Jim Crows Laws Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Jim Crows Laws - Research Paper Example hat the Civil Rights Act of 1875 as unconstitutional and that although the Fourteenth Amendment prevents states from discriminating against races, private individuals and organizations were not prevented from doing so.8 The Supreme Court ruling provided a booster for discrimination against blacks to develop, worsen, and persist. Thus, by 1914, every southern state passed laws segregating blacks and whites: blacks and whites could not ride in the same transport, be together, and blacks were denied access to washrooms, parks, beaches, picnic areas, certain hospitals, and the like. Blacks and whites were segregated based on which drinking fountains they can use.9 In the words of Sandoval–Strauz, for more than a century, public accommodations were at the epicenter of legal and political struggles for racial equality.10 Primarily, the years 1890 to the 1960s are widely considered as the Jim Crow era.11 However, several authors argue that Jim Crow legislations have remained and not repealed in the 21st century even as there is no longer a Jim Crow system in the United States. For example, the Jim Crow Study Group of the University of Arizona revealed in 2004 that there are several Jim Crow laws remaining in the Codes of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.12 Researchers agree that the Jim Crow system promoted the notion of white supremacy, economic exploitation, electoral disfranchisement, and violence.13 In 1959, Stetson Kennedy published a book with the title, Jim Crow Guide to the U.S.A.: The Laws, Customs, and Etiquette Governing the Conduct of Nonwhites and Other Minorities as Second-class citizens.14 J. Hernandez documented some of the Jim Crow etiquette15: 1. Black males cannot offer their hand to a white female because that would imply social equality. 2. Blacks and whites cannot eat together but if they have to eat together, the whites are to be served first and there must be a wide space betw een blacks and whites. 3. Under no event must a black male offer to light the cigarette of a white female. 4. Blacks were not allowed to publicly express affection with one another because that is offensive to whites. 5. Blacks were introduced to whites but never whites to blacks. 6. Whites need not use courtesy titles of respect such as Mr., Mrs., Sir, and Ma’am when referring to blacks but blacks are required to do so. Blacks can be called by their first names but blacks are not allowed to refer to whites by their first names. 7. If a black person has to ride a car driven by a white person, the black person must be at the back seat or at the back of a truck 8. White motorists have the right-of-way in all intersections. Further, according to J. Hernandez, Stetson Kennedy prescribed the following etiquette for