What were the Jim Crow laws?

The Jim Crow Laws were laws that discriminated against African Americans and were designed to preserve White privilege in the southern states of the United States.

The Jim Crow laws were discriminating by the very name. Crow was a reference to the former slaves being blacks. Jim a generic name maybe a reference to the song Jimmy cracked Corn. Jim Crow like John Doe was used to represent a class of people

The Jim Crow laws made it illegal for an African American to use the same bathrooms as a white person. Even drinking fountains were separate. African American had to attend separate schools and ride separate buses.

The claim was separate but equal. However it was not equal. Schools for white students had more money to spend on books, supplies facilities and faculty. Schools for black students had teachers who had less educational opportunities and training The textbooks were often discards from the richer white schools. A white teacher would not be allowed to teach in a school for African American students.

The Jim Crow laws were designed to make the African Americans feel inferior and pandered to the feelings of superiority of the white southerns. The Jim Crow laws gave educational advantages to the white students. These advantages help to keep the black people in poverty and subjection to the white population.