Discriminatory Laws
- Správne Právne
- Feb 3
- 6 min read
Dear reader,
this blog's topic is, as per usual, a heavy one. Still, I believe that it is crucial to educate ourselves on all parts of history, especially the dark ones. This blog barely scratches the surface of discrimination in the history of humanity, so please, keep that in mind as you read.
Definition of Discriminatory Law
A law that permits or creates an obligation for society to act in a way that treats a person unfavourably based on a factor such as race, sex, age, nationality etc.
Jim Crow laws
Historical Context – After the American Civil War
The American civil war was mostly based on the struggle between advocates and opponents of slavery (or, later, the Confederacy and the Union).
The tension tipped over when Abraham Lincoln was elected president. He was a member of the Republican Party (which was anti-slavery).
The details of the war are only partially relevant to the content of this blog, so for the sake of simplicity, we'll skip to the outcome of the war and Lincoln's assassination in 1865. The Union (which was largely composed of Northern states, and was anti-slavery) won. The Confederacy (a group of mostly Southern states that was pro-slavery and separated from the Union) rejoined the Union.
After Lincoln was assassinated, Andrew Johnson became president (part of the Democratic Party). He offered pardons to most of the ex-Confederate leaders. There were only a few things demanded of them: to refuse the legitimacy of their separation from the Union, to abolish slavery and to abolish the Confederate debt. Apart from that they were essentially free to exist however they wished. This allowed for the creation of the so-called 'black codes' inspired by the 'slave codes'.
After the war, the Reconstruction era commenced. During this era former Confederation states were reintegrated and attempts were made to determine the status of African Americans.
The Reconstruction did away with most of the black codes, but after the Reconstruction ended (1877), many of the provisions were reenacted in the Jim Crow laws (many of which were in action until the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964).
Why Were They Called the Jim Crow laws?
Jim Crow (originally Jump Jim Crow) was the name of a minstrel routine. A minstrel routine was a theatrical form popular in early 19th to early 20th century in America. It was founded on comic enactment of racial stereotypes. The term became a derogatory epithet for African Americans.
Plessy v. Ferguson
Homer Plessy was a shoemaker and a well-known member of the Creole community.
Historically, the term Creole refers to people born in Louisiana during the colonial rule. For the most part, they spoke French or Spanish and practised the Roman Catholic faith. It does not necessarily refer to people of a specific ethnicity, however, many Creoles were of African descent, European descent (often French or Spanish), or both.
In June 1892, Mr. Plessy purchased a first-class ticket from New Orleans (Louisiana) to Covington (Louisiana). He boarded the train and shortly after that he was asked by the conductor whether he was a 'coloured man'. Side note: although Mr. Plessy was of at least partial African descent, his complexion was lighter. Plessy answered that he was. The conductor then told him to move to the 'coloured car'. Plessy, refused to, as he'd paid for a first-class ticket and intended to use it, as any other American citizen would. The conductor stopped the train, Detective Christopher Cain boarded the car, arrested Plessy, dragged him off the train (with the help of some passengers) and detained him for one night. Plessy then appeared in criminal court before Judge Ferguson to answer charges of violating the Separate Car Act.
The Separate Car Act of 1890 – Imposed the duty of having separate train accommodations for black and white Americans upon all passenger railways.
In October 1892, Plessy's trio of lawyers: Martiner, Walker and Tourgée 'entered a plea claiming that the act was unconstitutional and therefore the court did not have jurisdiction to hear or determine the facts.'
(Source: https://www.britannica.com/event/Jim-Crow-law/Homer-Plessy-and-Jim-Crow)
They also claimed that the matter of race was too complicated to permit the legislature to assign that determination to a railway conductor.
After their failure in court and even in their appeal to the state Supreme Court. They appealed again to the U.S. Supreme Court. Unfortunately, whilst they waited, the political climate and attitude towards people of colour only hardened. In May 1896, the Supreme Court ruling only solidified the decision and the entire era of Jim Crow laws and discrimination.
