In the time of the Jim Crow South, the majority of white people displayed extreme ill will towards the black people. Race relations were not good between blacks and whites, and it was no secret. It was a time where black people were treated better than when they were slaves, but still subjected to cruelty and hatred. It was a time where a white man could escape justice after delivering a beating to a black man because the black man did not address him with the prefix of Mr. In the Jim Crow South, race relations were absolutely terrible because white people persecuted the black people, blacks were only seen fit for entertainment purposes or menial jobs, and because black people were struggling against themselves, when they should have been struggling against their oppressors.
As far as race relations go, white people believed that they were far superior to black people in the Jim Crow South, which led white people to believe that they could persecute and discriminate the blacks. In Richard Wright's autobiographical sketch The .
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Ethics of Living Jim Crow, he writes, "My first lesson in how to live as a Negro came when I was quite small" (1). Wright is discussing how there was a set of rules for "Negroes" to live by. If one were to break a rule set by a white man, then he/she would be punished so he/she would learn not to break that rule again. After getting into a "war" with a group of white kids, Wright talks about the punishment that he received from his mother, " beat me till I had a fever of one hundred and two. She would smack my rump with the stave, and, while the skin was still smarting, impart to me gems of Jim Crow wisdom" (6). All the black people of that time knew the rules set by the white people. It was the parents" job to teach their kids how to stay out of trouble with white people. Wright goes on and speaks about the many learning lessons that he had to go through growing up as a black man.