws supported this concept in a phrase
called, “De jure segregation,” a term which described the loophole used to keep white’s social
and economic superiority over blacks (Olson & Mendoza, 2015). The reasoning for this white
racist desperation was not only due to the social values this generation of whites grew up
learning and believing, but it was also due to the economic benefits when it came to acquiring
cheap labor (Olson & Mendoza, 2015).
JUMP JIM CROW: ENFORCING AMERICAN RACISM 3
Since most of the Jim Crow laws prevented blacks from going into skilled trades, being
in any labor unions, or even going to a half-decent school, this gave blacks an unfair, one-way
street headed towards being in the cheap labor force (Olson & Mendoza, 2015). Unfortunately,
these laws being passed prevented African Americans from working nearly anywhere besides on
tobacco, sugar, or cotton plantations (Olson & Mendoza, 2015). These were the methods whites
used to effectively keep their economic benefits over blacks even after the abolition of slavery
(Olson & Mendoza, 2015).
In addition, after blacks had been deprived all of these basic economic rights, another
series of laws would be passed that included requirements such as literacy tests and poll taxes for
black voters (Olson & Mendoza, 2015). These requirements effectively ended all chances for
most African Americans being able to practice the right to vote (Olson & Mendoza, 2015). Other
