Analysis Of The Jim Crow And The Ku Klux Klan

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Recommended: Impact of the Jim Crow laws

Sophia Hamann
Ms. Foster
Social Studies 9 Research Paper
29 May 2014
Research Question: To what extent did Jim Crow laws legitimize the Ku Klux Klan’s role in society?

Jim Crow and The Ku Klux Klan
“Racism isn't born, folks, it's taught. I have a two-year-old son. You know what he hates? Naps! End of list.” ~Dennis Leary, an American actor and comedian (Racism Quotes). Racism and inequality has always been a big problem in the U.S. as well as the rest of the world. After the civil war, African-Americans thought they would be treated with the same regard as whites, until Jim Crow. The Jim Crows were a set of laws enacted after the civil war in the U.S. to establish racial segregation. The Ku Klux Klan, or, KKK, are an organization with Christian and anti-black views (Tishauser, 217). The Jim Crow laws helped give the KKK a larger power, but also weakened it in the end, and therefore when Jim Crow laws were deemed illegal, the KKK became marginalized. The Jim Crow laws had many different aspects in history, including helping the KKK, there are many different reasons for the fall of the Jim Crow laws and how it affected the KKK, and what role the KKK plays in society today.
The Jim Crow laws were a way to keep black people from ever having any real freedom. Jim Crow came from a song and dance routine of an actor touring the country from the 1820s-1870s. The actor was a white man who painted his face black and humiliated himself when he was pretending to be a black man, while performing for white audiences only (Tishauser, 217). This developed to be the name of the laws used to eliminate the rights recently granted to the black people. With the idea of White Supremacy, many people banded together to form a terrorist society ca...

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...ing immigration laws from passing. The members also suggest plans to remove people of other religions from the U.S. to keep the idea of white Christian supremacy. Many members of the KKK have been put in jail, however, the KKK is still strong today.
The Jim Crow Laws gave much influence on the Ku Klux Klan, including them helping the KKK, when the laws weakened, as so did the klan, and it ultimately shaped the role the KKK plays in the world today. The KKK is one of the most horrifyingly memorable groups in U.S. history that still exists today. The Jim Crow laws help rationalize the terrorizing acts of the KKK to blacks, and other groups, which, when the Jim Crow laws feel, it severely weakened the power and representation of the KKK. Although the Jim Crow Laws weakened the power of the Ku Klux Klan, there are still many members with the mindset of white supremacy.

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