The Jim Crow Laws were state and local laws in the United States between 1876 and 1965. They were racial segregation laws that the Southern states passed to separate black and white in public and private facilities. Segregation is the separation of people on the basis of race. The laws claimed to have a "separate but equal" status for blacks as there was for whites. The laws eventually led to treatment and accomodations that were usually inferior to those provided for whites.
The African-American citizens of the Southern U.S. were not only segregated from the whites, but were also robbed of their voting priveleges, the ability to serve on juries, and local offices. I believe it is terrible unfair to judge anyone, let alone judge them because of the color of their skin. Equality is the key to a prosperous country. Which perfectly explains why our nation wasn't entirely united at this point in time. There were too many disagreements and disputes about what rights the blacks should have and how they should be treated. Such disputes eventually led to the Civil War.
The Civil Rights Act of 1875 guaranteed that everyone, regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, was entitled to the same treatment in public accomodations. As you can probably guess, that Act didn't last very long, and Congress did not pass another civil rights law until 1957. After World War II, African-Americans increasingly challenged segregation as they believed they had more than earned the right to be treated as full citizens because of their militarty service and sacrifices.
A march on Washington in 1963 dramatized the movement to end the Jim Crow Laws. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 finally put these laws to rest. The blacks were finally entitled to a life as equal as the whites. That doesn't mean discrimination and prejudice against black ceased though, we still have racial issues among our society today.
I am glad I got the chance to research this topic, because although I knew that unfair treatment of blacks was in our country's past, I never knew the specifics of the laws or how severe they really were. I think it's terrible that almost everyone in the United States once thought it was okay to treat a group of people differently just because of the color of their skin. It's unfair and cruel. I'm so happy that it ended nearly 50 years ago.
https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3310272066?profile=original
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAjimcrow.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow_laws
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0826301.html#axzz0y3nDTZsA
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