Numberg Laws
Historical Context, The Law of the Reich Citizen and The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour
Not long before the outbreak of World War II, Adolf Hitler and other members of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazi Party) drafted two antisemitic (and overall discriminatory) measures at a convention in Numberg. They were 'race-based' measures and became known as the Numberg Laws. These measures applied to Jewish people, Roma people, and other 'non-Aryan' groups of people.
The first one – Law of the Reich Citizen – deprived Jews of their German citizenship, making them subjects of the state and stripping them of all political rights. It defined a citizen of the Reich as a person who is of "German or related blood".
The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour meant for example that all romantic or sexual (or really any) relationships between Jews and non-Jews were forbidden. It was meant to prevent “Rassenschande” ("race defilement").
The Definition of a Jew and an Aryan in the Reich
The perception of race was skewed and (often purposefully) misunderstood by the Nazi regime. They defined Jewish people by their religion (Judaism) and not the supposed physical traits they attributed to Jews.
According to their system there were two main categories of Jews:
a) full Jews – anyone with 3 or more Jewish grandparents (they were considered Jewish if they belonged to the Jewish religious community)
b) part Jews
- first degree – people with 2 Jewish grandparents, who did not practice Judaism and did not have a Jewish spouse
- second degree – people with only one Jewish grandparent
Read more on the Holocaust here.
An Aryan, by the Nazi regime definition, was a member of a superior race with white features most similar to those of northern Europeans. Its definition was originally quite different. It referred to a group of people speaking languages related to on another (a lot of European languages and some from Asia), not a racial group.
Jewish Codex (Židovský kódex)
Historical Context – The First Slovak Republic/Slovak State (Slovenský štát)
The Slovak State was established on the 14th of March 1939 with the support/pressure of the Third Reich. The picture below depicts the first president of the Slovak State Jozef Tiso (second from the left), Ferdinand Ďurčanský next to him and Adolf Hitler on the right in Munich around the time that the (first) Slovak Republic was established.
After the Czech part of the First Czechoslovak Republic was turned into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, the Slovak part pretty much had two options. They could either yield and cooperate with the Nazis (economically, politically and ideologically) in return for remaining a "free" country and protection from Hungarian invasion. Slovak State might not have been officially occupied, but the majority of its governments' officials (and citizens) were vassals of the Reich. Economic production was adjusted to suit the interests of the Nazis. Fascism and antisemitism was adopted by the government, the media (eg. The Gardista journal) and other areas. Lots of the citizens began to openly support antisemitism. Of course, it is up to debate whether it was only a way to protect their own families by complying with the regime or not, so let's not generalise. The country was economically and politically isolated and a puppet state.
Between the years of 1939 to 1942, Jewish property and businesses were Aryanized. Aryanization was the process of forcibly transferring ownership of property and businesses to Aryan owners (non-Jewish owners). Many politicians, state officials and their families benefited financially from this at the expense of Jewish families.
In 1941, the Jewish Codex was enacted. To this day, it is regarded as one of the most cruel antisemitic legal codes in Europe. There were 270 provisions, out of which, a substantial number were adopted from the Numberg Laws, along with the definition of a Jew.
Examples of Provisions
Jewish people were required to wear a distinguishable mark of some sort.
Many were expelled from schools and forbidden from working certain jobs, for example the medical and legal profession.
Forbade relationships and marriage between Jews and non-Jews.
Jewish people were not allowed to own certain objects, like radios or bicycles.
Ghettos were created and Jews were forcibly moved into them, segregating the from the rest of society.
Many Jewish people were sent into forced labour camps or extermination camps. Slovak State also started to deport Jews to other countries, where a similar fate awaited them. The first deportation took place on 25/03/1942. Until 08/05/1945, when Slovak State was formally dissolved, 68 000 to 71 000 Jews were deported from Slovak territory and many of them were murdered.
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*Please note that at no point in this blog am I providing legal advice or claiming to be a professional. These blogs are for entertainment and educational purposes only. If anything is misinterpreted or there's additional information that wasn't included, feel free to contact me through the Contact section of the website.*
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