Ethics of living Jim Crow

Introduction

During the Reconstruction period following the Civil War (1861-1865), progress was made in extending social and political equality to freed slaves. Backed by federal troops, southern state governments were controlled by Republicans, the best of whom were legitimately interested in helping blacks become productive members of an egalitarian society (Fabre, pp. 78-99). After federal troops withdrew, conservative white governments came to power. Over the next generation a legal and social system evolved, known as Jim Crow, which deprived African Americans of their basic rights and created a social structure that made them second-class citizens.

Discussion

Jim Crow laws constituted legalized segregation. Noted historian C. Vann Woodward wrote: [The] code lent the sanction of law to racial ostracism that extended to churches and school, to housing and jobs, to eating and drinking. Whether by law or by custom, that ostracism extended to virtually all forms of public transportation, to sports and recreation, to hospitals, orphanages, prisons, and asylums, and ultimately to funeral homes, morgues, and cemeteries.

Sanctioned by blatantly discriminatory laws and a legal system that enforced their racist spirit, an oppressive social system emerged. It was one in which the daily humiliation and degradation of blacks was standard practice. And behind it all were the night riders who firebombed, murdered, and held public lynchings to ensure that African Americans did not challenge the system (Fabre, pp. 78-99). It was difficult enough to combat the legalized enemy in broad daylight; the largely unseen, criminal enforcers of Jim Crow were a critical prop to this heinous system.

By the 1930s, Jim Crow was deeply ingrained in the South and to a lesser extent established in other parts of the country. Several generations of African Americans had grown up under a system hardly less odious than slavery.

Progress toward eliminating Jim Crowism was very slow, but as the twentieth century progressed, an increasing militancy developed among African Americans. The rising expectations of several hundred thousand blacks returning from service during World War I (1914-1918) added pressure. The Great Migration of southern blacks into northern industrial cities was another major factor that increased the sense of urgency for change. Freed from the worst effects of Jim Crow, blacks found opportunity for expression.

The 1930s brought new factors. The turmoil caused by the Depression created an environment ripe for social change. The general success of labor unions was an important catalyst also. The inclusive character of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in organizing unions in the auto and steel industries, for example, was in marked contrast to the racist policies of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) craft unions. By the end of the decade African Americans were beginning to play important roles in integrated unions (Gayle, pp. 45-59).

The New Deal, of course, had an enormous influence on black Americans. While the program did not include specific civil rights reforms, it did include a strong commitment to equal treatment, in both its philosophy and its legislation. Despite the impact of local prejudices on the implementation of ...