Jim Crow Laws

Following the Civil War, three constitutional amendments gave former slaves certain rights: the 13^th Amendment abolished slavery; the 14^th Amendment gave blacks American citizenship and the 15^th Amendment granted black men the right to vote. However, it was impossible to do away with racial prejudice so easily.

Starting in the 1880s, southern states began to pass laws that limited the blacks’ rights. These new laws became known as “Jim Crow laws”. Jim Crow was the name that a popular white actor gave to a character of a poor, uneducated black man in his show. The actor played the role in a way that made Jim Crow seem stupid. The caricature of African Americans as ignorant, laughable people, paved the way for Jim Crow segregation laws.

The Jim Crow laws affected voting, education, and the use of public facilities. Most southern states disenfranchised blacks by making them pass literacy tests or pay a poll (voting) tax. Literacy tests required voters to read a text and answer questions on it. Often these texts were quite difficult and confusing, especially for many African Americans since they had little or no education. As a result, many of them failed the test. Another method was a poll tax – a tax that blacks were to pay if they wanted to vote. The tax was one or two dollars, which was equal to several days’ wages, therefore most blacks could not afford to pay it. And if they tried to pay, the tax collectors would simply refuse to take the money. In addition, in some states the so-called “grandfather clauses” were introduced. These clauses, or rules, allowed the vote only to people whose grandfathers back in 1865 had the right to vote. As most blacks got the right to vote only in 1866 (under the 14^th Amendment), their voting rights were automatically taken away from them.

Furthermore, the Jim Crow laws created a system of segregation and discrimination in the South. Segregation was a strict racial separation of blacks and whites. Blacks and whites were to use separate buses and rail cars, schools, restaurants, churches, theatres, parks, cemeteries. Any black who dared to break the segregation laws was likely to end up in prison or dead. An average of 150 blacks a year was lynched by white mobs.