On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed into effect the Emancipation Proclamation, the immortal document that ended the tragedy of American slavery forever. This legislation allowed America to finally live out its traditional values of liberty and equality for all and signalled the apex of forward movement and social mobility in the U.S. Once the Civil War had come to a close in May 1865, the terms of the Emancipation Proclamation finally revealed themselves fully to all Americans. Southern society, particularly the economy, was annihilated after slaves, the main source of labor in the South, had been relinquished from their duties on Southern plantations. This destruction of the South brought about the question of how the
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The Jim Crow Laws were very similar to the Black Codes in their respective natures and goals, both systems desired to halt the encroachment of civil and voting rights for newly-freed blacks living in the South. This belief in the superiority of whites was nurtured by a deeply embedded idea of Social Darwinism that had existed in the South for ages (Ferris State University, Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia). Whites believed that they were unanimously superior to black despite the extent of one’s education or accrued skills. This system of laws crippled any forward movement for blacks in Southern social life. Some of the most famous laws under this system include blacks having to drink at separate fountains than whites, having different Churches, and not being able to eat at the same dining establishment as whites (Kennedy, “Jim Crow Guide: The Way It Was”). Any possible sign of social equality between whites and blacks was barred under this set of laws and considered taboo in Southern society. Something as simple as a black man tipping his hat to a white man or woman could imply civil equality and was a punishable crime. This was most definitely not the society the Radicals had imagined when drawing up the plans for creating an America where blacks and whites lived
The Jim Crow Laws were very similar to the Black Codes in their respective natures and goals, both systems desired to halt the encroachment of civil and voting rights for newly-freed blacks living in the South. This belief in the superiority of whites was nurtured by a deeply embedded idea of Social Darwinism that had existed in the South for ages (Ferris State University, Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia). Whites believed that they were unanimously superior to black despite the extent of one’s education or accrued skills. This system of laws crippled any forward movement for blacks in Southern social life. Some of the most famous laws under this system include blacks having to drink at separate fountains than whites, having different Churches, and not being able to eat at the same dining establishment as whites (Kennedy, “Jim Crow Guide: The Way It Was”). Any possible sign of social equality between whites and blacks was barred under this set of laws and considered taboo in Southern society. Something as simple as a black man tipping his hat to a white man or woman could imply civil equality and was a punishable crime. This was most definitely not the society the Radicals had imagined when drawing up the plans for creating an America where blacks and whites lived