Name:Course number: HIST222 (AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AFTER 1877)Instructor: LYNN MARLOWEDate: 6 SEPTEMEBER, 2011THE REIGN OF JIM CROW LAWS IN THE SOUTHERN STATESOrigin of the Jim Crow LawsThe Jim Crow was a racial cast system that operated mostly in the southern states of the United States in the 1877 and the mid 1960s. According Ronald the term is believed to have originated around 1830 when a white by the name Thomas Daddy Rice blackened his face with charcoal paste and danced a ridiculous jig while singing the lyrics tom the song “Jump Jim crow” ( Ronald , ). Rice then included the skit into his minstrel act, after which the Jim Crow character had become a standard part of the minstrel show scene in America.The Jim Crow grew to become one of the many stereotypical images of black inferiority in the popular culture of the day. In addition, the term grew to become the racial slur synonymous with black, colored or Negro in the white vocabulary. In fact by the end of the nineteenth century racial discrimination acts towards blacks were frequently referred to as Jim Crow Laws and practices.[The Jim crow had became a common term for black inferiority] ReconstructionThe federal laws gave civil rights protection to the freed slaves in the southern states in the period of 1865 to 1877. By the 1870s the conservative white democrats gradually returned to power in the southern states. This they did by elections where paramilitary groupings intimidated their opponents. They attacked the blacks or made attempts to stop them from voting. There were several disputes in elections in Louisiana for many years which were accompanied by extreme violence during the campaigns. In 1877 for example there was a national compromise to acquire support from the south in the presidential election that resulted in the last of the federal troops being withdrawn from the south. It was the Democratic redeemer government that affected the Jim Crow laws consequently segregating the blacks from the population.The Disenfranchisement and white supremacyIn the 1880s, blacks could still be elected to local offices even though the democrats were setting up laws that would make voter registration stricter. The result was that the political participation of most blacks and some poor white drastically reduced. States like Mississippi passed new constitutions and amendments that effectively disfranchised blacks and many poor whites. They were disfranchised through poll taxes, literacy and comprehension tests, residency and record keeping requirements. However, there were the Godfather clauses that temporarily allowed the illiterate whites to vote.As result of this, voter turnout dropped drastically through the southern states. States like Alabama experienced tens of thousands of poor whites disfranchised. The Louisiana state had black voters reduced to only 5320 on the rolls by the year 1900. The bla...