Black Criminality In Antebellum America

The myth of black criminality began in Antebellum America when vagrancy laws began and different punishments due to race were enforced. The text says “Antebellum Virginia had 73 crimes that could garner the death penalty for slaves- and only one for whites.” Many people judge the severity of the crime by punishment that is handed down. This would make most white Americans in the Antebellum time period view African Americans as more dangerous. The myth of black criminality has not only been perpetuated by the law and white beliefs though. W.E.B. DuBois said that black criminality was a problem in a 1897 speech. DuBois said “The first and greatest step toward the settlement of the present friction between the races- commonly called the negro problem- lies in the correction of the immorality, crime, and laziness among the negroes themselves.” …show more content…
It began with the vagrancy laws and unfair penalties. About 15 years after the Civil War the obvious discrimination of Jim Crow which made more laws that the African American community had to follow. This continued until the Civil Rights movement which brought about many positives however the Black Panther Party did not. The Black Panther Party advocated violence. The president at the time, Herbert Hoover called it “the greatest threat to the internal security of the country.” The Black Panther Movement had national press and hurt the reputation of African Americans at the time. After the Civil Rights movement the discrimination against African Americans became more subtle. Richard Nixon declared the war on drugs during the 1980’s. The war on drugs hurt the African American community because the penalty for drugs usually found in cities was higher than that of the drugs found in rural areas. This is not the obvious discrepancy in punishment that was seen in Antebellum America but it still targeted African American