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Jim Crow Laws In The United States

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The United States of America in a sense is a fairly new and young country compared to many others in the world. Being founded on July 4th, 1776 makes America only 240 years old. After a bumpy start and many conflicts the civil war which end in 1865 things economically started to look way up in America. After the civil war the United States’ economy exploded and kept rising for many years. By 1900 the United States of America had the largest economy in the world, and has continued to be the largest in world till this present day. With this dominance on a global market came this hope and belief for a much brighter future to come, the American Dream. The hope in this country is to leave your children or family with more than you had when you were …show more content…
Lower income citizens face more hardships, get a poorer education, and are faced with a neglectful society. When Kermit Alexander and his family moved from New Iberia, Louisiana to Los Angeles, California they looked to escape the segregated South in hope for a better future with more equal opportunity.

Kermit Alexander and his family were escaping the Jim Crow South and moving to hopefully a more progressive city in Los Angeles. Jim Crow Laws were a set of state and local laws which enforced racial segregation in the Southern states of the United States of America. These laws forced “colored people” to use different facilities and other things. For example, schools, restaurants, public transportation, drinking fountains and more were segregated. The South got away with these laws with the saying “separate but equal” which entailed that although whites and blacks have segregated spaces they are equal, which was not the case. Black or colored” facilities, schools, transports and drinking fountains were not nearly as high quality as the ones for whites. Jim Crow Laws were …show more content…
As said before many kids and teens join gangs because they have no sense of meaning or love for themselves. Kermit said, “…joining the gang anywhere between the ages of ten and seventeen, the insecure young person might be mistreated at home, humiliated in school, but on the streets, as long as they stand up for their hood, they are rewarded”. A teenager with has almost nothing to lose will give up anything to gain what they seek for, whether its material objects, respect, or both. These kids are willing to give up their lives for this gangs because what they are getting out of it makes it seem very worth it for them. Alexander states that, “…the rewards are substantial to the teenage mind: the seductions of money, girls, cars, drugs, and above all status, power, and feelings of acceptance. They are now part of something respected and feared.”. The kids have a sense of meaning for the first time in their lives even though it might not be a good one. Because of this and the projects it gave cribs and bloods very easy prey after the end of the civil rights movement. During the civil rights movement in the 1960’s gangs in Los Angeles and other black neighborhoods dropped incredibly and there was almost no gang activity as most of the gangs participated in the movement. Most gang members joined organizations such as the Black Panther Party and the

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