During the period that Jim Crow laws were being enforced upon African-Americans it was pretty apparent that Caucasians were the ones with the power. It did not matter what your status was in society, if you were white you always had the upper hand over black people at that time.
Caucasians maintained this power by instilling fear and humiliating people of the black community. This was done by public lynchings, verbal, physical and emotional abuse at the hands of white people. Richard Wright talks about many situations where he was subject to physical abuse based on the fact that he neglected to address a white man properly by saying "yes", and not "yes sir" (wright pg.10). There was another incident where he witnessed a black women being dragged and beat up by his employers, while the police just looked the other way, he could do absolutely nothing about it because he had no power as a black man (Wright pg. 8).
People without the power during this time, just lived their lives trying to do every and anything to keep out of harms way. This means adhering to the jim crow laws and most importantly, always giving white people the upmost respect, even if they were not.
People without the power eventually started to resist these injustices by forms of nonviolent acts, such as sit-ins, boycotts and freedom rides.
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