Should America Be America Again By Langston Hughes: Poem Analysis

Jim Crow laws were southern laws put in place after the passing of the emancipation proclamation which freed the slaves in an attempt to maintain the racist structure in their society. These laws impacted Black Americans by discriminating against them using segregation, restricting voting rights, and limiting educational resources in order to create a society that made it hard for them to succeed. One of the main ways that Jim Crow laws controlled southern politics was by suppressing the black vote by creating an unfair system for them which made it almost impossible for them to represent themselves politically. As we see in The American Yawp “from roughly 1890 to 1908, southern states implemented de jure, or legal, disfranchisement.

The Jim Crow Laws were a series of rigid anti-black laws throughout the southern states. These laws follow a belief that whites were superior to blacks (Jim Crow Museum: Origins of Jim Crow 1). Jim Crow was rooted from an African American culture song and made sure that blacks used different schools, prisons, transportation, telephones, housing, bathrooms, and even games. Whites and blacks were never allowed to marry and black were not allowed to vote (American Historama 1). Many states could impose legal punishment if a person with a different race were to consort with a white (Jim Crow Laws 1).

Jim Crow laws took place in enforcing racial segregation. Also affected civil rights movements by blacks chance to be equal to whites being ruined and ending segregation failing because of Jim Crow laws. For example, this states how Jim Crow affected the movement, “The eradication of racial segregation from Southern society was a central aim of the civil rights movement. ... The movement forced Congress to take action, which it did through the 1964 Civil Rights Act”(Kenneth). The Jim Crow law made it illegal to separate people based on race, color or national origin.

African Americans were forced to be segregated in schools that were often of inferior quality than those provided for whites, which denied their right to equal protection of the laws. To worsen the situation, the Jim Crow laws did not just affect schools, as they

These new laws became known as Jim Crow laws. They prohibited African Americans from using the same facilities and services as whites. The Supreme Court had ruled the Civil Rights Act unconstitutional because it was not the same as slavery to refuse to serve someone because of race. This evaluation and removal soon after led to the legalization of African American and white segregation. At the time, race was the basis of slavery.

However, Jim Crow Laws was also, another step back. The Jim Crow Laws were a system of segregation that covered all aspects of life. Although the Crow Laws separated the races, African Americans were still able to live their life more freely than before the Civil War. Besides the Jim Crow Laws, the Enforcement Act of 1872 was a step closer to the American dream. This Act protected African Americans rights by allowing the Federal Government to intervene when the States Government did not.

Jim Crow Laws The Jim Crow Laws authorized legal punishment for interacting with the opposite race. This led to treatment and areas that were almost always inferior to the whites. “Jim Crow” originally referred to a popular dance from the 1820s, and referred to a black man in an old song. Theologians and Christian ministers taught that whites were the “Chosen people”, God support racial segregation and blacks were cursed to be servants (Hansen 1). Jim Crow Laws legalized segregation between blacks and whites to create “separate but equal”, but this had a more negative than positive outcome.

These laws were hard to get around and go through because many African Americans did not have the money to afford the poll tax and many could not pass the literacy tests because they were not provided with adequate education. In addition, many African American’s grandparents were in enslavement, therefore unable to vote. These inabilities, segregation, and discrimination caused African Americans to be upset and start the Civil Rights Movement and made them want to fight for the rights and goals that they believed in. They would fight until they were satisfied with justice coming about and prevailing (Document 3). They would fight back with peaceful protests and marches.

With the beginning of the Jim Crow Laws in the 1900s to their abolishment in 1965, and even today, America has yet to resolve the issue of “separate but equal.” Throughout the late 1800s, and late 1900’s the “Jim Crow Laws” were a form of enforced segregation against black people in many states all across America. Black segregation was heavy in the southern states especially Alabama, where slavery had been very prevalent. These laws made it legal for people to abuse and punish blacks for consorting with another race.

The segregation started out as something called the Black Codes, which was similar to the Jim Crow Laws but was not as enforced. The Jim Crow Laws were later created and enforced throughout the United States, mostly in the south. The Black Laws made it easier for police to arrest blacks, but the Jim Crow Laws created segregation in everyday life. Blacks did not have the full privilege of an American citizen until a century after the civil war ended (Sharp). The Jim Crow laws kept African Americans from exercising their rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment through legal segregation, targeting and blaming blacks for

The worldwide economic downturn known as The Great Depression took the world by storm. It was during this dilemma that every group of americans were immensely affected. None were affected as much as African Americans and racial status. It was this depression that made the already problematic lives of the African Americans even more challenging. Factors which which influenced racial issues against blacks in the early 1920’s through 1930’s were the Second Ku Klux Klan, Jim Crow Laws, the fight for jobs, and the racial riots/lynchings that followed.

5th Hour Cause and Effect Essay Jim Crow laws The Jim Crow laws were unfair and unjust to all African-Americans by making them unequal. The Jim Crow laws are laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States. It used the term separate but equal, even though conditions for African Americans were always worst than their white counterparts. They could not eat at the same restaurant as white people, they could not used the same restrooms, and they couldn't even use the same drinking fountain.

Jim Crow Law Jim Crow laws are about power. Power of one race over another. These laws that had happened showed the weakness and over power that each different race had. In this essay it will highlight the beneficial of the importance to how jim crow law shows unfairness between both race.

America is well known as the land of the free and the home opportunity. Although it is said everyone is equal in every way, that has not always been the case. Langston Hughes is a poet who tried to emphasize the idea of equality among all human beings. Hughes underlined the basis of the American Dream with what is and what should be in the societal era he lived in. In hindsight he believed his poems helped others realize the injustices that all minorities had to face during this era.

The second speaker also reshapes the first two lines of the entire poem into a plea to the majority. Beforehand, the first speaker uses those lines as a call for the old American spirit to be revived: “Let America be America again / Let it be the dream it used to be” (1-2). Both speakers change the meaning of the lines to express their thoughts on America. As a result, the poem expresses the desire for everyone to be treated equally in the land of freedom. The readers can relate to the speaker because they wish that everyone has equal rights in the country that proclaims itself to be the symbol of freedom.