Jim Crow laws and racial segregation

Jim Crow laws and Dr. King’s Activism

Jim Crow laws were promulgated in the late 19th century, enforcing racial segregation. Under these laws, whites and colored people were not allowed to share public facilities. Each group had separate institutions and facilities, for example, schools and parks. However, blacks were maltreated and their well-being was often overlooked by ways of not providing enough funding for their schools. Some years later, Dr. Luther King Jr was prompted to bring the segregation laws to an end (Jackson, 2013).

Dr. King’s Efforts for Equality

As a human right activist, King put in a lot of effort to put an end to this social discrimination. He did this by organizing people to advocate for banning the laws. Dr. King believed in equality among all races. He delivered that message to the people through peaceful civic activism and his powerful speeches. In 1963, he initiated a campaign in Birmingham, Alabama to protest against racial discrimination. This campaign was aggressive and involved boycotting of businesses that segregated their facilities, marches, and other tactics. He considered this as direct action hoping that eventually it would open doors to negotiations (Jackson, 2013).

Success of Dr. King’s Disobedience

However, in response to the campaign, many people were arrested including King. He believed that direct actions that involved disobedience of the Jim Crow laws were conscionable in order to achieve true civic rights because it is the only way their pleas could be considered. King’s disobedience was successful and led to the abolishing of many inequality laws. This rationale should apply especially in laws of social discrimination under cases where efforts for negotiations have failed. King’s tactics were nonviolent involving civic resistance and therefore the welfare of the people involved was ensured (Jackson, 2013). It is necessary that platforms for negotiations be available so as to avoid people opting for this rationale. Additionally, lawmakers should take into consideration civic equality whereby no group of people is considered superior to the other so that the law is not unjust to some.

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