Being a huge history buff I've always been proud to say I'm an American while learning about the Founding Fathers and how bold they were in standing up to the European superpower, England. I've learned about the founding of our country and our great accomplishments for "good" in class about a million times (hyperbole) but something we always skim over is the not so great things our country has done. Like these laws, or the complete mistreatment of Asians in the mid 1900's.
I recognize that racism was present but a lot of the Jim Crow laws take it MUCH too far. For example, one law doesn't allow white and Negro children to use the same textbook (in different years), and restaurants are required to have physical, seven foot tall barriers between white and Negro seating- what? Do Negros have some sort of germ that will kill white people? And the fact that there was to be no intermarriage or child custody (with mixed guardian and child) just removes pure love from society. It limits people to only being with their race. If there was a helpless, orphaned Negro child on the street a white person could not take him or her in, he would just walk right by.
I have such a strong opinion on these laws now, but I live in the future where I have lived such a great, freedom-filled life. I wonder how I would have treated Negros if I had lived in the 1960's. I hope I would've stood out but we will never know...
These laws helped set a precedent that still hasn't been wiped clean from the American society. I hope we, as Americans, continue at working on removing it, to give Negros the justice they deserve (the justice MLK Jr. fought for in his "Letters to Birmingham")
2Pac brings the voice of African Americans to the musical world: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKqaOJmqInE
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