Jim Crow Laws

This disquieting yet important book describes the injustices, humiliations, and brutalities inflicted on African Americans in a racist culture that was created-and protected-by the forces of law and order. Jim Crow Laws presents the history of the discriminatory laws that segregated people by race in the American South from the end of the Civil War through passage of the 1965 Civil Rights Act. To paint a true picture of these deplorable restrictions, this book provides a detailed analysis of the creation, defense, justification, and fight against the Jim Crow system. Among the subjects covered here are the origins of legal inequality for African Americans in the aftermath of the Civil War; the role of the U.S. Supreme Court in weakening constitutional protections against discrimination established in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments; the white justification of segregation; and the extreme brutality of Jim Crow's defenders. Equally important, readers will learn about the psychological, political, social, and economic costs endured by the victims of Jim Crow inequality, as well as about the motivations, rejections, and successes faced by those who stood against these abominations. Primary source documents, including Supreme Court decisions and W.E.B DuBois's 1947 "Statement on the Denial of Human Rights to Minorities in the Case of Citizens of Negro Descent in the United States of America and an Appeal to the United Nations for Redress" A chronology of events concerning the legalization of discrimination in the era of Jim Crow, 1865-1965 A glossary of key terms related to Jim Crow laws, court decisions, and culture An annotated bibliography of significant books from history, sociology, psychology, and political science relating to Jim Crow