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Jim Crow Laws

Terms in this set (12)

When did the Jim Crow Laws start?
1887
What did the Jim Crow Laws do?
Legalised and enforced segregation between white and black Americans.
Why are they called the 'Jim Crow Laws'?
Named after a song called 'Jump Jim Crow' which mocked African Americans.
Which state passed a law enforcing segregation on trains in 1887?
Florida
Plessy vs. Ferguson
Homer Plessy was a civil rights activist. As he was not fully black, he deliberately broke the segregation train law in Louisiana, arguing that he had no place to sit. Plessy's lawyer argued that he was not black or white, but the Supreme Court ignored this. The court agreed that segregation was fine as long as facilities were 'separate but equal', though this was never enforced and facilities were therefore never truly equal. Train laws in Louisiana did not change and subsequently, segregation increased in other aspects of life and the Jim Crow Laws era began.
Segregation in hospitals example
Alabama - white nurses could not attend to black men
Segregation in schools example
Florida - education between black and white children had to be educated separately (with the facilities provided for black children inferior)
Were black people allowed to marry white people?
No
1877 Florida State Law
All first-class train cars had to be segregated. Punishment for breaking this was to be whipped 39 times. Other states such as Alabama followed suit. This shows that states were already enforcing segregation before the introduction of the Jim Crow Laws.
What did the Supreme Court rule in Plessy v. Ferguson 1896?
Segregated facilities were fine as long as they were 'separate but equal', though this was never enforced. This gave the stamp of approval to the Jim Crow Laws and fuelled their introduction.
Cumming v Board of Education 1899
Cumming took the board of education to trial under the 14th Amendment to challenge segregation of schools and the inferiority of black education. The Supreme Court ignored this, saying that the inequality was not a violation of the 14th Amendment and therefore nothing changed. Segregation became more prevalent in the southern states, branching to more aspects of life such as parks, theatres and hotels.
By 1915, almost every southern state had introduced...
The literacy test and the poll tax - amount of black voters decreased to just 5320 in Louisiana by 1900.
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