African Americans In The 1930's

I was not tired physically…No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in” (History.com Rosa Parks). By refusing to follow the Jim Crow laws, Rosa Parks started the movement of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and civil rights movement. Led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., over a thousand blacks refused to ride the Montgomery buses, which resulted in the bus company’s massive loss in business since 70% of their customers were black. Thirteen months later, the Supreme Court finally ruled that segregated bus seating was unconstitutional (History.com Rosa

Even in religious affiliations were they excluded, since being of black blood made them “unworthy of consideration, a social outcast, and a leper.” Douglass uses three characteristic traits to define how whites perceived black people. All three characteristics mean the same thing- being a black person causes one to be a castaway from regular society. The purpose of stating three characteristics consecutively adds emphasis. It alerts the reader that despite who one was, if he was of ‘black blood,’ it unquestionable made them excluded from white society. White officers escorted men out “because they would not

When the Plessy case was heard, all the southern states had passed laws that required segregation on at least some of their railroads. The Facilities assigned to blacks were inferior to those that were set aside for the whites. The motivating force behind the Jim Crow Laws was white supremacy. Jim Crow Laws were rigidly enforced to keep blacks in a position of inferiority. African Americans who broke or tried to break the laws faced the possibility of arrest, lynching, and public punishment at the hands of the

“The life of a Negro in Mississippi is not worth a whistle.” In the South marriage between a black person and a white person was not only looked down upon but it was illegal. This is why when Roy, the husband of Caroline, heard from his wife that she had been whistled at he was outraged. Racism in the South was so strong that a black man could be murdered for whistling. Emmett living in the North gave him a whole different outlook on racism. The Jim Crow laws in the South made marriage between different races illegal, but in the North interracial relationships were much more accepted.

The time period of which the book was written is the 1930’s and it was a quarrelsome time for race relations. During that period an economic slump, called the Great Depression, had affected many people’s lives as it was the most severe depression ever experienced by an industrialized country. Also factors like the Jim Crow laws and the 2nd Ku Klux Klan resulted in white people discriminating against blacks people. The Great Depresion is an important era in the United States’ history. In the 30’s, the complications that came along with the Great Depression affected the public severely.

Later, laws were passed against African-Americans and they were called the Jim Crow Laws. African-Americans were treated like second class citizens. These laws made racism legal. Black men couldn’t shake hands with a white man because it made it look like they were of equal status. Black people couldn’t show love or any sort of affection to each other in public.

There was different facilities for white and african americans. A white person was looked at as a higher person than an african american so they didn 't use the same bathroom, drinking fountains, go to the same restaurants, etc. But then Black codes ceased after the year of 1886, and were replaced by rules called the Jim Crow laws. In 1890 , a “separate but equal” status for African Americans. With all this going on it was tearing up the society, it was tearing it up because everybody was fighting and places were getting burned down.

The Jim Crow laws claimed to be “Separate but equal”, they were anything but. The laws separated the blacks from the whites. They had separate stores, schools, and even drinking fountains. The Jim Crow laws separated the blacks from the whites, made life harder for the blacks, and when they were separated their stores, restaurants, and other things were not equal. The Jim Crow laws started in the 1880’s in the southern states.

For example Atticus’ kids, Jem and Scout, were getting treated differently because “...Scout Finch’s daddy defended niggers.” (Lee 99). This novel pertains specifically to an African American man, but many different minority groups are still penalized in our current justice system from the color of their skin. The Eighth Amendment as it pertains to the 1930’s in To Kill a Mockingbird and the Eighth Amendment in the 1960’s are important

Although African Americans were legally equal to European Americans, there was still discrimination and segregation of the african americans and European americans. They would be made to use different water fountains, trains, restrooms, schools, restaurants. These types of segregation were known as Jim Crowe Laws. Jim Crowe was a fictional cartoon character who was racist and fuelled prejudice against “coloured people”. These were part “separate but equal” doctrine.