What did the “Jim Crow” laws enacted in various American states, seek to do?
Basically segregation. Jim Crow laws were racial segregation laws in the South that were imposed on African Americans. They were similar to Black Codes, which were restrictive laws enforced on newly freed slaves after the Civil War. Jim Crow laws banned blacks from such places as restaurants, hospitals, parks, schools, and barber shops. The outcome of these laws resulted in the creation of separate drinking fountains, public facilities, and entrances for blacks. http://www.nps.gov/archive/malu/documents/jim_crow_laws.htm http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/history/creating2.htm http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAjimcrow.htm http://www.ferris.ed
Once African Americans were no longer subject to slavery in the US, many states enacted “Jim Crow” laws to segregate the black population. Jim Crow laws relegated people to certain water fountains, schools, restaurants, railroad cars and neighborhoods based upon their ethnicity. The laws were also intended to keep black citizens from exercising the right to vote. This segregation, and the fear that black people might someday have equal rights and powers, led to over 3500 documentated lynchings in the US from 1890 – 1930.
