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Essay Subject: History & evolution of black codes (from Civil War to 1990s) designed to keep African-Amer. second-class citizens after emancipation.... More...

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Paper Abstract: History & evolution of black codes (from Civil War to 1990s) designed to keep African-Amer. second-class citizens after emancipation. Paper Introduction: The Civil War ended slavery, but it did not give African-Americans equality. Southern whites, upon regaining power in the late 1870s and early 1880s, instituted black codes, also known as “Jim Crow” laws. Those statutes, coupled with racist terrorism and official indifference (if not hostility), relegated African-Americans to permanent second-class status for decades, until the U.S. Supreme Court began dismantling “Jim Crow” in the 1950s. This paper will analyze the impact and the legacy of Jim Crow laws, from their birth in the 19th century, their death in this century, and their lingering effect as the new millennium dawns. After the Civil War, Congress passed (and the states ratified) three amendments to the U.S. Constitution: the thirteenth, which ended slavery; the fourteenth, which barred discrimination based on race; and the fifteenth, which Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Indeed, the destruction wrought by the Civil War hadmade them virtually equal in the South (save for the plantation owners, whomade up only 1 percent of the population), despite centuries of slavery.The failure of Reconstruction, however, left African-Americans in second-class status, unable to take part in the economic transformation during the2 th century. Only one American institution, the military, can trulyclaim to be "color-blind," according to most civil rights activists. Southern whites evendisenfranchised African-American voters in spite of the fifteenthamendment. Black Leadership in America 1895-1968. Tragic Failure: Racial Integration in America. Rapid technological advancements createdwealth on a broad scale in this century, but only for those allowed toparticipate. A substantial number of African-Americans (perhaps 4 percent) are considered middle class (Wicker 155-56). Racismtowards people of color has always been a fixture of American life, but JimCrow proved particularly destructive because of the dramatic changes thatoccurred during the 2 th century. Moreover, as the 2 th century winds down, commitment of the whitemajority is wavering. The South's unremitting hostility towards African-Americans promptedmany to leave the region and move to Northern cities. Harlem was the most notable ghetto, thoughat first blacks thrived in that area of New York City. Republican candidate Rutherford Hayes won the support of Congress, whichdecided the election because of a tie in electoral college votes, byagreeing to end military rule in the South. Thosestatutes, coupled with racist terrorism and official indifference (if nothostility), relegated African-Americans to permanent second-class statusfor decades, until the U.S. Southern whites, upon regaining power in the late 187 s andearly 188 s, instituted black codes, also known as "Jim Crow" laws. As aresult, many African-Americans in the inner city are worse off today thanthey were before the civil rights movement. Clark asked children to pick adoll, black or white. As one commentator wrote, "[o]nly the mostremarkable African-American could have escaped psychological damage fromknowledge of the captive status into which the race had been cast, for solong, by a white society dominant since Jamestown and Plymouth" (Wicker76). 2nd ed. Those advances came to the halt after the 1876 presidential election. Today, Jim Crow laws have disappeared. However, by the193 s, the Depression and the sheer number of migrants led to deterioratingconditions there and elsewhere (White 69-7 ). Furthermore, the Republicanparty helped African-Americans win elective office at the local, state, andfederal level (Barker and McCorry 94). In thatvein, the laws helped reinforce the stereotype that blacks were lazy,stupid, and unhygenic. African-Americans have made contributions in all facets of American life,from government to sports to science to business to entertainment toeducation, albeit at uneven rates. Stereotypes about African-Americans persist, especially when it comesto crime. During the late 19th century, anaverage of 15 African-Americans were lynched each year (White 26). New York: Longman Group, 1985.Wicker, Tom. Jim Crow laws impacted the African-American community in many ways.Economically, segregation created a one-way street: African-Americanscould not open businesses in white areas, yet whites could open business intheir community. Segregation had replaced slavery (White 24). Racial discrimination in housing continues, frommortgage companies to real-estate agents. Sucheducation might be in reach for succeeding generations of African-Americans, but not for most of those who had already reached adulthood bythe 197 s. Such a climate contributes torace-based violence, although that problem has lessened considerably.Stereotypes about blacks' aptitude continue to harm, especially in schools,where honors classes are the domain of whites since administrators oftenassume that African-American students are not up to the task (Cose 73). But manyfreed slaves soon left the farms and created large African-Americancommunities in urban areas, providing a greater opportunity for socialmixing. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1997.Kozoll, Jonathan. As a result, African-Americans enjoyed a far lowerstandard of living than white Americans. Whites soon returned to powerin the former Confederacy, and, aided by the U.S. That progress, however, has been limited. Plessy v. Moreover, theeconomic gains made by African-Americans since 196 still trail the gainsmade by whites during the same period (Wicker 156). The Court relied heavily on psychologist Kenneth Clark, whoconducted experiments on young children. (Jim Crow was acharacter in a minstrel show performed by whites during the 19th century.)Lynchings and beatings were commonplace, almost always withoutrepercussions for the white offenders. Whites have no problem believing that blacks are criminals (seethe Charles Stuart and Susan Smith cases). Terror and violence also underpinned Jim Crow laws. African-Americans, they were leftbehind and now have much farther to go to catch up. "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?" New