Analytical Essay: The Role Of Violence In The Jim Crow

Lastly, violence against black people was very prominent during the Jim Crow era. The statistics for the amounts of black deaths from violence is outrageous. Fremon wrote, “In 1890 until 1917, on average, two to three blacks in the South were illegally hanged, burned, or otherwise murdered every week” (Fremon 37). Two to three black people were killed every week. The amount of abuse was so much and was for random minor “crimes” and sometimes black were even falsely accused. Fremon also states that “whites lynched hundreds of African Americans every year” (Fremon 37). The amount of killing in a year was ridiculous and excessive. There was nothing black people could do about any of it at the time. Little things could get a colored person physically

The simple act of not stepping off the sidewalk could have gotten you killed. Though senseless, it was the law and colored people had to follow it. Fremon wrote, “ Sometimes a minor crime would lead to a lynching. More often, though the victims had somehow violated an unwritten racial code. Owning too much property, trying to register to vote, demanding full value for one’s labor - any of these ‘offenses’ could lead to the wrong end of a noose” (Fremon 39). This was unfair considering that the rules weren’t official. Some rules weren’t clear and were made up on the spot. How could colored people know they were breaking the rules if they knew nothing of the rules. Violence was treated like a sport and would happen almost all the time. Fremon said, “At times, however, the executions became public events. Trains brought spectators to an execution. Vendors sold ice cream and lemonade a hangings” (Fremon 37). It was one thing to kill someone, but it was another to kill someone publicly. The fact that white people made the event seem like a normal outing is appalling. Selling the refreshments was just going too