Jim Crow referred to a set of racist laws and policies, including grandfather clauses, poll taxes, and voting literacy tests. Jim Crow laws were passed at the state level. For example, the grandfather clauses allowed illiterate whites to avoid the voting literacy tests as well as the poll taxes (“Grandfather Clause”). In addition to Jim Crow, racist whites in the south used extra-legal tactics to terrorize African-Americans into social, economic, and political submission. The KKK and other racist organizations were the most prominent of all extra-legal methods of enforcing racism. Without legal protections, African Americans helped themselves through various self-help methods including migration.
Although accommodation was often regarded as a sensible tactic to protect against injustice and racism, radical protest and nationalism were also meaningful and effective responses to empower the black community from within. Often, radical protest and nationalism proved to be the only means to ensure self-empowerment. Formal organizations, such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and leaders like W.E.B. DuBois and Marcus Garvey were especially helpful in stimulating self-sufficiency and promoting awareness of racism and how to overcome it without resorting to conciliatory behaviors. The failure of the law to protect African Americans meant that accommodation methods like those used by Booker T. Washington proved futile for achieving racial parity or social justice. Accommodation alone would yield negligible results.
The different tactics used in the post-reconstruction era remain in use today. Even President Obama has exemplified the leadership tactic of accommodation, without having taken a stronger stance against police brutality or mass incarceration. Black Lives Matter and other protest organizations can be considered radical in some ways, but are more aptly described as sensible and peaceful responses to the ongoing problem of racism. Nationalism, although a minority movement, remains a viable solution for many who have faced ongoing disenfranchisement within the dominant culture.
Works Cited
“Grandfather Clause.” BlackPast. Retrieved online: http://www.blackpast.org/aah/grandfather-clause-1898-1915
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