Jim Crow Laws

The Jim Crow Laws were a set of law that segregated African-American's and White American's. The purpose of the of the Jim Crow Laws was said to treat African-American's "equally" by segregating them, but a man from Howard University documented the inequality of the laws. He showed the differences between a white school which was nicer by looking new and a school for African American's were shown to have been broken down. The laws restricted African-American's from going to places and doing things that white American's did. An example of one of the restrictions was that blacks were not allowed play checkers with whites. A lot of white Americans believed that they were better at things than African-American's. Propaganda of African-American's was used as a way of uniting white's and used to enforce stereotypes that exist still to this day. There were shows that showed African-American's being portrayed by actors who were white in makeup that made them look like African-American's. This was called blackface which is a white actor who was in makeup that made them look black. Lynchings were also something that was common back during the time of the Jim Crow laws. Lynchings were used as a way to show a message to other African-Americans. Whites would do this when a black business owner was getting a lot of business and the white market wouldn't get as much. This was the case for black business owner Thomas Moss. He would get his store burned and sent to jail and would die soon after. His last words were to his "people" to head west where it will be better for them than being in the South. The Jim Crow Laws did make things equal for African-American's, but the system of laws was shown to be against African-American's and favored white American's.