During the Progressive Era, African Americans were not treated equally. Although slavery had been eradicated by 1865, African Americans were still subject to numerous forms of terror, including lynching. Racism was a blind spot during this era, forcing African Americans to live in racial separation and inequality due to various reasons that continued to be perpetuated by many people and factions. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Soon after the Civil War and the adoption of the 13th Amendment, most states of the former Confederacy adopted Black Codes, laws modeled on earlier slave laws. These laws were intended to limit the new freedom of emancipated African Americans by restricting their movements and forcing them into a labor economy based on low wages and debt (Library of Congress). Vagrancy laws allowed the arrest of African Americans for minor infractions. Around this time, a system of penal labor known as convict leasing was established. African American men convicted of vagrancy would be used as unpaid laborers and thus effectively enslaved (Reid, 2000). The Black Codes were restrictive laws designed to limit the freedom of African Americans and ensure their availability as a cheap labor force after the end of slavery. abolished during the Civil War (Library of Congress). Although the Union victory had given freedom to approximately 4 million slaves, the question of the status of freed African Americans in the postwar South was still largely unresolved (Schmidt, 2006). Under the Black Codes, many states required African Americans to sign annual employment contracts; if they refused, they risked being arrested, fined and forced into unpaid work. Outrage over the Black Codes helped undermine support for President Andrew Johnson and the Republican Party (Library of Congress). The Black Codes outraged public opinion in the North and led Congress to place the former Confederate states under Army occupation during Reconstruction (Schmidt, 2006). However, many laws restricting the freedom of African Americans remained in place for years. The Black Codes laid the foundation for the system of laws and customs supporting a system of white supremacy that would be known as Jim Crow. Most states and local communities passed “Jim Crow” laws mandating “separate but equal” status for Africans. Americans. Jim Crow laws were statutes and ordinances established between 1874 and 1975 to separate the white and African American races in the American South (Library of Congress). In theory, this was about creating “separate but equal” treatment, but in practice Jim Crow laws condemned African American citizens to inferior treatment and facilities. Education was segregated as were public facilities such as hotels and restaurants under Jim Crow laws (Holden-Smith, 1996). In reality, Jim Crow laws led to treatments and accommodations that were almost always inferior to those provided to white Americans. The term “Jim Crow” originally referred to an African-American character in an old song, and was the name of a dance popular in the 1820s. Around 1828, a minstrel performer named Thomas "Daddy" Rice developed a routine in which he blackened his face, sang and danced imitating an old African American dressed in rags (Holden-Smith, 1996). In the early 1830s, Rice's character became extremely popular and eventually gave its name to a stereotypical viewnegative view of African Americans as ignorant, inept, and dishonest (Holden-Smith, 1996). Beginning in the 1880s, the term Jim Crow was used to refer to practices, laws, or institutions related to the physical separation of African Americans from whites (Holden-Smith, 1996). Jim Crow laws in various states required racial segregation in common areas such as restaurants and theaters. The “separate but equal” standard established by the Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) upheld racial segregation for public facilities across the nation. The most notable Jim Crow laws required that public schools, public facilities, such as fountains, restrooms, and public transportation, such as trains and buses, have separate facilities for whites and African Americans. These laws meant that African Americans were legally required to attend separate schools and churches, use public restrooms marked “For Colored Persons Only,” eat in separate sections of restaurants, and sit in the back of the bus. statute called the Separate Car Act which declared that all railroad companies carrying passengers in Louisiana must provide separate but equal accommodations for white and non-white passengers (Library of Congress). The penalty for being in the wrong compartment was a $25 fine or 20 days in jail. A group of African American citizens joined forces with the East Louisiana Railroad Company to fight the law. In 1892, Homer Plessy, who was one-eighth African American, purchased a first-class ticket and sat in the designated white train car (Holden-Smith, 1996). Plessy was arrested for violating the Separate Car Act and argued in court that the law violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution (Holden-Smith, 1996). After losing twice in lower courts, Plessy took his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld earlier decisions that racial segregation is constitutional