Jim Crow Laws

Legal History of Jim Crow

Reference: https://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-jim-crow-laws.html

Jim Crow laws were state and local statutes that legalized racial segregation. Enacted after the Civil War, the laws denied equal opportunity to black citizens.

Jim Crow laws started to come into effect, primarily but not exclusively in southern states, after the end of Reconstruction in 1877.

Ongoing racism and Jim Crow laws of the past are responsible for many of the health, education and housing disparities that African-Americans and other ethnic groups are dealing with today. 

The legal principle of separate but equal was established in the Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson in 1895. The Court's decision was summarized by Chief Justice Henry Billings Brown, who stated that the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause "could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social, as distinguished from political equality, or a commingling of the two races upon terms unsatisfactory to either."

That distinction of social, as opposed to strictly legal, discrimination, provided the foundation for states to keep black and white people separated, particularly in social settings and social institutions such as marriage. The convenient fiction of "separate but equal" was quickly abandoned and African Americans were treated as second-class citizens by institutions and laws that persist to this day.

Jim Crow Laws in Daily Life

These laws worked to enforce segregation amongst the races, which led to civil rights actions by individuals such as Ida B. Wells, and ultimately to the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s led by people like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr..

Examples of Jim Crow laws that caused these extreme tensions in the country included the following.

Business

"The business of America is business," said President Calvin Coolidge, but in his own era and in the present, it has been the country's business to enforce racial inequality. Buying, selling and the simplest activities of daily life - symbolized most famously by the simple water fountain - were firmly segregated by Jim Crow laws.

• Alabama: "Every employer of white or negro males shall provide for such white or negro males reasonably accessible and separate toilet facilities."
• Alabama: "It shall be unlawful to conduct a restaurant or other place for the serving of food in the city, at which white and colored people are served in the same room, unless such white and colored persons are effectually separated by a solid partition extending from the floor upward to a distance of seven feet or higher, and unless a separate entrance from the street is provided for each compartment."
• Georgia: "All persons licensed to conduct the business of selling beer or wine...shall serve either white people exclusively or colored people exclusively and shall not sell to two races within the same room at any time.
• Georgia: "It shall be unlawful for any amateur white baseball team to play baseball on any vacant lot or baseball diamond within two blocks of a playground devoted to the Negro race, and it shall be unlawful for any amateur colored baseball team to play baseball in any vacant lot or baseball diamond within two blocks of any playground devoted to the white race."
• Louisiana: "All carriers must provide equal but separate seats for white and colored. No person of one race is allowed to be in the section set aside for the other race."

Marriage

Marriage has always been a highly politicized issue. As one of the most fundamental institutions of society, when social change occurs, marriage changes with it. Examples of Jim Crow laws like the following were intended to freeze marriage into a perceived ideal where racial mixing was impossible:

• California: "All marriages of white persons with Negroes, Mongolians, members of the Malay race, or mulattoes are illegal and void."
• Florida: "All marriages between a white person and a negro, or between a white person and a person of negro descent to the fourth generation inclusive, are hereby forever prohibited."
• Wyoming: "All marriages of white persons with Negroes, Mulattos, Mongolians, or Malaya hereafter contracted in the State of Wyoming are and shall be illegal and void."

Medicine

Jim Crow laws required separate hospitals for whites and African Americans. What's more, restrictions on education guaranteed a constant shortage of African American medical professionals. Many treatments were only available to white patients, and even blood transfusions were segregated by race, in spite of the fact that Charles R. Drew, one of the pioneers of American blood banks and a groundbreaking scientist in the field, was himself African American.

• Alabama: "No person or corporation shall require any white female nurse to nurse in wards or rooms or hospitals, either public or private, where negro men are placed."
• Georgia: "The Board of Control shall see that proper and distinct apartments are arranged for said patients [in a mental hospital], so that in no cases shall Negroes and white persons be together."
• Georgia: "The officer in charge shall not bury, or allow to be buried, any colored persons upon ground set apart or used for the burial of white persons."

Education

No single issue since the abolition of slavery has been the subject of more race-based conflict than education. Even after the 1964 Civil Rights Act banned segregated schooling, de facto segregation was maintained, both in and out of the Jim Crow South, through redistricting, redlining and covenants of parents and school administrators to maintain the racial homogeneity of white schools.

When desegregation busing threatened to integrate student bodies, parents protested, sometimes violently. Even in 2019, many cities have acknowledged "black schools" and "white schools," and people offer the same Jim Crow-era arguments against the admission of minority students.

• New Mexico: "Separate rooms [shall] be provided for the teaching of pupils of African descent, and [when] said rooms are provided, such pupils may not be admitted to the school rooms occupied and used by pupils of Caucasian or other descent."
• North Carolina: "The state librarian is directed to fit up and maintain a separate place for the use of the colored people who may come to the library for the purpose of reading books or periodicals."
• Oklahoma: "Any instructor who shall teach in any school, college or institution where members of the white and colored races are received and enrolled as pupils for instruction shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, shall be fined."
• Texas: The County Board of Education "shall provide schools of two kinds; those for white children and those for colored children."

