academic assignment APA format

Jim Crow

Name

Course

Tutor

Date

 

Jim Crow in Arkansas

Jim Crow

The phrase may sound like a name, yet on the contrary, it was a creation of the nineteenth century that was coined to refer to the system of government and governance that perpetrated the oppression and segregation of citizens on the premises of racial and ethnic considerations. The phrase emanated from a minstrel song that ruled airwaves during that period whose import was essentially to stereotype the African American population (Upchurch, 2015). Though not a person, Jim Crow came to inform the course of the lives of millions of individuals for numerous years, and arguably still does to date. Below is an illustration of its application in Arkansas, though in summary. Jim Crow laws, therefore refer to those regulation, directives, and statutes that directly or indirectly orchestrated segregation.

Jim Crow in Arkansas

Unlike the Southern states, segregation in Arkansas took a slightly different model. The pace at which the vice was implemented and its spread differed on the premises of various factors. For instance, segregation was more rampant in areas that the differences in social class were astronomical. The most affected sector was the education sector, where laws were passed explicitly banning the sharing of schools by members of different racial affiliations. In as much as the blacks were not entirely locked out of education, they received it from lackluster institutions that provided poor standards of education. By the 1920s however, the situation had deteriorated so severely that apart from institutional segregation, laws were put in place to ensure physical separation of the races. The policies were however gradually faced out in the 1960s with students taking the front seat in condemning the system.

Contemporary application

In modern times, there are no laws that explicitly restrict and curtail the rights of African Americans. However, some practices still reek of the actions sanctioned by the Jim Crow laws of the yore days. Black incarceration is a reality that must be dealt with objectively since young black men are being sent to correctional facilities in their droves (Katagiri, 2014). The situation may seem docile, but the trend reveals a pattern that portrays an illusion that black people are being targeted for incarceration.

References

Katagiri, Y. (2014). Black Freedom, White Resistance, and Red Menace: Civil Rights and Anticommunism in the Jim Crow South. Louisiana State University Press.

Upchurch, T. A. (2015). Legislating Racism: The Billion Dollar Congress and the Birth of Jim Crow. University Press of Kentucky.