An anti-Jim Crow poster made by protesters

The Jim Crow Laws have represented a dark past of America’s history of hate and discrimination.  Even today, it is still important to remember Jim Crow Laws. Surprisingly these laws were being established not too long ago, this gives a harsh reality to many Americans. The fact that the Jim Crow Laws existed so recently helps lift the veil covering the idea of the terrible things we can still be capable of.  Even though people currently think of these past laws of being terrible unjustified ways of living, the people during that time thought of them as being normal and acceptable. The remembrance of the laws reestablishes similarities to current problems we may have in our country today.

The Jim Crow Laws themselves enforced legal racial segregation mostly between African Americans and White Americans.  It began as far as 1876 all the up to the earlier years in 1965. In the beginning the laws only resided in local areas in but were soon were spread throughout entire states eventually being used by the majority of the country. The separation was not only made for facilities but for several activities too, these included: housing communities, employment, school, travel, marriage, seating, public areas, entrances etc. Even things as small as public drinking fountains were found separable, thus creating a duplicate of the fountain and labeling them each as “white only” and “colored only”. The word “colored” (now known as an offensive term) was slang term to imply the black skin of African Americans.

A picture taken during segregation made famous for depicting that "separate" wasn't really "equal"

With the establishment of these laws, a doctrine was used to define how the segregation should be made which was “separate but equal”. This phrase meant that each facility or activity divided by segregation should be just the same quality as the opposing one. But it is now heavily argued by many people that none of the segregation was ever equal because of the purpose of the law which was to hold racism against anyone who was not White. In the end there was no legitimate reason that was found for the law other then it being fueled by discrimination.