Jim Crow Laws

Despite slavery ending, the idea of white supremacy was still very much alive, especially in the Southern States of the USA. Even though slavery was illegal, the oppression of African Americans continued.

President Grant

President Grant wanted to mend Southern and Northern political divides within Congress so, he allowed the Southern states to make amendments to laws.
- This is how the Southern States enforced segregation.
Some white politicians suggested that they could end the issues surrounding the race war if black people were deported or castrated. One Georgia statesman even suggested that they were exterminated.

The legalisation of segregation

Between 1890 and 1910, the Southern States introduced legal segregation.
This meant that black Americans were kept separate from white Americans.
Segregation was not a new idea and in fact, prior to the law, de facto segregation (separation of the races that was not upheld by law) occurred in the South.
By the 1890s de jure segregation (supported and upheld by law) was widespread amongst the South.

Segregation in practice

Local laws were passed which denied black Americans access to the same facilities as white Americans.
Facilities for education, healthcare, transport, and public facilities (such as ‘rest rooms’ and water fountains), restaurants, and bus stations were divided between those for white Americans and those for black Americans.

Examples of segregation

Textbooks belonging to white Americans couldn’t be stored in an black school.
The laws even stated that a white American couldn’t visit an black American prostitute.

The Florida Railroad

One of the first examples of the de jure segregation laws was seen in the Florida railroad.

The Florida railroad

In 1877 the state of Florida passed a law which stated that first-class travel must be segregated.
Black Americans could purchase a first-class ticket just the same as a white American but they had to sit in a separate carriage.
The law stated that the carriage that the black Americans could sit-in would be of equal quality.

Boycotts

Black Americans boycotted some of these railroads in protest to the law.
Florida State suggested that if white Americans and black Americans did not abide by these rules then they could be subject to flogging or whipping.

Institutional racism

By 1881 Segregation by Law (de jure segregation) was commonplace across the South.
By creating laws which separated black Americans from society and granted them access to substandard facilities, racism became institutionalised.

1‘Free at Last’ 1865-77

1.1The Thirteenth Amendment

1.1.1The Civil War & The Thirteenth Amendment

1.1.2The Impact of the Civil War

1.1.3Economic, Political & Social Position of Ex-Slaves

1.1.4Political Settlement & Andrew Johnson

1.2Radical Reconstruction, 1867-77

1.2.1The Fourteenth Amendment

1.2.2The Fifteenth Amendment & The Civil Rights Act

1.3The Backlash

1.3.1White Supremacy Groups

1.3.2The End of Reconstruction 1887

2The Triumph of ‘Jim Crow’ 1883-c1890

2.1Jim Crow Laws & Civil Rights Cases

2.1.1Jim Crow Laws

2.1.2Voting Rights

2.1.3Scientific Racism

2.1.4Civil Rights Cases

2.2Resistance and Migration

2.2.1The Northern States & Black Resistance

2.2.2Early Migration

2.2.3The Great Migration

2.2.4Race Riots

2.2.5Migration Case Study: Harlem

3The New Deal and Race Relations, 1933–41

3.1Failure to Address Black Grievances

3.1.1The Democrat Party & the Anti-Lynching Bill

3.2The New Deal

3.2.1The New Deal

3.2.2The Alphabet Agencies

3.2.3The PWA, WPA & the NYA

3.2.4Benefits

3.2.5Impact of the New Deal & Eleanor Roosevelt

3.2.6Gone With the Wind

3.3The Second World War

3.3.1The Experience of War

3.3.2The Home Front

3.3.3The White Flight

3.3.4Restrictive Covenants

4‘I have a dream’, 1954–68

4.1Civil Rights Activities, 1954–63

4.1.1The Desegregation of Schools

4.1.2The Montgomery Bus Boycott

4.1.3SCLC & Birmingham

4.1.4SNCC

4.1.5CORE

4.2Civil Rights 1964-68

4.2.1Civil Rights Act 1964 & Voting Act 1965

4.2.2Ghettos & Poverty

4.2.31966 - 1968

4.3Malcolm X & The Black Panthers

4.3.1The Nation of Islam & Malcolm X

4.3.2Divisions in the Civil Rights Movement

4.3.3The Black Panthers

4.4Literature, Film & Television

4.4.1Racial Attitudes in Literature from 1850-2009

4.4.2Racial Attitudes in Film from 1850-2009

4.4.3Racial Attitudes in Television from 1850-2009

5Obama's Campaign for the Presidency, 2004–09

5.1The Late 20th Century

5.1.1Migration Back to the South in the 20th Century

5.1.2The Status of Black People 1968-2009

5.2Barack Obama & his Political Career

5.2.1Barack Obama's Life

5.2.2Senator for Illinois

5.2.3Running as Presidential Candidate

5.3Reasons for Obama's Victory

5.3.1Reasons for Vicotry

5.3.2The Significance of Obama's Victory

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