Dehumanization is the act of treating men and women as too inferior or too uncivilized to be considered human. People can be dehumanized through dismissal or idolization. Dehumanization through dismissal has been a tool used by those in power since the beginning of time as a form of control. During the 1960s people of color were dehumanized through segregation as whites viewed every other race different to theirs as inferior, not equal. The first steps toward segregation came in the form of “Black Codes.” These laws were passed throughout the South as early as 1865 and dictated most aspects of colored people’s lives, like where they lived and worked. These codes also ensured color people’s availability for cheap labor after the abolishing of slavery. In time, segregation became an official policy enforced by a series of Southern laws known as the Jim Crow laws. From schools to residential areas, public parks, phone booths, theaters, waiting rooms, cemeteries, asylums, jails, and residential homes, the legislators segregated it all between whites and blacks as if they couldn’t coexist. Many businesses didn’t allow people of color and had a “Whites Only” sign on the entrance. These laws fueled the beginning of several civil rights movements which ultimately ended the “Black Codes” and other inequalities. During this era, not only were colored people viewed as inferior but also Jews, women, the LGBTQ+ and more. All stripped from their identity in similar ways with similar purpose for similar reasons. Dehumanization during this time, to me, was an act of weakness. The minority which, were the whites, were in desperate need to control the majority, which were the blacks. To their dismay, colored people eventually saw the power in numbers when unified and were able to voice their hurt and needs that had long been suppressed.