Transcription
[Music] July 2nd, 1964. President Lyndon B. Johnson's signature changes the lives of millions. He signs the Civil Rights Act, ending racial segregation in public places. This landmark legislation is one of the greatest accomplishments of the Civil Rights Movement, and it marks the end of an era known as Jim Crow.
[Music] Dancing in the street for the end of Jim Crow. To understand why, you have to look back. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the United States in 1865, but many people continued to disagree with the law. Local and state governments created laws that still restricted the rights of African Americans. These were often called Jim Crow laws because of an actor in the 1830s. Stage performer Thomas Dartmouth created a character named Jim Crow that he and other players portrayed as an unintelligent slave acting foolish. They painted their faces black and performed offensive songs that made fun of African Americans. The show gained popularity, and Jim Crow became a fitting term for laws that promoted racial discrimination.
[Music] Many associate these laws with the South, but they were everywhere. They restricted black voting rights, banned interracial relationships, and let businesses separate their black and white customers. In 1896, the Supreme Court showed support for Jim Crow laws by dubbing them "separate but equal." Blacks and whites had separate waiting rooms, schools, bathrooms, theaters, hotels, parks, restaurants, churches, even separate water fountains and cemeteries. Black Americans were beaten or lynched by vigilantes for breaking Jim Crow laws, and their attackers faced zero consequences. Then, a seismic shift.
[Music] In 1948, the outstanding service of black fighting men during World War II led President Harry Truman to make a change. He ordered the military to stop segregation and to begin integration. Then, six years later, segregation in schools was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Activists kept protesting other Jim Crow laws, and finally, decades of struggle led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Finally, the so-called Jim Crow laws were federally abolished.
[Music]