Freedom in Chains
African Americans were ridiculed by whites in shows where whites would paint their faces black and dance around.
The Jim Crow laws segregated Blacks and Whites, here is an example of a colored only entrance.
To determine if they could vote, blacks had to take a literary test.
African Americans were ridiculed by whites in shows where whites would paint their faces black and dance around.
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Introduction
They were beaten down and cheated out of what was rightfully theirs. They were sent to prisons and pushed aside by a man of just a few shades lighter. All of this, yet they are named free; but were they really? After the Civil War, Lincoln worked to make African Americans equal in society during a period called the Reconstruction Era. During this time, Southern legislatures created The Black Codes, The Jim Crow laws, and the idea of Sharecropping to restrict the rights of free African Americans. These laws embedded racism into the Southern culture for the next century after the war. Therefore creating a negative feeling towards African Americans and essentially criminalizing their everyday life. Even today, these laws greatly affect how African Americans are portrayed in the media and treated in everyday life. All in all, these laws greatly impacted how African Americans were and are currently viewed in society.
The Black Codes
The Jim Crow Laws
Sharecropping
