American History

Question 1: Legal changes in the Minorities after WWII

One of the most important legal changes that happened after the World War II was in the education sector. Following the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v Board of Education of Topeka Kansas, the segregation laws that had been set forth in Plessy v Fergusson 1896 case were abolished. Olson and Beal note that, “the case launched the most definitive assault on the Jim Crow segregation”. In Brown v Board of Education, the NAACP argued that discrimination was unconstitutional, as it breached the First, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments. As a result, the court overturned the ruling in Plessy v Fergusson, hence paving way for desegregation in public schools.

The second wave of legal changes was brought about by the Civil Rights Act 1964. Following the activities of such groups as NAACP, SNCC, and SCLC, pressure on desegregation of public facilities grew higher. Consequently, the Civil Rights Act was enacted on June 1964. In effect, the statute outlawed discrimination in such sectors as voting, education, and public accommodation. In addition, it led to the formation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which empowered the federal government to freeze the funds of the agencies that were non-compliant with the new laws.

The third wave of the legal changes in the minority community was brought about by the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Seemingly, for the public education to work effectively, the housing discrimination issue also had to be addressed. Therefore, the changes that were made in Civil Rights Act in 1968 were revisited to end the housing discrimination problem. As reported by elitewritings.com under the instrument’s powers, the EEOC ordered for corporations, universities, and government agencies to favor African-Americans by hiring more of them until the institutions met an accurate racial composition of the whole society. Therefore, the amendment made in 1968 Civil Rights Act was important in terms of influencing the development of the minority communities in the US.

Considering the nature of challenges that African-American community and other minority groups experience in the current America, it is conclusive that the above noted changes were not beneficial as they were intended. Notably, unlike the 20th century segregation, which was enforced de jure/jurisdictionally, the immediate form of segregation is through de facto institutions. In the immediate America, the socio-economic status plays significant segregation roles, whereby poor communities have minimal chances of meeting advancements. The same effect can be noted in the social formations, as white and black communities rarely coexist since the disparity of their socio-economic dynamics undermines such interactions. With the continued existence of similar problems that the minority leaders were fighting to end, it is only conclusive that the legal changes did not benefit the American society as they should have.

Question 2: Jim Crow Laws

The Jim Crow laws were the policies that were implemented across state and local levels to enforce racial segregation in the Southern states. The laws were enacted after the Civil War and Reconstruction periods to enforce segregation in all the public facilities. Olson and Beal note that, “the Emancipation Proclamation and Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments did not alter the reality of the social and economic structures”. The statement in essence refers to how through the enactment of the Jim Crow laws, the whites were able to reinstate power to control the former slaves and keep them from making meaningful forms of progression.

The idealism that the Jim Crow laws were developed in order to reinstate power to the whites is evident from the developments that transpired following their implementation. In order to ensure that the black community members did not have any power, they started developing policies that would undermine their progressiveness (Olson and Beal 208). It shows the negative side of these acts.

The first enactment of the Jim Crow laws was the poll tax, which required people to pay a given fee in order to vote. Such a policy was enacted as a way to maneuver around the constitutional laws. In addition, to the poll tax, the government set in place a literacy test as a requirement to vote. In effect, the laws discriminated against the citizens who were unable to read and write. Nonetheless, the laws not only limited the blacks from voting but also discriminated the poor whites. As a result, the Southern legislatures reinforced the grandfather clauses requiring that the people who were not eligible to vote could vote if their grandfathers had been eligible to vote in 1860. Basically, the law barred all blacks from voting considering that during the period, most of them were slaves.

Another Jim Crow law that was enforced during the period was that no black people could neither legally buy land nor lease the lands on long-term basis. Notably, the Southern economy heavily relied on slavery for economic sufficiency; therefore, after the Civil War, the whites were still in need of workers to maintain the economy. As a result, they ensured that the blacks remained poor in order to work for them. In addition, they were subjected to constant threats in order to prevent them from joining skilled labor or unions. Therefore, Jim Crow laws essentially undermined the black people’s capacity to own land or do skilled labor in order to keep them from growing independent.

The term “Jim Crow” originated from a song of 18th century “Jump Jim Crow” written by a white comedian called Thomas Daddy Rice. Basically, Rice wrote the song to make fun of slaves, as he used to perform it in Minstrel shows. Thus, the term applied connotatively in the law of segregation that were enacted from 1877. Nonetheless, Jim Crow laws constituted the black codes that limited such people’s rights and in effect reinstated slavery. The end of Jim Crow laws was marked by the Civil Rights Movement in 1950s starting with Harry Truman’s efforts to desegregate the army and federal work spaces. Consequently, Civil Rights Movement led by Martin Luther King Jr. was able to advocate the minorities’ civil rights, hence bringing to an end Jim Crow laws by Civil Rights Act 1964.