The Importance of the Judicial System in the Rise
and Fall of Jim Crow
Lauren A. Gonder
Athens State University, Culture and Globalization, Dr. Malcolm Cort
The Importance of the Judicial System in the Rise and Fall of Jim Crow
The Jim Crow era was one of struggle, not only for the victims of the violence, discrimination, and poverty, but by those who worked to contest segregation in the South. The judicial system resolves cases based on legal precedent and in terms of the rights of the Constitution CITATION Mas l 1033 (Massey, 2016). Most of the time, the court plays catch up to public opinion and changing traditions. The decisions of the courts, in some cases, force social change when the public and major organizations are separated CITATION Mas l 1033 (Massey, 2016). After the Jim Crow era, it was crucial for the United States and the judicial system to break the deadlock between Jim Crow and the people in order to move forward into a justly and justifiable society. The state as a large-scale structure can and does play an important role in social change.
Ulysses S. Grant accepted the surrender of General Robert E. Lee in 1865 at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. The Civil War marked the deadliest period of fighting in U.S. history CITATION Ame99 l 1033 (Reconstruction and the Rise of Jim Crow, 1999). While the Northern economy boomed during the controversy, the Southern economic infrastructure was devastated by the war. Southern whites were sorrowing over their losses while the blacks celebrated in victory hoping they would finally be recognized as equals. The reconstruction of the South was difficult and less rewarding for the former slaves than they hoped CITATION Ame99 l 1033 (Reconstruction and the Rise of Jim Crow, 1999). Everyone had a different view on how to bring the rebel states back to the Union, though there weren’t any specific guidelines explaining the process. In the end, a fundamental belief in the right to property and lack of concern for the blacks led to few essential adjustments in regard to race relations in the South. The situation would remain this way until the Civil Rights movement in the 20th century.
President Abraham Lincoln had little opportunity to implement the reconstruction program devised during the war. During this time, Lincoln passed the 10 percent plan laying out the terms for readmitting the rebel states to the Union. This plan offered full pardons and amnesty to all Southerners, except high-ranking Confederate civil and military officers, who reestablished their allegiance to the United States by taking the oath of loyalty and accepting the abolition of slavery CITATION Ame99 l 1033 (Reconstruction and the Rise of Jim Crow, 1999). Any property that was commandeered would return to its owner, apart from slaves. In the 1860 election, when the percentage of loyal Southerners in any state reached 10%, that minority could create a new state government and send a representative to the U.S. Congress. By this point, Lincoln had said little regarding the former slaves other than they would not return to oppression.
After Lincoln was shot in 1865, five days after General Lee surrendered, Vice President Andrew Johnson became president. Johnson had complete control of the reconstruction policy for 8 months while Congress vacationed for the summer, and during that time he implemented a plan that appeared to strip the Southern aristocrats of their wealth and power CITATION Ame99 l 1033 (Reconstruction and the Rise of Jim Crow, 1999). President Johnson kept Lincoln’s program of amnesty, but excluded officials of the Confederacy and very wealthy Southerners from receiving a pardon without a direct request to Johnson himself. He was determined to fundamentally alter the structure of the Southern society. Suddenly, the reconstruction policy changed, and members of the South’s old elite reiterated their sway, and many won state and federal elections, which returned them to positions of power. Unexpectedly, President Johnson began pardoning aristocrats and leading rebels allowing them to take office. As a result, many former Confederate officials traveled to Washington to claim their newly acquired seats in Congress, but Radical Republicans refused to accommodate their Southern colleagues or recognize the new state governments CITATION Ame99 l 1033 (Reconstruction and the Rise of Jim Crow, 1999). Radicals had another vision of the new social order in the South. Before Lincoln’s death, Radical Republicans had pushed for a more complete reconstruction of Southern society. House of Representative, Thaddeus Stevens, and Senator Charles Sumner, adopted the 13th Amendment of the Constitution, abolishing slavery and all states ratified, except Mississippi. After President Johnson’s accession to office and apparent return of the old Southern planter class to power, the Radicals pushed even harder to transform the Southern society.
Radical inequality was not unique to the South. It was the norm across the nation, and other regions of the United States saw similar violence and state sanctioned discrimination. Though Jim Crow and its specific laws and practices occurred in the South, the system thrived because it was sanctioned by the national government CITATION Taf02 l 1033 (Tafari, 2002). The actions and inactions of the three branches of the federal government were essential in defining the lifespan of Jim Crow.
