Explain Why Jim Crow Emerge In The South And How It Was Implemented. Also Discuss How Effective African Americans Were In Confronting The Racial Issues That Jim Crow Engendered.

Explain why Jim Crow emerge in the South and how it was implemented. Also discuss how effective African Americans were in confronting the racial issues that Jim Crow engendered.

"Weel about and turn about and do jis so, Eb'ry time I weel about I jump Jim Crow."

These phrases are the lyrics to the song "Jump Jim Crow" written in 1828 and performed by a minstrel show performer Thomas Dartmouth (T.D.) "Daddy" Rice, a white New Yorker whom was the first to popularized black face performance or what is commonly known today as blackface minstrelsy. In his performance, Rice portrays Jim Crow to be a caricature of a racially prejudiced black man who possesses the characteristics of being buffoonish, slothful, and superstitious. However, by 1850s the character Jim Crow had instinctively developed to be a standard part of the minstrel shows in America; who would have imagine that a character in which Rice produced would manifest into a legendary expression, which once heard by the older African Americans generation would bring back reminiscences of their predecessors being severely discriminated against and being brutally tormented.

As the era matured, the term Jim Crow began to evolute's both its denotation and connotation to associate with African Americans, developing to become laws of racial segregation known as the Jim Crow laws. This essay therefore, will describe the materialization of Jim Crow in the South, in ways it was put into practice by the white supremacists, and lastly concluding how it affected the African American race when threatened with the consequences under the Jim Crow laws.

It seems as though the conclusion of the Civil War in 1865 was the beginning of the highly anticipated emancipation for African Americans. Unfortunately, the ending of the Civil War was merely a false delusion of the jubilant life in which the colored people could possibly only dream of. Reality though was the reoccurrence of a war of ideologies, with questions such as "what are we to do with the freedmen?", "should blacks be given land or should they be permit to purchase it?", "would they be allowed to vote?", "should equal rights be given to them?" surfacing. For a diminutive period of time, African Americans were granted a glimpse of optimism of equal rights by The Civil Rights Act of 1875. The Act was proposed by the Republican Senator Charles Sumner and the Republican Congressman Benjamin F. Butler in 1870, which was passed by Congress in February, 1875 and signed by President Grant on March 1, 1875. The Act guaranteed that "all persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges of inns, public conveyances on land or water, theaters, and other places of public amusement; subject only to the conditions and limitations established by law, and applicable alike to citizens of every race and color, regardless of any previous condition of servitude".

During the glorious period of 1875 to 1883, the African Americans were permitted the consent to vote, hold position in the office, and were allowed attend school. The more incorporated cities in the south such as New Orleans, Louisiana for instance, desegregated its streetcars in 1867, began experimenting with integrated public schools in 1869, legalized interracial marriage between 1868 and 1896, elected a total of 32 black state senators and 95 state representatives, and had integrated juries, public boards, and police departments . It seems at the time that African Americans were finally receiving the justified treatment in which they ought to have, and were at last given the rights and opportunities in which they should have also obtained naturally as human beings.

Even though after the Civil War, African Americans were able to acquire the freedoms and privileges that their slave ancestors could only fantasize of, the fantasy was short lived and came crashing down in 1883. The Supreme Court ruled out the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to be unconstitutional, consequently leaving the African Americans to face escalating discrimination during the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. In announcing that the federal law is unconstitutional, Chief Justice Joseph Bradley ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment did not shield African Americans from discrimination by private businesses and individuals but only from discrimination by the state. He scrutinized that it was time for blacks to assume "the rank of a mere citizen" and to stop being the "special favorite of the laws." By 1890, whites both in the North and South progressively became less supportive of the Civil Rights Act, consequently causing racial tension to flare.

The Jim Crow epoch in American history dates from the late 1890's when the southern states began to intensify its law and state's constitution to put a restraint on the subordinate position of African Americans thus to keep them in place in society. These measures were aimed in isolating them in public spaces such as at schools, parks, transportations, accommodations, and etc. In addition to that, the white supremacy were also endeavoring the black adult males from being legitimated to vote. For instance, the grandfather clause that was enacted in February 8, 1989 was formed to deny suffrage to African Americans, as well as Native Americans. The grandfather clause asserted that those who had enjoyed the rights to vote prior to 1867, or if their antecedent have, they would then be excuse from educational, property, or tax requirements for voting. As a result African Americans even if they meet all the requirements, they are still not permissible to vote whereas some white illiterate where given the prospect to vote.

By 1910, all the former Confederate states in addition to the new state of Oklahoma had disfranchised the black voters; hence segregation between the races was on full scale. Segregation and disfranchisement laws were also supported by ritualized mob violence, such as the brutalizing practice of lynching. From 1889 to 1930, over 3700 men and women were reportedly lynched; with most of these victims southern blacks . Hundreds of other lynching and acts of mob terror designed to abuse African American transpired throughout the era, but went unreported in the press . The emergence of the Klu Klux Klan or the "KKK" for short further fortifies the power of the Jim Crow law. The KKK was first embodiment was in 1866, founded by veterans of the Confederate Army, the organization aims at resisting against the Reconstruction of the Southern states. The establishments of