...On November 9, 2017, I attended the Leon S. Peters Ethics Lecture Series. At this particular lecture, Richard Rothstein came to speak about his book The Color of Law. In his book, Rothstein depicts how segregation in America is at the fault of government policies. The author is a fellow at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, as well as the Haas Institute at UC Berkeley. Along with these accomplishments, Rothstein is also a research associate of the Economic Policy Institute. Over the course of his life, he has dedicated his studies to researching US history to find the underlying causes of segregation in America. He began his lecture by informing the audience that the United States has used de facto discrimination to explain the reasons for segregation. De facto segregation means that racial segregation occurs through “fact” rather than through legal...
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...Jim Crow was the personification of the system of racial segregation. Jim Crow laws treated white people as if they were superior to black people, and black people were the second-class race. White people and black people were not allowed to be socially equal in the eyes of Jim Crow. “It went so far that if a white person asked a black person a question, the black person had to respond the answer that the white person wanted to hear, regardless of the truth.” Woodward was unquestionably correct when he states that African Americans were not treated equally because of segregation caused by the Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow laws enforced the segregation of races in the United States. These laws were started in the late 1870’s and lasted until the...
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...Just three days before my birthday, it was December 1st. It seemed just like a normal business day, but there seemed to be a chill in the air. Usually, right before I close shop my dad will stop by and walk me home. For some reason I did not know yet, he did not show up. I took some money from the cashier and headed to Cleveland Avenue to catch a bus home. I did not particularly enjoy riding the bus due to the segregation laws. The public carrier segregation law had just been passed recently this year, and I was deeply upset for my African-American friends. Although my own father did not agree with me being friends with the African-American girls, I insisted on being friends with them anyways. They didn’t seem any different than my other friends...
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...Will everyone ever be treated equally in the future? Racial segregation has gone away and the world has become an equal place. Yet one may see racism all over America. In the future there will be no racism and everyone will be equal. Prior to today, African Americans along with other races were discriminated and put to shame because of the color of their skin. Slavery started as early as 1619 where people of color were treated as animals. When the civil war came in 1861, in a population of twelve million, four million were slaves (Contributors, Wikipedia). According to Samantha Siddique, “discriminatory laws barred them from voting and owning property.” One of the laws was the John Crow law, this law “made it legally acceptable to force African Americans to use separate washrooms, entrances, water fountains, schools, and transportation” (Segregation Facts). After all African Americans were treated as non humans throughout history....
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...Jim crow laws or segregation, separated whites from the colored people in public facilities from 1870 to 1950. These laws required separate accommodations for the blacks from the whites in any public space. First starting in the railways providing separate accommodations for passengers than other laws began to come into place such as restroom usage, the water fountain, intermarriage was not permitted, restaurants could only serve exclusively either white or colored people, wine and beer must be sold to either colored or whites. Delany sisters where what they liked to be known as colored, they first encountered segregation was on a trolly ride home from Pullen park “Momma and Papa just tetley told us to hush and took us to the back” Page 67 top but where they trulls preferred to sit was in the front. Another encounter was a few days following the trolly incident, their teacher took them to the drugstore for some liminade and the man behind the counter told them “ I can not wait on you” because he was not a colored man he would...
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...The Jim Crow Laws were local and state laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern States in the United States. Segregation was based on skin color, and based on the idea that “blacks were inferior and subordinate class of beings”. The Jim Crow laws were very strict and did not give freedom to blacks. They segregated whites away from black through all forms of contact with whites. Blacks were discriminated from whites and were only used as slaves. The laws originated from the Southern and border states. Many southern states passed laws to discriminate blacks from whites and made them slaves. The Jim Crow laws originated from a white actor named Thomas Dartmouth Rice. He was a struggling actor that would paint his face black and preform...
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...Jim Crow Laws In the years 1870-1950 all colored people had to follow the Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow laws were laws enforcing racial segregation in the southern United States. The Jim Crow laws consist of different schools, entertainment, freedom of speech, health services, housing, Libraries, marrige, transportation, socialization, and many other things for African Americans to follow. The main separations are schooling,health services, and transportation. For example, Jim Crow laws were created for a “separate but equal” treatment. Colored people had to have their own schools because the white children did not want to go to school with colored kids. And if a white person married a colored person their family would technically disown them. Most African Americans had to have a very bad health condition in order to go to the hospital. Most babies had to be born in houses. Colored people would have to do their job perfectly or they would get fired. Blacks would have to call all whites miss or mister. Even children would have to call whites miss or mister. Even the schools were different....
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...was one of the most significant cases of the Civil Rights Movement because of its negative results. Homer Plessy, in support of the Citizens' Committee to Test the Separate Car Act, challenged the state law by sitting in a whites-only train car though he was one-eighth black. The committee planned to challenge segregation in court in hopes that the Supreme Court would deem the law unconstitutional. Plessy’s lawyers said that his rights were violated due to the Fourteenth Amendment, which gave equal rights to male citizens of all races. However, the Supreme Court had previously ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment only applied to federal law, not state law. The Supreme Court eventually decided against Plessy ruling that the 14th Amendment didn't apply to state law and that segregation did not take away black people's rights because the facilities were separate but equal....
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...Civil disobedience is the act of refusal against laws, taxes, or demands by a government usually staying peaceful in nature. Martin Luther King Jr. and Antigone implement civil disobedience to defy unjust law; however, both approaches used to go against the wrong laws are different. Martin Luther King Jr. became the leader for the civil rights movement to put an end to segregation through civil disobedience by stressing the importance of peacefully protesting; while Antigone purposely went against the law, knowing the consequences, to follow God’s law instead of man-made law in a holy effort to bury her late brother Polyneices. Martin Luther King Jr. goes against unjust laws through civil disobedience by initiating peaceful protests. He believed that using nonviolent tactics are better at showing the immorality the unjust laws’ and calls for black people to fight the long battle against segregation. In Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, he reveals the unjust treatment going on in Birmingham and why it is important for him to be there helping, “Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already...