Jim Crow is the namesake of an American system of discrimination and segregation. The Black Codes of the reconstruction era and railroad segregation laws prefigured the birth of the system of Jim Crow, but the Compromise of 1877 can be considered the political event that allowed Jim Crow to come into full power CITATION Taf02 l 1033 (Tafari, 2002). The Compromise of 1877 marked an era of support between Northern and Southern politicians in the relinquishment of the issue of civil rights for blacks. Southern democrats accepted Representative Rutherford B. Hayes’ election in exchange for the promise of more federal aid for rebuilding the Southern infrastructure and less federal intervention in Southern politics CITATION Taf02 l 1033 (Tafari, 2002). As a result, many of the civil rights blacks enjoyed during the reconstruction era were annulled.
There was great political confusion as the country continued to recover from the war and many white republicans and democrats were split over the issue of black suffrage. Blacks had begun to participate in politics, holding positions in local governments, and voting, but during the 1880’s, civil rights and political access for blacks were rapidly retracted, as Northern and Southern politicians agreed that white solidarity on the issue of race was more important than civil rights for blacks CITATION Taf02 l 1033 (Tafari, 2002). The U.S. Supreme Court had a crucial role in the establishment, maintenance, and eventually, the end of Jim Crow. During the reconstruction, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments gave black Americans freedom, citizenship, and the right to vote. To further protect blacks from substandard treatment, the Civil Rights Act of 1875 made it illegal to segregate schools, public places, transportation, and juries. The status of black Americans seemed to be improving during the reconstruction and the Supreme Court seemed to be ready to participate in the process. In 1880, in Strauder vs. West Virginia, the Supreme Court ruled that restriction of juries to whites only was unconstitutional and violated the rights of blacks as specified by the 14th Amendment CITATION Taf02 l 1033 (Tafari, 2002). Later that same year, however, the same court upheld the conviction of two blacks by an all-white jury in Virginia vs. Rives. The Supreme Court argued that the absence of blacks on a jury did not specifically mean that a black defendant or plaintiff’s rights had been denied. This latter decision nullified the Strauder case and made it clear that whites could find legal techniques to discriminate without violating federal law. Blacks had no legal alternative if accused of a crime, they would be tried in the absence of a jury of peers. Whites were rarely apprehended, tried, or convicted of crimes against blacks. As long as it could be argued that the state was responsible, segregation and discrimination went unpunished by the Court CITATION Taf02 l 1033 (Tafari, 2002).
Post-Civil War resolution of Northern and Southern politicians meant increasing disinterest towards the blacks’ civil rights and the reiteration of home rule in the South. In 1883, the Court ruled the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional, arguing that the right to separate public accommodations and other public places was an individual right, uninfringeable by law. Justice John Marshall Harlan, the lone insurgent of the case, considered the overturn of the Civil Rights Act as the retraction of equal protection for all citizens under the Constitution CITATION Taf02 l 1033 (Tafari, 2002). Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896) marked the beginning of a 58-year period where Jim Crow was largely unimpeded and tolerated by the federal government. Homer Plessy, a black man who attempted to board a white-only train in Louisiana, claimed the Louisiana segregation laws violated both his 13th and 14th Amendment rights. He was forcibly removed from the train and jailed. The Court, by an 8-1 vote, ruled that equal rights did not mean co-mingling of the races, effectively legalizing and facilitating “separate but equal” access for blacks CITATION Taf02 l 1033 (Tafari, 2002). Again, the lone rebel was Justice Harlan. Plessy not only perpetrated the white sovereign beliefs of the time, but he also made it possible for states to make and enforce Jim Crow laws with candor. The ruling of equal but separate’ led to another 70 years of Jim Crow laws.
Most blacks in the South, now politically powerless, remained economically dependent as well. Few owned land and those who managed to achieve a level of economic success, faced the daily danger of white’ fury. In an effort to preserve their superiority and keep blacks “in their place,” whites in the South implemented the color line with the use of physical violence. Between 1889 and 1941, an estimated 3,811 blacks were lynched in this country, often with thousands of white onlookers praising the affair.
Even in the face of Jim Crow legislation, blacks were no longer slaves, and they continued to contend their freedom and citizenship in countless ways. Undoubtedly, the courts, the president, and Congress could have acted sooner to end the torment and injustices of Jim Crow. The price in lives lost and human possibilities diminished was much greater than it should have been. A democracy owned more to its people than to endure as long as it did the crimes great and small of white supremacy. But the state did act, largely through an activist movement that pressed for Supreme Court decisions and federal Civil Rights legislation, to disassemble Jim Crow and condemn it to the dustbin of history.
References
BIBLIOGRAPHY Massey, G. (2016). Ways of Social Change: Making Sense of Modern Times (2 ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc.
Reconstruction and the Rise of Jim Crow. (1999). American Journey. The African-American Experience. Woodbridge, CT: Primary Source Media. Retrieved from http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ2152000667/UHIC?u=multesd;xid=6b1a5316
Tafari, T. (2002). The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow. Educational Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved from pbs.org: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/index.html
