The Jim Crow era began to falter and deteriorate after World War II. During World War II, the war industry was abolished with the Fair Employment Act of 1941 to address labor shortages during the war. In the 50s, school districts that had been separated since the Civil War began to win lawsuits for integration. School districts unable to win cases began filing petitions with the Supreme Court, as in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) of the Supreme Court. This case was a merger of several school integration cases throughout the county. Unlike Plessy v. In the Ferguson case of 1896, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that „separate but equal“ was unconstitutional and that segregation of public schools and other public spaces violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. As depressing as the Jim Crow era was, it was also a time when many African Americans across the country took on leadership roles to vigorously oppose the laws.
Civil rights protests and campaigns became more frequent in the mid-20th century, when blacks began to resist Jim Crow laws. The protests and campaigns included efforts to demand justice, freedom and equality. As more and more people gathered, the civil rights agenda grew stronger. Black codes were strict local and state laws that detailed when, where, and how former slaves were allowed to work, and for how much compensation. Codes emerged throughout the South as a legal way to enslave black citizens, disenfranchise them, control where they lived and how they traveled, and confiscate children for labor. The Jim Crow era ended in 1965. This was motivated by the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or natural origin, such as discrimination in employment, public housing, and voter registration. This law, while initially weak, provided the legal support needed to prosecute discrimination lawsuits that could be won by minority prosecutors. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 gave more legal support to the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments by prohibiting state and local governments from creating electoral laws that unduly discriminated against minorities. This legislation has forced local governments to unnecessarily lift harsh literacy tests and restrictions on land ownership.
Although racial discrimination existed after these two acts, both helped to introduce greater accountability for discriminatory laws. Today, activists continue to work to dismantle the legacy of these Jim Crow laws in the political and social spheres. In the early 1880s, the major cities of the South were not fully attached to Jim Crow laws, and black Americans found more freedom. Jim Crow laws were officially defined as the codified system that oppressed blacks, which was enforced by state and local authorities through segregation. „White only“ and „Coloured only“ signs were placed on public facilities such as toilets, restaurants, shops, water fountains, hair salons and churches. „Colour-only“ facilities were almost always less accommodating and unmaintained. Some areas didn`t even offer „color-only“ facilities. Many southern neighborhoods and residences were also separated, so that only whites or blacks could live in the area. Jim Crow laws were introduced after the American Civil War to restrict the rights and freedoms of blacks, which were heavily enforced in the South. During the 20th century, Jim Crow laws flourished in an oppressive society marked by violence.
In 1892, some New Orleans Republicans decided to challenge Jim Crow laws with a test case. They recruited Homer Plessy, a light-skinned African-American, to board a railroad train bound for Covington, Louisiana. Plessy refused to sit in the „color-only“ department and instead sat in the whites-only department. Arrested and convicted for this act of defiance, he appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. With 8 votes to 1 in Plessy v. In Ferguson, the court rejected Plessy`s arguments that Louisiana`s Jim Crow Act violated his constitutional rights under the 13th and 14th Amendments. Black codes and Jim Crow laws were laws passed at various times in the American South to enforce racial segregation and restrict the power of black voters. After the Civil War ended in 1865, some states passed black laws severely limiting the rights of blacks, many of whom had been enslaved. These codes limited the jobs African Americans could hold and their ability to leave a job once hired.
Some states also restricted the type of property blacks could own. The Reconstruction Act of 1867 weakened the effects of the Black Codes by requiring all states to provide the same protection in the 14th century. Constitutional amendment, including allowing black men to vote. (U.S. law barred women of any race from voting in federal elections until 1920.) During Reconstruction, many black men entered politics by voting and holding office. Reconstruction officially ended in 1877, and the southern states subsequently enacted more discriminatory laws. Efforts to enforce white supremacy through laws intensified, and African Americans sought to uphold their rights through legal challenges. However, these efforts led to a disappointing result in 1896, when the Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson ruled that so-called „separate but equal“ facilities — including public transportation and schools — were constitutional.
From then until the Civil Rights Act of 1964, discrimination and segregation were legal and enforceable. One of the first reactions against Reconstruction was to disenfranchise African-American men. While the 14th and 15th Amendments prevented state lawmakers from banning voting outright, they developed a series of indirect measures to disenfranchise black men. The grandfather clause stated that a man could only vote if his ancestor had been an elector before 1867 — but the ancestors of most African-American citizens were enslaved and constitutionally ineligible to vote. Another discriminatory tactic was the literacy test conducted by a white county official. These employees gave black voters legal documents that were extremely difficult to read as a test, while white men were given a simple text. After all, white local officials in many places simply prevented potential voters from registering. In 1940, the percentage of eligible African-American voters registered in the South was only three percent. As evidence of this decline, the percentage of African-American men of voting age registered to vote during Reconstruction was over 90 percent. African Americans were discriminated against socially, commercially, and legally.
Theatres, hotels and restaurants separated them from substandard housing or refused entry. The stores served them last. In 1937, The Negro Motorist Green Book, a travel guide, was first published.