You've Come A Long Way, Baby, But Racism Still Exists.

When the black slaves were freed and the Civil War was over, the loss of free labor was devastating to many whites. Families were left without free household and groundskeeping help.
Businesses were bereft of free laborers. Agribusinesses were especially hard hit when they no longer had free labor in a labor intensive business. Something had to be done, and besides which, the blacks were getting uppity, demanding the rights the government had promised them, and presuming to act like they were as good as whites.

Indeed, something had to be done and a number of state governments took action. Control of the blacks had to be reestablished and citizens (white ones) had to have help. The solution was to pass laws to accomplish both goals and so the Black Codes of 1865 were enacted. Governments have always been able to exert control over citizens of any color by the simple expedient of passing laws that either forced citizens to conform to a certain code of behavior, or the laws made certain actions illegal.

To see what repressions and enforced behaviors were foisted off on the "free" black citizens, read: Black Codes of 1865 http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/blackcodes/a/blackcodes1865.htm
For examples of what a few states did:
Ohio: http://afroamhistory.about.com/library/blohio_blacklaws.htm
Mississippi: http://afroamhistory.about.com/library/blmississippi_blackcodes.htm
Louisiana: http://afroamhistory.about.com/library/bllouisiana_blackcodes.htm

[ And bear in mind, what government has done before, government can do again. Especially the federal government and most especially a federal government that has seized unprecedented powers, virtually destroyed the Constitution, and tramples on the rights of the people. And enforced indentured labor for all citizens doesn't necessarily have to reserved for blacks].

The Black Codes made way for Jim Crow.

Who and what was Jim Crow?
Jim Crow: http://www.ferris.edu/news/jimcrow/what.htm

The Black Codes did not go far enough in controlling and dominating the blacks. Further measures had to be taken. When robbing people of their rights and forcing subjugation upon them, it is not unusual for governments to do it in steps, going a little farther each time. Rather like Bush has and is doing to us.

Creation of a Jim Crow South.
http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/jimcrowlaw1/a/creationjimcrow.htm

Jim Crow Laws
These laws established even greater control and subjugation over blacks and enforced even greater segregation of the races.
http://afroamhistory.about.com/cs/jimcrowlaws/a/jimcrowlaws.htm?nl=1
Blacks were no longer slaves but they certainly were not free. They had few rights and the stringent laws that governed their behavior and actions kept them lower than a second class citizen. Unscrupulous whites took every advantage of their dominance over the blacks, and abused them terribly. This continued until the mid sixties when the Civil Rights Movement began.

Back then the custom and the law decreed that "one drop of black blood makes you a nigger".
Back then my bi-racial great-grandson would have been deemed a negro, even though he is fairer than I, blue eyed and blonde. He is an octoroon, one eighth negro. Under the Jim Crow laws, miscegnation was a felony. My grand daughter, my son, Granny's son would have been punished severely for marrying a bi-racial person. The bi-racial man who married my grand-daughter and the women who married mine and Granny's sons would have been punished even worse. The bi-racial man who married my grand daughter would have been lynched for daring to lay hands on a white woman; it would have been called rape. Marriage between whites and people of color was not recognized.

State laws varied and some states relaxed their laws to a certain extent, but segregation was still practised. Granny and I lived during this time and saw the Civil Rights Movement unfold. You may hear mention or read in school books about Rosa Parks refusing to sit in the back of the bus. Gasp!! The little black girl that had to be escorted into school by National Guardsmen when the federal government ordered that schools be desegregated. It was the end of civilization!! Blacks going to school with whites!! The sit in at a lunch counter - blacks actually dared to try to eat at a white establishment and sit at the very counter!! And some blacks even drank from a whites only water fountain! You may read of it or hear something during Black History Month, but Granny and I lived through those times. And a little black teenager murdered because he allegedly whistled at a white woman. No, Jim Crow was alive and well up to the 60s. And there were martyrs. The white Civil Rights adherents who came south to declare their solidarity with the blacks - murdered. And do you think Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated because he stepped on someone's bubble gum?

Any accusation by a white was automatically a guilty ruling, if not by law, by custom. Minor offenses were punished severely and even by lynching. Read on. Check out those laws. Lynching was a terror tactic, a hard form of intimidation to keep blacks in line. It was practised all too often and many innocent people died horribly. Torture, mutilation and burning alive were not uncommon.
Go to April archives to read remaining articles of this series of posts