Segregation Laws

The Africans who were brought to America from 1619 until 1808 were a part of slave trade and immigrated unwillingly. The 200 years of slavery shaped attitudes and ways towards African-Americans that is still visible today.

20th century Africans left Africa on their own will. By this time, Blacks were achieving respect and were giving economic competition. Resentment towards this lead to racist attitudes.

Among those racist attitudes were the Jim Crow laws. The north allowed the southern states to pass these laws in congress in exchange for acts and immigrations bills that would help keep the Chinese and European immigrants out of the north. Between 1901 and 1910, most southern states passed multiple Jim crow laws. These laws included that -------------------

The segregation laws reflected that racist attitudes remained strong throughout the South long after slavery had ended. When the supreme court ruled in 1954 to end segregation in schools, 17 states had mandatory segregation laws.

for generations Both white and black families had grown up in a culture where the two races were separate. this created a vicious circle in which “discrimination breeds discrimination.” This, along with harsh Jim Crow laws and poor economic conditions forced a major portion of African Americans towards the north. By 1925, more than 1.5 million Blacks lived in the north.

Race riots had an effect on a number of cities. In 1917, during WW1, East St. Louis Illinois had a riot in which 39 blacks and 8 whites were killed and hundreds were seriously injured. The crisis became worse when the war ended because there where more Blacks in the north and soldiers were coming home thinking that they had a job waiting.

The riots made negative racial feelings even more intense. The south had de jure segregation - laws- but the north adopted a de facto opinion of Jim Crow.

The mid 60’s was the era when there was an outburst of riots. In the summer of 1964, Blacks rioted in Harlem, Rochester and Philadelphia. They attacked both police and property. The violence and destruction became more massive the following summer. There were riots in the Watts section of LA, and then in Chicago, Springfield, Mass and again in Philly. Ghetto violence rose again in 1966 with 18 different riots, and peaked in 1967 with 31 riots, of which Newark and Detroit were the worst. The assasination of Martin Luther King Jr.