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Essay on segregation in america in 20th century
Introduction on racial segregation
Essay on segregation in america in 20th century
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Rough draft Segregation was a terribly unfair law that lasted about a hundred years in the United States. A group of High school students (who striked for better educational conditions) were a big factor in ending segregation in the United States. Even though going on strike for better conditions may have negative impacts, African Americans were not treated equally in education because of segregation and the Jim Crow laws were so unfair and the black schools were in terrible condition compared to the whites’. In 1896 the Plessy v. Ferguson case made the segregation of blacks and whites legal; and the Supreme Court made the Jim Crow laws legal saying that blacks are “separate but equal.” African Americans knew that was unfair and could especially
The Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896) ‘equal but separate’ decision robbed it of its meaning and confirmed this wasn’t the case as the court indicated this ruling did not violate black citizenship and did not imply superior and inferior treatment ,but it indeed did as it openly permitted racial discrimination in a landmark decision of a 8-1 majority ruling, it being said was controversial, as white schools and facilities received near to more than double funding than black facilities negatively contradicted the movement previous efforts on equality and maintaining that oppression on
Blacks were left at the mercy of ex-slaveholders and former Confederates, as the United States government adopted a laissez-faire policy regarding the “Negro problem” in the South. The era of Jim Crow brought to the American Negro disfranchisement, social, educational, and occupational discrimination, mass mob violence, murder, and lynching. Under a sort of peonage, black people were deprived of their civil and human rights and reduced to a status of quasi-slavery or “second-class” citizenship. Strict legal segregation of public facilities in the southern states was strengthened in 1896 by the Supreme Court’s decision in the Plessy vs. Ferguson case. Racists, northern and southern, proclaimed that the Negro was subhuman, barbaric, immoral, and innately inferior, physically and intellectually, to whites—totally incapable of functioning as an equal in white civilization.
Throughout American History, many minorities have fallen victim to cruel discrimination and inequality, African Americans were one of such minorities that greatly suffered from the white majority’s upper hand. After the end of the Civil War and the Reconstruction period following it, many people, especially the Southern population, were extremely against African Americans obtaining equal rights in the American society. Due to this, these opponents did everything in their power to limit and even fully strip African Americans of their rights. The Supreme Court case of Plessy v Ferguson in 1896 is an excellent example of the obstacles put forth by the white population against their black counterparts in their long and arduous fight for civil liberty and equality. Even though the court upheld the discriminatory Louisiana law with an 8-1 decision, John Marshall Harlan’s dissent in the case played a significant role in the history of the United States for it predicted all the injustice African Americans would be forced to undergo for many more years, mainly due to this landmark decision.
In 1896 the case of Plessy v. Ferguson occurred and has been viewed by may people, including myself, to be very important in history. Homer Plessy, the plaintiff in this case, was a light skinned black man, who was arrested for violating the Separate Car Act when he entered a car specifically designated for white passengers on the East Louisiana Railroad in New Orleans (Hartman 99). Judge John H. Ferguson was the presiding judge of the Louisiana Criminal District Court. Why was it that states can constitutionally enact legislation to require separate accommodations in interstate commerce based off of a person’s race? This was the issue of the case. The Louisiana Statute under review in Plessy required railway companies carrying passengers in their coaches in that state to provide equal but separate accommodations for the white, and colored races and no persons were permitted to occupy seats in coaches other than the ones assigned to them based on race. If passengers failed to obey these rules...
For 75 years following reconstruction the United States made little advancement towards racial equality. Many parts of the nation enacted Jim Crowe laws making separation of the races not just a matter of practice but a matter of law. The laws were implemented with the explicit purpose of keeping black American’s from being able to enjoy the rights and freedoms their white counterparts took for granted. Despite the efforts of so many nameless forgotten heroes, the fate of African Americans seemed to be in the hands of a racist society bent on keeping them down; however that all began to change following World War II. Thousands of African American men returned from Europe with a renewed purpose and determined to break the proverbial chains segregation had keep them in since the end of the American Civil War. With a piece of Civil Rights legislation in 1957, the federal government took its first step towards breaking the bonds that had held too many citizens down for far too long. The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was a watered down version of the law initially proposed but what has been perceived as a small step towards correcting the mistakes of the past was actually a giant leap forward for a nation still stuck in the muck of racial division. What some historians have dismissed as an insignificant and weak act was perhaps the most important law passed during the nation’s civil rights movement, because it was the first and that cannot be underestimated.
