3 Responses to HB-56 In SWEET Home Alabama: Racial Profiling, Xenophobia,Voter Suppression?

1. SouthernGirl2 says:

   November 4, 2011 at 9:32 pm

   Jim Crow Laws:

   http://caddotrees.com/Black_Codes_history.html

   To gain a greater perspective on the day to day conditions that surrounded our ancestors, one must understand the law during that time frame and the implications that accompanied Blacks who violated these legally oppressive mechanisms. Caddo & Bossier parishes appeared to be very concerned with upholding white supremacy after Emancipation Proclamation and with efforts spearheaded by the local sheriff’s offices and Klansman, enforced every tactic necessary to inflict intimidation and hardship to many who appeared of African and Native American ancestry. Listed below are snippets of how Jim Crow impacted the lives of our ancestors from the 1870’s through the mid 1960’s. Also listed are the Louisiana Black Codes of 1865 & the French interpretation of Black laws during their domination before the Louisiana Purchase.

   •A Black male could not offer his hand (to shake hands) with a White male because it implied being socially equal. Obviously, a Black male could not offer his hand or any other part of his body to a White woman, because he risked being accused of rape.

   •Blacks and Whites were not supposed to eat together. If they did eat together, Whites were to be served first, and some sort of partition was to be placed between them.

   •Under no circumstance was a Black male to offer to light the cigarette of a White female — that gesture implied intimacy.

   •Blacks were not allowed to show public affection toward one another in public, especially kissing, because it offended Whites.

   •Jim Crow etiquette prescribed that Blacks were introduced to Whites, never Whites to Blacks. For example: “Mr. Peters (the White person), this is Charlie (the Black person), that I spoke to you about.”

   •Whites did not use courtesy titles of respect when referring to Blacks, for example, Mr., Mrs., Miss., Sir, or Ma’am. Instead, Blacks were called by their first names. Blacks had to use courtesy titles when referring to Whites, and were not allowed to call them by their first names.

   •If a Black person rode in a car driven by a White person, the Black person sat in the back seat, or the back of a truck.

   •White motorists had the right-of-way at all intersections.

   •Blacks were denied the right to vote by grandfather clauses (laws that restricted the right to vote to people whose ancestors had voted before the Civil War), poll taxes (fees charged to poor Blacks), white primaries (only Democrats could vote, only Whites could be Democrats), and literacy tests (“Name all the Vice Presidents and Supreme Court Justices throughout America’s history”).

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2. rikyrah says:

   October 29, 2011 at 8:21 pm

   let.the.crops.ROT.

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   • SouthernGirl2 says:

     October 29, 2011 at 8:58 pm

     Seconded!

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