York: BasicBooks, 1997.White, John. Most African-American children preferred the whitedoll, leading Clark to conclude that segregation had fostered a feeling aself-hatred (Cose 71). This paper will analyze the impact and the legacy of Jim Crowlaws, from their birth in the 19th century, their death in this century,and their lingering effect as the new millennium dawns. Whites resisted integration in the courts and by moving tothe suburbs, adding to the ghetto-ization of America's cities. In the Civil Rights Cases (1883), the Court invalidated a federal lawthat barred discrimination by private actors. After the Civil War, Congress passed (and the states ratified) threeamendments to the U.S. Color-Blind: Seeing Beyond Race in a Race-Obsessed World. But the impact of those laws still lingers. Thus, despite the end of housing covenants, 31 percent of African-Americans lived in tracts that were 9 -1 percent black in 199 , only aslight decline from 196 . In 1865, by contrast, a huge economic gulf did not exist betweenblacks and whites. New York: Crown Publishers, 1991.Tatum, Beverly D. Educational opportunities alsowere greatly limited, prompting African-American leaders to respond bybuilding their own schools, including colleges. No more "colored" signsadorning drinking fountains, bathroom doors, train stations, or anywhereelse for that matter. Supreme Court, they builta rigid social structure separating the races (Barker and McCorry 18). "It takes time" is a common refrain. Congress alsoestablished the Freedmen's Bureau, which helped freed slaves gain access toeducation, technical assistance, and land. Nonetheless, stereotypes linger, evenfor African-Americans who have "made it." They still have more hurdles toovercome than a white in a comparable situation (Cose 224). Schools not only arestill separate, in urban areas, they are even more unequal than they werebefore Brown (Kozoll 4-5). Even aftersegregation ended, these pernicious stereotypes persist (Wicker 77-79). Prior to that case, blacksand whites had dined in the same restaurants, stayed in the same hotels,and sat in the same places on public transit, albeit in separate clusters.Afterwards, they would not do so again for 75 years, at least in the South,where railroads, restaurants, hotels, schools, and other publicaccommodations were segregated by race. Southern whites enacted the laws in response to the South's changingdemographics. In rural areas, wealthy white landowners exercised feudal-like control over African-Americans even after the Civil War. Those who migratedusually lived in urban ghettos, for a variety of reasons. Forty-four years after Brown and three decades after decades afterthe civil rights movement, America has made progress in its race relations. African-Americans, trapped in less desirable neighborhoods, find it harder to getjobs because no businesses are nearby and because employers, though carefulnot to consider race, stigmatize neighborhoods and thus do not hire peoplefrom that area (Cose 233). Not all news is bad, however. Yes, but itcould go faster with a push. Constitution: the thirteenth, which ended slavery;the fourteenth, which barred discrimination based on race; and thefifteenth, which enfranchised African-American males. Supreme Court began dismantling "Jim Crow" inthe 195 s. By the time the civil rights movement had secured thoseopportunities, the landscape had changed again. Black self-esteem also suffered under Jim Crow, and that fact servedas the basis for ending "separate but equal." In Brown v. Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools. Limitedopportunities in education and business left them with few skills, andNorthern racism, though not as virulent, still restricted the places whereAfrican-Americans could live. The Civil War ended slavery, but it did not give African-Americansequality. Still, those institutionsoften lacked even basic resources such as books. The federal government often aided this process. In education, de jure segregation has been replaced by de factosegregation. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Winthrop Publishers, 198 .Cose, Ellis. Jim Crow laws also codified the dominant position of whites, addingto their belief that they were superior and blacks were inferior. The American economy movedaway from high-paying manufacturing jobs to service jobs such as bankingand computer programming. Many African-Americans moved to the cities just as thosemanufacturing jobs were leaving, creating a permanent underclass. Black Americans and the Political System. Works CitedBarker, Lucious J., and McCorry, Jesse J. Since home equity is the mainsource of wealth for the middle class, no wonder whites had 11 times thenet worth of blacks during the mid-198 s (Wicker 13 -31). The South remained committed to white supremacy, only in adifferent guise. To prevent that, white elites created a much more stricter systemof control. Board ofEducation (1954), the Supreme Court found that separate educationalfacilities based on race were inherently unequal because of their effect onself-esteem. Today,while African-Americans do attend school with whites in some communities,most attend school only with members of their own race or members of otherminority groups. Even though whites and blacksoften work together, they still mostly live apart, socialize apart, and goto school apart. Segregation limited contact between the races,preventing contrary views from reaching white Americans. While the former required only minimaleducation, the latter positions often necessitated advanced degrees. Ferguson(1896) upheld the doctrine of separate but equal, declaring that states hadthe power to require the "separation [of races] in places where they areliable to be brought into contact." Another example came during the NewDeal of the 193 s, when the Federal Housing Administration extended aid toAfrican-Americans only if they built a house in a "black" area (Barker andMcCorry 18-21). Thewhite majority used violence as a tool against any black person who did not"stay in his place" (Tatum 25). As for the rest, i.e. A long litany of problems plague inner-city schools, sonot surprisingly, the high school dropout rate among African-Americans isthree times higher than that of whites (Wicker 134). By waiting, by not pushing, America isessentially giving up on this generation, and possibly the next one, too. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1996. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.