The JIM CROW system of racial segregation was really an attmept by White Southerners to replace slavery - Essay Example

The Jim Crow Laws: Slavery in Disguise It is the obligation of the to protect individual rights. Freedom of expression, freedom to self determination and freedom from coercion are just some of the basic rights that must be given to a human being. These rights must be inalienable so that individual progress could be assured. States and other people do not have any right to infringe on other individual’s capability to peaceful existence. Wars have been fought and blood has been spilled all in the name of equality, fraternity and liberty.

The great French Revolution, the orange, velvet and yellow rebellions of Eastern Europe have all been fought because of human’s search for justice and equality (Houston and Houston 83).When a country oppresses its people, the tendency is for the people to rebel against the government. This has happened many times already in different parts of the world; take for example the rebellion of Mujahidin against the Russian invasion of 1970s. Once an occupation does not have the mandate of the populace, what happens next is for the society to impose its interest against the power holder.

This is the dynamics in most democratic societies. What happens when a society imposes values which should be imposed on the people to begin with?The Jim Crow laws aimed to segregate the whites from the African Americans while preserving equality. It may sound so ironic, but the United States of America did its best to separate the essential public services of blacks to those of the whites. African Americans were not allowed to take the same public transportation, they could not use the same bathroom and most of all they could not go to the same schools.

Even the military segregated the African Americans from the white soldiers (Cooper 97).This is a clear violation of the rights of African Americans for freedom and equality. There is no way that equality could be achieved by isolating some people from the rest of the society. Equality is something that could be achieved if everyone is treated without biased of the society. In the case of the Jim Crow laws, blacks were not treated like humans. It’s as if the African Americans were not capable of doing the things that white people could do.

While the whites argued that this is a way to forward racial co-existence, the way Jim Crow system of laws is applied prove that it was just an attempt by White Southerners to replace slavery. The facilities given to the blacks were either sub-par or non-working. Public services for blacks such as educational facilities are not as good as the facilities given to their white counterpart and economic opportunities were lesser, therefore, their educational attainment will never be equal to those of their white counterparts.

The law aimed not to emancipate blacks from the previous slavery they had but to change slavery into a modern context. The African-Americans were enslaved by societal institutions when they are deprived of the same level of access to even the most basic of their needs. The traditional form of slavery that involved free labor and ownership changed to a system in which society sees blacks as inferior to their white supposed counterparts. Therefore, a country must see its citizens with equal lens and without biased.

A society which limits minority’s opportunities to develop and progress as individuals is a society that enslaves its people. The Jim Crow system of laws has made it impossible for blacks to compete with their white counterparts; hence, the slavery has evolved into an institutional slavery. America stands for freedom, democracy and equality and it should always, always stay that way. All liberal countries should first and foremost protect every citizens especially individuals to the full extent of laws.

Democracies must not let any citizen feel inferior toward other citizens. Works CitedCooper, James Fenimore. The Last of the Mohicans. New York, New York: Waldman PublishingCorp., 1992. Print.Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki, and James D. Houston. Farewell to Manzanar. New York,New York: Random House, 1973. Print.