Segregation and Desegregation

• Author: Daniel Brannen, Richard Hanes, Elizabeth Shaw
• Pages: 761-767

Contenidos

• First Efforts of Desegregation.
• "Separate But Equal".
• The Struggle Again For Desegregation.
• Separate Is Unequal.
• The Civil Rights Movement Peaks.
• The Continued Struggle for Desegregation.
• Suggestions for further reading.

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Through the early period of American history, races (groups of people normally identified by their skin color) were kept separate by social custom. White business owners simply refused to serve blacks. Slavery of black Americans was recognized as economically crucial to the Southern region. Political and legal liberties were not shared equally. For instance, only white male adults with property could vote in public elections. Boston's segregated (keeping races separate) public school system was affirmed by the Massachusetts Supreme Court in 1850.

First Efforts of Desegregation

The Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 represented a first step to end these segregationist social customs. Immediately following the end of the American Civil War (1861–65) a series of three constitutional amendments, known as the Civil Rights Amendments were adopted to end such social customs and further racial integration (mixing of the races). The Thirteenth Amendment outlawed slavery. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments protected the constitutional

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civil rights of the newly freed slaves. Specifically, the Fourteenth Amendment extended "equal protection of the laws" to all Americans. It also maintained that everyone through the "due process" clause would be subject to the same legal processes. The Fifteenth Amendment extended voting rights to black males.

In spite of the new amendments, efforts to establish desegregation (abolishing segregation) social policies was met with severe resistance, particularly among the Southern states. State laws were passed restricting the freedom of black Americans, such as where blacks could sit on railroad cars and what public schools they could attend. The laws, known as Jim Crow Laws, sought to legally enforce racial segregation. Congress responded with federal laws supporting equal rights among all races. Civil Rights Acts were passed in 1866 and 1870 to enforce the civil rights amendments. With access to public facilities still being denied to many Americans on account of race and skin color, Congress passed another Civil Rights Act in 1875 making public facilities including railroads and hotels accessible to black Americans.

Severely hindering desegregation, Supreme Court decisions involving disputes over these rights commonly sided with the states during this period. The Court greatly limited the federal government's power to enforce the civil rights amendments. For example, in Civil Rights Cases (1883), a combination of three separate lower court cases involving similar civil rights disputes, the Supreme Court ruled application of the 1875 Civil Rights Act to private individuals or businesses unconstitutional (not following the intent of the U.S. Constitution and its amendments). The government could not force private businesses, such as hotels, restaurants, and railroad cars to integrate. As a result, by 1890 black Americans had few civil rights, particularly in the South.

"Separate But Equal"

The biggest blow against desegregation of public facilities came in the Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) ruling. By upholding a Louisiana law segregating access to railway cars between black and white Americans, a concept known as "separate but equal" was established. The decision maintained that segregation did not violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment if black and white Americans were...