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...unquestionable detriment to the growth of the African American community, as well as increased timidity for basic African American rights. The issues of segregation and racism that were so prominent during this era in America were one of the ways that Black Americans remained almost invisible in a white society. Despite the end of the Civil War and the emancipation of slaves, race continued to be a problem in early twentieth century America. One of the most critical issues surrounding the further entrenchment of racial segregation within the early twentieth century was the development of policies and laws that did not follow the emancipation guidelines for ex-slaves, but instead made segregation and discrimination of African Americans more prominent. These laws were at first called the Black Codes, allowing for differences in the way that African Americans were treated both privately and publically. Even Supreme Court cases, like Plessy vs. Ferguson, further allowed for racism to be a compelling factor within the nation. This case allowed for the expansion of the Black Codes instead of abolishing them by creating the “separate but equal” mentality that existed until the 1950s when “systematic segregation within the states was ended” (Plessy vs. Ferguson Judgment, 1895). The Black Codes were also eventually referred to as the Jim Crow Laws, based on a stereotype of an African American portrayed in public plays by a white man with black makeup on. This was one of the ultimate insults...
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...Kyle McCrite Ms. Vaughn English 102-01 14 September 2009 Someone Else’s Shoes Martin Luther King’s (MLK) “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” was written in 1963 as a response to the Eight Alabama Clergymen’s public statement against King’s actions in April of that year. Martin Luther King Jr. was an activist for desegregation of the south in the early 1960s and overcame much adversity to attain incredible gains on the segregation issue in the United States. King uses effective persuasive appeals of logical evidence, emotional appeal, and author credibility to win over his audience in “The Letter from Birmingham Jail.” MLK’s writing shows the effects of segregation in Birmingham with clear direct language and heart wrenching examples. Imagine being put in his position. If your family and friends were being treated cruelly and unjustly would you not help them in any way possible, especially if included in the mistreated group? After reading MLK’s letter, maybe you would see things in a different way with his convincing examples of logical and emotional appeal. Martin Luther King proves his credibility by several factors. The first way King proves he is a credible author is the fact that he is in the Birmingham jail. He is arrested while protesting in the city. The reader can believe that MLK is writing about something that he is well versed in because he shows that he has experienced it firsthand. Another way that Martin Luther King shows he’s plausible is by stating “I have...
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...SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954) (USSC+) 347 U.S. 483 Argued December 9, 1952 Reargued December 8, 1953 Decided May 17, 1954 APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF KANSAS* Syllabus Segregation of white and Negro children in the public schools of a State solely on the basis of race, pursuant to state laws permitting or requiring such segregation, denies to Negro children the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment -- even though the physical facilities and other "tangible" factors of white and Negro schools may be equal. (a) The history of the Fourteenth Amendment is inconclusive as to its intended effect on public education. (b) The question presented in these cases must be determined not on the basis of conditions existing when the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted, but in the light of the full development of public education and its present place in American life throughout the Nation. (c) Where a State has undertaken to provide an opportunity for an education in its public schools, such an opportunity is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms. (d) Segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race deprives children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities, even though the physical facilities and other "tangible" factors may be equal. (e) The "separate but equal" doctrine adopted in Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537...
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...The upholding elements of segregation and the Jim Crow Laws were immensely used to restrict and limit the equal opportunity of colored individuals. These laws depended on the racially caste system in the South in order to establish inferior treatment. Although, the oppression of different races has emancipated throughout time, signs of segregation can be found in the real world and in Loraine Hansberry playwright A Raisin in the Sun. For one thing, Hansberry’s use of segregation to portray the effects of the Jim Crow Laws denotes the ideology of black inferiority. Segregation is the act isolating different groups based on their race, religion, and even beliefs. Mama’s purchase of a home in white community quickly aroused controversy...
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...civil war the South introduced laws, which were called Jim Crow laws. These laws forced segregation of the blacks in the South. With the start of segregation of blacks the civil right movement started. The peak of segregation was during 1950s. The South promoted segregation with saying that the segregate but the facilities, which the blacks had to use were equal. This was a big lie. In this essay I try to explain the major reasons why there was segregation in the South during the 1950s. Before the American Civil War the South had a big plantation economy, where they planted rice, sugar, cotton, tabacco and the major plantation economy in the South, sugar. The plantation economy was the biggest economy in the South due to the climate and it was the closest point to Africa from the New World called USA. The short distance to Africa pushed Slavery in the USA. All the owners of the plantation had African slaves who worked for them. This changed after the Civil War when Slavery got abolished and therefore the plantation economy ended. The plantation economy ended because the whites believed that this was only a job for blacks. As I mentioned earlier was the plantation economy the biggest economy in the South but when Slavery ended the South got poor, farming rural area. Moreover the South believed in the supremacy of the white race and they were in fear when slavery ended that this system could get mixed up therefor the South introduced Jim Crow laws. Laws which segregated the blacks...
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...Jim Crow Laws What would you think if you were to go to the bathroom and see a sign stating that there was a separate bathroom for African Americans, likely one that was in much worse shape? This would have been very common in America in the 1930s. According to Clive Gifford, author of “World Issues, Racism”, “Racial discrimination denies members of one racial group access open to others” (Gifford 19). Racial discrimination has taken place several times throughout history, even in the form of laws, such as the Jim Crow Laws. Jim Crow laws were prejudiced laws that supported racial segregation in the United States for several decades. THE START OF JIM CROW LAWS Jim Crow laws began in the United States around the 1880s (“Jim Crow Laws” 1)....
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