Mckenzie Rodriguez
3 - 04 - 16
Period 1
Racism in the south “If I did not want others to violate my life, how could I voluntarily violate it myself?” (Wright 253). This statement is from the book Black Boy by Richard Wright. Richard Wright is both the author of the book and the main character in the story. The historical decisions Jim Crow Laws, Pace vs. Alabama, and Plessy vs. Ferguson impacted Richard Wright throughout his life in the book.
First of all, The Jim Crow Laws had a tremendous impact on Richard Wright in the book. By making blacks obey these laws in the South, they were treated as less than by white people. For example, Richard could not speak his mind because he was expected to act a certain perfect way around white people. Richard was almost always let go from a job because he did not behave a certain way. One time a white man told him “Why don't you laugh and smile like the other niggers? I don't like your looks nigger, now get!” (Wright 182). To add on, as Richard grew a little older he had received death threats from white men when he would forget to comply to the Jim Crow Laws in the moment of a conversation. Richard is considered lucky when these white men let him go easy after hitting him with a empty glass whiskey bottle. One tells him “Nigger, you sure ought to be glad it was us you talked to that way. You're a lucky bastard, cause if you'd said that to some other white man, you might've been a dead nigger now” (Wright 181). These horrific events due to the Jim Crow laws in the south had most likely traumatized Richard and every other black person during those times. Altogether, black people would have had an easier life if it were not for the Jim Crow Laws.
To add on, the Pace Vs. Alabama case impacted Richard wright tremendously in the book. It prohibited white people and black people from having a relationship with