JIM CROW LAWS
Removal of the Jim Crow Laws
In January, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson met with the civil rights leaders. On January 8, during his first State of Union Address, he asked Congress to to "let this session of Congress be known as the session which did more for civil rights than the last hundred sessions combined." On June 21, civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney disappeared in Neshoba County, Mississippi, where they were volunteering in the registration of African-American voters as part of the Mississippi Summer Project. The disappearance of the three activists captured national attention and the ensuing outrage was used by Johnson and civil rights activists to build a coalition of northern Democrats and Republicans and push Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. On July 2, 1964, Johnson signed the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964. It invoked the commerce clause to outlaw discrimination in public accommodations (privately owned restaurants, hotels, and stores, and in private schools and workplaces).
By 1965, efforts to break the grip of state disfranchisement had been under way for some time, but had achieved only modest success overall and in some areas had proved almost entirely ineffectual. The murder of the three voting-rights activists in Mississippi in 1964 and the state's refusal to prosecute the murderers, along with numerous other acts of violence and terrorism against blacks, had gained national attention. Finally, the unprovoked attack on March 7, 1965, by state troopers on peaceful marchers crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, en route to the state capitol in Montgomery, persuaded the President and Congress to overcome Southern legislators' resistance to effective voting rights enforcement legislation. President Johnson issued a call for a strong voting rights law and hearings soon began on the bill that would become the Voting Rights Act.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 ended legally sanctioned state barriers to voting for all federal, state and local elections. It also provided for federal oversight and monitoring of counties with historically low minority voter turnout, as this was a sign of discriminatory barriers.
By 1965, efforts to break the grip of state disfranchisement had been under way for some time, but had achieved only modest success overall and in some areas had proved almost entirely ineffectual. The murder of the three voting-rights activists in Mississippi in 1964 and the state's refusal to prosecute the murderers, along with numerous other acts of violence and terrorism against blacks, had gained national attention. Finally, the unprovoked attack on March 7, 1965, by state troopers on peaceful marchers crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, en route to the state capitol in Montgomery, persuaded the President and Congress to overcome Southern legislators' resistance to effective voting rights enforcement legislation. President Johnson issued a call for a strong voting rights law and hearings soon began on the bill that would become the Voting Rights Act.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 ended legally sanctioned state barriers to voting for all federal, state and local elections. It also provided for federal oversight and monitoring of counties with historically low minority voter turnout, as this was a sign of discriminatory barriers.
How was the Jim Crow Laws a failure of citizenship?
The Jim Crow Laws was a segregation between Whites, Colored and Black people. At first, The Jim Crow Laws had set unequal rules and rights between the Colored/Blacks and the Whites. The Whites were prioritized and taken to Jim Crow's appreciation. Later on, The Jim Crow Laws had changed for the better. They had set equal rules and rights between all the people but still separated them from socially communicating with one another. The Jim Crow Laws was a failure of citizenship because they have failed to offer equal rights to all citizens. Citizens should receive equal rights despite their skin color. It was a failure of citizenship as it disabled most blacks from having some basic human rights such as the right to vote because very few blacks could pass voting tax and literacy tests. It also discriminated blacks/colored in the court. The juries were all white and they had little interest in protecting blacks/colored's rights. Blacks/colored had no effective way to fight against white in the court and they were punished severely if they were convicted of a crime.