under the separate but equal doctrine. In a 7-1 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in Ferguson's favor. . The majority rejected Plessy's Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendment arguments, instead placing their stamp of approval on the "separate but equal" doctrine. The dissent, written by Justice John Marshall Harlan, disagreed, arguing that segregationist laws indoctrinate society with the belief that the two races are not equal (Holden-Smith, 1996). Furthermore, the justices rejected the proposition that the separation of the races by law “imprints upon the colored race a badge of inferiority.” Instead, they argued that racial prejudice could not be overcome by “a forced mixing of the two races.” According to this argument, outlawing segregation would not eliminate racial prejudice, because such social beliefs could not be changed simply by changing the law (Schmidt, 2006). The Court concluded that “if one race is socially inferior to the other, the Constitution … cannot place them on equal footing (Schmidt, 2006).” The justices explained that because the Louisiana law did not conflict with the purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment, the only remaining question was whether it was “reasonable and…enacted in good faith for the promotion of the public good (Schmidt, 2006).” . Much respecting the Louisiana state legislature, they determined that the law satisfied this requirement because it promoted “the preservation of public peace and good order.” Therefore, as long as the separate facilities were indeed qualitatively equal, the Constitution did not prohibit segregation according to the Court's majority (Schmidt, 2006). In evaluating the Progressive Eraregarding how he addressed the racial inequality that African Americans faced, so he was ineffective in helping them. African Americans faced discrimination, segregation, and harassment before and during the Progressive Era. No major laws have been passed to end these harsh conditions (Reid, 2000). African Americans still faced segregation in public transportation, schools, and public facilities. Nothing was done to end the voting restrictions that African Americans faced, such as the poll tax and literacy test. Although there were many political reforms that occurred during the Progressive Era, none of these reforms addressed the restrictions that prevented many African Americans from voting (Reid, 2000). While some attention was drawn to the issue of lynching in articles and editorials, not much change occurred regarding the inequality that African Americans faced on a daily basis. Discrimination followed African American migrants to the North after the turn of the century, especially in terms of urban residence and occupations. Employment opportunities for African Americans in the early 20th century appeared to contract, as most unions denied them membership or relegated them to segregated and inferior premises (Sponholz, 2003). White Americans systematically tried to exclude them from certain occupations, particularly on the railroads. A similar process extended to the federal government in Washington, D.C., under President Woodrow Wilson, whose Southern antecedents contributed to the removal of African Americans from government jobs traditionally assigned to them. Furthermore, the number of lynchings and violent acts against African Americans doubled in the South during the Progressive Era (Sponholz, 2003). Historians have suggested that the failure to enact anti-lynching legislation during the Progressive Era stemmed from fears that those types of laws would go beyond the constitutional authority of Congress and interfere with states' rights. Interracial sex between African American men and white women was a major reason why Congress failed to act against lynching (Gibson, 2016). Throughout the Progressive Era, lynching remained a brutal crime that went uninvestigated, unprosecuted, unpunished, and undeterred by agents of the law at every level of government. State and local officials failed to enforce existing laws, and federal officials failed to enact any new legislation. As a result, lynchers never faced any serious government deterrents and could openly and courageously kill African Americans without fear of retaliation (Gibson, 2016). During the 1920s, even if local communities knew the identity of the lynchers, juries usually determined that: 1. No crime had been committed, or 2. The identities of the perpetrators were unknown (Reid, 2000). Tuskegee Institute records for the period between 1900 and 1930 reveal twelve cases in which a total of sixty-seven individual convictions were obtained. Only about eight-tenths of one percent of lynchings in the United States since 1900 have been followed by convictions. Regarding the latter, convictions for regular homicides during this period were approximately 44% (Reid, 2000). Politics played an important role in the failure of Southern states to protect African American citizens from lynching. White Americans had the right to vote, while African Americans did not. Local sheriffs, prosecutors, and judges were usually the elected officials (Reid, 2000). They were aware that any kind of protection of African Americans from white violence would send them away., 1996).