From schools and hospitals to prisons and pool halls, the Jim Crow laws sought to keep white and black people separate, and to guarantee the continued subjugation of black people.

Racial Codes of Behavior

As Plessy v. Ferguson explicitly protected social, as opposed to legal, discrimination, African Americans and members of other minorities experienced systematic personal discrimination at the hands of whites. The classic instance is of a white person referring to a grown black man as "boy." The reverse also applied: African Americans were expected to show deference and submission to whites, invariably referring to them as "Mister" or "Miss."

But to describe what was expected of African Americans as a "code of behavior" is misleading. There were no rules, and so no one knew when they had broken them. It was simply a matter of whether white people chose to be offended.

In the famous case of Emmett Till, for instance, a 14-year-old African American boy was mutilated and murdered for speaking to a white woman in what his murderers considered an inappropriate fashion. What did Till say? No one knows. The white woman, Carolyn Bryant, gave, and continues to give, conflicting stories. The men who murdered Till weren't even present. It was enough that someone told them he had spoken inappropriately. That was the "code" that justified lynchings, beatings and police violence in the Jim Crow South.

Health Disparities and Racism Affect African-Americans

Diabetes Is An Epidemic 

Diabetes is one of a number of chronic conditions -- along with cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases -- that is driving many of the top health issues around the world.

According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), there are 415 million people with diabetes (2015), with numbers expected to reach more than 642 million by 2040! 

The top countries include China, India, United States, Russia, Germany, and Brazil; with other countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, and Japan having high rates of diabetes occurrence.

The prevalence of diabetes in the United States is estimated to be 10.3% which is relatively high, with African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans being affected the most.

By comparison, diabetes rates are 3.6% in the United Kingdom, 9.2% in Canada, and 5.7% in Australia.

Worldwide, it is estimated that 8.5% of adults (415 million) are living with diabetes and this figure is predicted to increase to 10.4% by 2030.

China and India have the largest numbers of people with diabetes -- 109.6 million and 69.2 million respectively.

Diabetes Prevalence

Diabetes is prevalent in all races around the world. In the U.S., diabetes is prevalent especially in ethnic groups having a 50% to 75% higher probability of developing diabetes compared to Caucasians. 

• African-Americans are 60% more likely than whites to be diagnosed with diabetes.
• Hispanic-Americans are 70% more likely than whites to be diagnosed with diabetes. 
• Asian-Americans are 40% more likely than whites to be diagnosed with diabetes.
• Native-Americans are almost 3 times (~200%!) more likely than whites to be diagnosed with diabetes.
• Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders are almost 2.5 times (250%!) more likely than whites to be diagnosed with diabetes.

Unfortunately, African-Americans and other ethnic groups have similar high risk profiles for other diseases, including heart disease, cancer, obesity, and high blood pressure.

Health Disparities 

African-Americans have to deal with unfair health disparities such as the lack of health insurance. In addition, African-Americans have to deal with other disparities including:

• Healthcare
• Medical Insurance
• Education
• Housing (Redlining, Gentrification)
• Job Employment
• Wealth Distribution

Unfortunately, many of these disparities are driven by racism in the United States. 

Systemic racism, structural racism, institutional racism, and individual racism are the primary types of racism that have kept African-Americans and other ethnic groups from achieving the American Dream.

These forms of racism drive government policies, laws, housing policies, criminal justice practices, employment practices, media beliefs, etc. -- all of which affect the lives of African-Americans in multiple ways.

Health Disparities Between Blacks and Whites Run Deep

Reference: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/health-disparities-between-blacks-and-whites-run-deep/

Being a person of color in America is bad for your health. That’s the theme of a new op-ed written by David Williams, Florence Sprague Norman and Laura Smart Norman Professor of Public Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Writing in U.S. News and World Report, Williams and Lavizzo-Mourey say that acknowledging the links between racism and poor health will be critical to closing the health equity gap.

In the U.S., health disparities between blacks and whites run deep. For example, blacks have higher rates of diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease than other groups, and black children have a 500% higher death rate from asthma compared with white children. Williams and Lavizzio-Moruey write that geography plays a large role in all of this because, “where we live determines opportunities to access high-quality education, employment, housing, fresh foods or outdoor space – all contributors to our health.”

The authors write that some cities have been successful in reducing health inequities. In Philadelphia, a focus on prioritizing physical activity in schools and improving access to fresh foods has helped childhood obesity rates fall by 6.3% in the last seven years, with the biggest drops among black and Asian children.

