Freedom by the pursuit of dreams in their eyes looked to GodAfter the Civil War and the emancipation of slaves, the ex-slaves did not find enough good work to earn a living. Jim Crow laws were put in place to keep black people from achieving their dreams. These laws were enforced after Plessy v. Ferguson ruled that blacks and whites could have it all “separate but equal.” This included schools, transportation, water fountains, toilets and much more. By 1914, all towns were divided in two, with blacks on one side and whites on the other (Hoobler 51). The Homestead Act was created in 1866 to help black people thrive in their society. Many bought their own farms or went north and learned to make linotype or do other trades like shoemaking (Hoobler 51). With the movement of blacks to the North came the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance, a black movement in New York in which blacks began to speak more freely and express their ideas (Rood 38). By illustrating the gender roles and class structure of a black society, author Zora Neale Hurston depicts the evolution of black society in her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God through characters who follow their dreams, resulting in them helps them take ownership of their own lives. women in a black society is a major theme of this novel. Many women help demonstrate Hurston's ideas. Hurston uses Janie's grandmother, Nanny, to show an extreme of women in a black society, those who follow in the footsteps of their ancestors. Nanny is stuck in the past. She still believes in everything that once was and wants to keep things as they were, but also desires a better life for her granddaughter than she had. When Nanny catches...... middle of paper...... Works Cited1. “Booker Taliafero Washington.” Records and History of the Department of Alabama. asc.edu. World Wide Web. January 18, 1996. Available at http://www.asc.edu/archives/famous/b_wash.html.3. Encarta. Towards. 1997. Computer Software. Encarta, 1997. CD-rom.4. Hurston, Zora Neale. Their eyes looked at God. 1937.5. Hoobler, Dorothy and Thomas. The African-American Family Album. New York, NY: OxfordUniversity Press, 19956. “Jim Crow Laws.” FX Scoreboard Systems. Fxbbs.com. World Wide Web. Available at http://www.fxbbs.com/reports/jimcrow.html.7. Nash, Gary B. American Odyssey. United States: Glencoe Division of Macmilla/McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, 19928. Rood, Karen L. American Decades 1920-1929. Detroit, MI: Gale Research Inc., 19969. Whiston, Julie. World Wide Web. Available at http://www.grin.edu/~gardnerj/thirties/jw.html