Leyes de Jim Crow

Jim Crow Laws

Jim Crow was the practice of discriminating against black people, through a set of laws passed in the Southern states, after they had earned their freedom from slavery. The term originally referred to a black character in 1800s minstrel shows in which white performers wore "blackface" and pretended to be black characters.

Jim Crow laws were passed by Southern states that created a racial caste system in the American South. By 1914 laws effectively created two separate societies; one black and one white. Blacks and whites could not ride together in the same rail car, sit in the same waiting room, sit in the same theatre, attend the same school or eat in the same restaurant. Moreover, black Americans were denied access to beaches, swimming pools, parks, picnic areas and many hospitals.

In 1954, the United States Supreme Court struck down segregation in the nation's public schools. Rosa Park's refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man in 1955 sparked intense protests by blacks and concerned whites. In 1956, a boycott desegregated buses in Montgomery, Alabama. In 1960, in Greensboro, North Carolina, black college students seated themselves in a whites-only restaurant lunch counter. This sit-in resulted in many other similar protests throughout the South. The Civil Rights Movement began in earnest as blacks and whites joined to protest unfair laws and to promote equal rights for all blacks.

Ways in which black people were discriminated

Housing and Property

Racial segregation in housing was the result of local, state, and federal laws and policies, restrictive covenants, and overt discrimination against blacks. For example, government acts such as the G.I. Bill of 1944 provided low-cost mortgages, but denied all grants to red-lined, “high risk” areas, where African-Americans lived. Because blacks were prevented from moving into white neighborhoods due to discriminatory real estate practices and restrictive covenants which prohibited the sale of real estate to blacks, they were effectively limited to poor urban neighborhoods. Segregated housing directly affected the education and employment opportunities, health outcomes, and economic status of African-Americans.

Education

Segregated schools were more often than not unequal. Black students in black schools often had substandard curricula, less resources and lower quality teachers and facilities. In some rural areas, most black schools offered a shortened school term so that children could be let off earlier to help weed and pick the cotton fields. At the college level, segregation led to the development of black private and public colleges in the South, often supported by the federal government. Some of these higher education institutions taught curricula at the secondary level because no public high schools for black children existed. Although successful black high schools and excellent black colleges produced many African-American leaders, segregated education in general severely curtailed the economic opportunities of blacks.

Health

Racial segregation has been linked to lower health outcomes for African Americans. Research has shown that segregated black communities are located in highly toxic environments not well-served by public services, lack adequate medical services, and have higher housing costs and cost of living. These factors are compounded by poverty, lower employment rates, and lower quality education. For example, the following findings—among others—have been made: the rate of infant mortality for African-Americans was significantly higher than for whites, the death rate for southern blacks was much higher than for whites, and only cancer and diabetes, among the leading causes of death, killed more whites than blacks.

Voting, Prisons, and Employment

Many Southern states imposed poll taxes, literacy tests, and other

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