According to Williams and Lavizzo-Mourey there is no single solution to the societal racism and poverty that contribute to poor health, but they write that, “…we now know enough to improve the situation. Health builds from where we live, learn, work and play – and only secondarily in the doctor’s office.”

Reference: https://tcf.org/content/report/racism-inequality-health-care-african-americans/

The American health care system in beset with inequalities that have a disproportionate impact on people of color and other marginalized groups. These inequalities contribute to gaps in health insurance coverage, uneven access to services, and poorer health outcomes among certain populations. African Americans bear the brunt of these health care challenges.

African Americans comprise 13.4 percent of the U.S. population.1 Over the span of several decades, namely since the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968, they have been able to make notable strides in American society. According to the Economic Policy Institute, educational attainment has greatly increased, with more than 90 percent of African Americans aged 25–29 having graduated from high school.

College graduation rates have also improved among African Americans. When it comes to income, gains have been made as well, but African Americans are still paid less than white Americans for the same jobs and lag significantly behind when it comes to accumulating wealth. And as for home ownership, just over 40 percent of African Americans own a home—a rate virtually unchanged since 1968.3

African Americans are also living longer, and the majority of them have some form of health insurance coverage. However, African Americans still experience illness and infirmity at extremely high rates and have lower life expectancy than other racial and ethnic groups. They are also one of the most economically disadvantaged demographics in this country.

Forms of Racism

Reference: http://www.aclrc.com/forms-of-racism

Racism  occurs between individuals, on an interpersonal level, and is embedded  in organizations and institutions through their policies, procedures and  practices. In general, it may seem easier to recognize individual or  interpersonal acts of racism: a slur made, a person ignored in a social  or work setting, an act of violence. 

However, "individual" racism is not  created in a vacuum but instead emerges from a society's foundational  beliefs and "ways" of seeing/doing things, and is manifested in organizations, institutions, and systems (including education). Below are some useful definitions:

Individual Racism refers to an individual's racist assumptions, beliefs or behaviours and is "a form of racial discrimination that stems from conscious and  unconscious, personal prejudice" (Henry & Tator, 2006, p. 329).  Individual Racism is connected to/learned from broader socio-economic  histories and processes and is supported and reinforced by systemic  racism. 

Because we live in such a culture of individualism (and  with the privilege of freedom of speech), some people argue that their  statements/ideas are not racist because they are just "personal  opinion." Here, it is important to point out how individualism functions  to erase hierarchies of power, and to connect unrecognized personal  ideologies to larger racial or systemic ones. (That is, individualism can be used as a defensive reaction.) This is why it is crucial to understand systemic racism and how it operates.

Systemic Racism  includes the policies and practices entrenched in established  institutions, which result in the exclusion or promotion of designated  groups. It differs from overt discrimination in that no individual intent is necessary. (Toronto Mayor's Committee on Community and Race  Relations. Race Relations: Myths and Facts)

It manifests itself in two ways:

• institutional  racism: racial discrimination that derives from individuals carrying  out the dictates of others who are prejudiced or of a prejudiced society
• structural racism: inequalities rooted in the system-wide operation of a society that excludes substantial numbers of members of particular groups from significant participation in major social institutions. (Henry & Tator, 2006, p. 352)

Institutional racism – Recognizing that racism need not be individualist or intentional, institutional racism refers to institutional and cultural practices that perpetuate racial inequality.  Benefits are structured to advantage powerful groups as the expense of others.  Jim Crow laws and redlining practices are two examples of institutional racism.

Structural racism – Structural racism refers to the ways in which the joint operation of institutions (i.e., inter-institutional arrangements and interactions) produce racialized outcomes, even in the absence of racist intent.  Indicators of structural racism include power inequalities, unequal access to opportunities, and differing policy outcomes by race.  Because these effects are reinforced across multiple institutions, the root causes of structural racism are difficult to isolate.  Structural racism is cumulative, pervasive, and durable.

Some forms of systemic racism may be more explicit or easier (for some) to identify than others: 

Jim Crow Laws in the US, which were state and local statutes that legalized racial segregation. Enacted after the Civil War, the laws denied equal opportunity to black citizens.

The exclusion of African-American golfers from elite, private golf courses in the US; 

The way that "universal suffrage" did not  include Indigenous North American women (nor did Indigenous men receive the vote until 1960, unless they gave up their status/identity as  Indigenous).

Some Canadian examples of systemic racism include: 
the Indian Residential School System in Canada. 
the 1885 Head Tax, the 1923 Exclusion Act, the 1897 Female Refugee Act, passed in Ontario, which criminalized 'immoral' and 'incorrigible' acts conducted by women if they were found to be pregnant out of wedlock or drunk in public. 

Other  forms or manifestations of systemic racism may not be as readily obvious to some, usually those privileged by the system. Click here to see three more examples of systemic racism.