Jim Crow Laws:

Jim Crow Laws stopped African Americans from owning houses, voting, education and being safe in their own home due to the looming threat of violence. In the South, African Americans lost their right to a fair trial and safe environments. Their legal system was filled with white veteran confederate soldiers as the police, jurys and judges to ensure they were sent to jail and forced into slave-like labour which many died from. Their schools and homes were also attacked by angry white supremacists who would also go after and kill African Americans with no consequences. While it was much worse in the confederate South, the North also had “Coloured Only” signs and unequal education. In order for African Americans to vote, they had to have a property before they could vote as well as schools and neighbourhoods also being segregated like the South. Although the Jim Crow Laws were also prevalent in the North, many educated African Americans were encouraged to move to the North as it wasn’t as violent as the South. This caused African Americans to lose all their rights so that to make an income they would be forced into slave-like jobs as they were forced to be at the mercy of the White Americans.

Anti-Jewish Laws:

These laws impacted every aspect of the Jewish people and ancestors of Jewish people lives. It started with Jewish people to not work for Civil services. Their was an introduced percentage of how many Jewish people are allowed in schools and universities which then led to Jewish people not being allowed to own farms. They were forced to change their names, change their passports and were labeled stateless in their own country. They were ordered not to have marriage and sexual intercourse outside of their religion. Due to this occurring during the Great Depression, countries had very low immigration quotas which meant that they weren’t able to extend visas to fleeing Jews. Although countries were well aware there was a problem, very few countries increased their quota or actively work towards helping the Jewish people which meant that no action was taken. This led to Jewish people being forced into concentration camps where they worked to their death. They lost all sense of self as they were stripped from their name and religion and forced to be treated as sub-humans.

Link to TKAM:

One of Scout’s teachers talks about how African Americans are meant to be oppressed but then later talks about her sympathy towards oppressed Jews in Germany. Her contradicting words confuses both Scout and readers. From this, we see how the government and media influences our opinions and decisions. Hitler was painted in a bad light for prosecuting against Jews so people hated him, the media painted the murder or African Americans in a good light so people supported it. The adults believe what they are told to believe, where as children don’t understand why they treat oppressed people differently instead of wanting them all to not be oppressed. Because the war against Jewish people was in Germany, people living in Southern America didn’t see the harm done and were removed from the situation and only saw it from an outside perspective. The oppression against African Americans was happening all around them and they didn’t want to change their ways and say they were in the wrong and doing the exact same thing. If people went against these laws, they were outcasts and “not right in the head”, Dolphous Raymond had children with African American women and in order to not be sent arrested for breaking the law he became a town drunk as an excuse.