Jim Crow Laws Research Paper

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While there were many ways blacks and whites were segregated and in no way, shape or form equal, after the passing of the 13th amendment, Black and white people were more segregated than ever. After the passing of the 13th amendment, the southern states enacted "black codes" which were then followed by Jim Crow laws. Black codes and Jim Crow laws restricting black peoples freedom, wages and to ensure that they were available for labor force. Black codes were enacted right after the civil war, each of these codes varied from state to state. The new set of laws were intended to continue cheap labor, and the inadequacy of black people. There was also something known as vagrancy laws, that declares a black person vagrant if they were not employed and didn’t have a permanent resident. Some southern states even limited property that blacks could own. These laws were then repealed in 1866 after the reconstruction period, which was the period after the civil war which lasted 1865-1877). The first vagrancy law was enacted on November 22, 1865 and it was made to civil officer to hire orphaned blacks and it forbade orphans from leaving there jobs for any reason. The workers were compensated …show more content…

The laws effected black’s everyday life and enforced racial segregation in the south. Jim Crow was the name of a minstrel routine (actually Jump Jim Crow) performed beginning in 1828 by its author, Thomas Dartmouth (“Daddy”) Rice, and by many imitators, including actor Joseph Jefferson. The term came to be a derogatory term for African Americans and a designation for their segregated life. This segregation principle was used for parks, cemeteries, theatres, and restaurants in an effort to prevent any contact between blacks and whites as equals. It was classified on local and state levels and most famously with the “separate but equal” decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Plessy vs. Ferguson

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