Jim Crow Laws During the 1930s
Life as a black person in the 1930s was hard, due to the discrimination supported by the Jim Crow laws that upheld segregation. Blacks in southern states especially were racially segregated in every aspect of life, including public transport, schools and all public places. However, blacks resisted Jim Crow laws through organized or individual acts of defiance. In the 1930s, blacks used political and nonpolitical approaches to fight against discrimination and establish their civil rights.
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History of Jim Crow Laws
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Jim Crow was a term coined in the 1830s from a performance by Daddy Rice, a white entertainer who coated his face black with charcoal to look like a black man, then mimicked a black person throughout the performance. During the 1850s, this Jim Crow caricature was one of the stereotyped symbols of black inferiority, and was commonly displayed during minstrel shows. However, during the 1900s, the term Jim Crow became synonymous with racist laws that denied blacks civil rights by upholding white superiority. Segregation emerged in the South when the civil war ended, as freed slaves built their own separate schools and churches. Many southern states attempted to restrict the physical and economic autonomy of the former slaves by adopting discriminative laws referred to as Black Codes. The 1866 to 1876 Congressional Reconstruction stated that it was illegal to discriminate against blacks, curtailing the Black Codes. In the 1870s, whites in the southern states used illegal organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan to instill white supremacy by intimidating, terrorizing and even lynching blacks.
Jim Crow Laws
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In 1877, Rutherford Hayes, a Republican president, neglected all the efforts aimed at defending the southern blacks' civil rights. This resulted in restriction of blacks' freedom in the South and neighboring states. The 1896 ruling of the Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson upheld the segregation policies of the southern states. Racial discrimination was imposed in public transport with blacks forced to sit separately from whites, especially in trains. Some southern states forbade interracial marriages, and most restricted blacks from voting by introducing white primaries, literacy tests and poll taxes. Segregation was also evident in public facilities such as hospitals, cemeteries, restrooms, churches, schools and prisons. After some time, segregation spilled over to almost all aspects of black people's lives, since they were restricted from socially mixing with whites at any opportunity.
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Enforcement of Jim Crow Laws
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Most whites used violence and intimidation to protect and enforce white supremacy in the South. Many blacks resisted the Jim Crow laws through acts of defiance, making them vulnerable to white rage. Whites publicly lynched blacks who challenged white supremacy in the southern states. White mobs sometimes attacked and looted businesses owned by blacks, resulting in deaths, injuries and destruction of property. Black journalists, civil rights advocates and members of the clergy who spoke out against Jim Crow laws were also targeted by white segregationists.
Resisting the Jim Crow Laws
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Blacks formed many political organizations by the 1930s to fight discrimination. The National Association for Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), under the leadership of Walter White, joined other groups such as the National Negro Congress, the Communist Party and the National Urban League in undertaking civil suits to fight segregation laws. In addition, some African Americans residing in the southern rural areas protected their economic rights through the Southern Tenant Farmers Union.
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