The legality of racial segregation was the result of a deeply flawed belief held by the majority of Americans that blacks were inherently inferior and would never be treated the same as whites. African Americans had been regarded as property for centuries prior to the Civil Rights Movement, and that mindset had to be changed for the creation of new laws or abolition of old laws to have any ...
to sit in a Jim Crow car, which was a car reserved for blacks only. Though Plessy was
During the early 1900s post reconstruction era, African Americans faced extreme injustice and prejudice in society. By being denied rights guaranteed in the Constitution, and being subject to outright racism, African Americans saw their democratic rights slowly being taken away from them. The Jim Crow laws were the facilitator of this democratic infringement through intimidation, as well as by the failings of our prized judicial system. By denying African Americans certain unalienable rights guaranteed to all American citizens, the Jim Crow laws were one of the greatest contractions of democracy in American history.
Blacks were treated unjustly due to the Jim Crow laws and the racial stigmas embedded into American society. Under these laws, whites and colored people were “separate but equal,” however this could not be further from the truth. Due to the extreme racism in the United States during this time period, especially in the South, many blacks were dehumanized by whites to ensure that they remained inferior to them. As a result of their suffering from the prejudice society of America, there was a national outcry to better the lives of colored people.
“Separate is not equal.” In the case of Plessey vs. Ferguson in 1896 the U.S. Supreme Court said racial segregation didn’t violate the Constitution, so racial segregation became legal. In 1954 the case of Oliver Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka this case proved that separate is not equal. Oliver Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka was revolutionary to the education system, because colored people and Caucasians had segregated schools. The Caucasians received a better education and the colored people argued that they were separate but not equal. This would pave the way for integrated schools and change the education system as we knew it.
African Americans have been fighting for equality since the pre-Civil War era. Although the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments became realities, segregation and exclusion of African Americans from public places were the realities throughout the 1800’s and 1900’s. The Civil Rights Act of 1875, or the “Force Act” (pg. 157), only allowed the government to protect African Americans from being excluded by “public officials of state and local governments” (pg. 157), not private businesses. Thus, Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 polarized the nation, for the case declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional and did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment’s “equal protection of the laws” (pg. 158). As long as the accommodations for both races were equal, separating various public spaces was also equal; however, in 1954 “separate but equal” was reversed with Brown v Board of Education. Brown v. Board of Education focused on Oliver Brown’s fight for his daughter, Linda, to attend an “all-white Summer School, which was closer to home” (pg. 160). When the school refused to admit his daughter, Brown took his fight to the NAACP and then took his fight to the Supreme Court; subsequently, the Court decided on the case with the “consequences of segregation” (pg. 160), which concerned a lack of “equal educational opportunities” (pg. 160). As a result, the Court declared Plessy v.
Toward the end of the Progressive Era American social inequality had stripped African Americans of their rights on a local and national level. In the 1896 Supreme Court case of Plessey vs. Ferguson, the Supreme Court sided with a Louisiana state law declaring segregation constitutional as long as facilities remain separate but equal. Segregation increased as legal discriminatory laws became enacted by each state but segregated facilities for whites were far superior to those provided for blacks; especially prevalent in the South were discriminatory laws known as Jim Crow laws which surged after the ruling. Such laws allowed for segregation in places such as restaurants, hospitals, parks, recreational areas, bathrooms, schools, transportation, housing, hotels, etc. Measures were taken to disenfranchise African Americans by using intimidation, violence, putting poll taxes, and literacy tests. This nearly eliminated the black vote and its political interests as 90% of the nine million blacks in America lived in the South and 1/3 were illiterate as shown in Ray Stannard Baker’s Following the Color Line (Bailey 667). For example, in Louisiana 130,334 black voters registered in 1896 but that number drastically decreased to a mere 1,342 in 1904—a 99 percent decline (Newman ). Other laws prevented black...
The schools that had been made for black people were extremely poor, with very books throughout each school and classes ranged from 40 - 50 children per class. This was not the case with white people and their schools. The white peoples schools flourished with books, equipment and the classes were kept low with manageable sizes. Good teachers had been employed to teach each class, but on the other hand with black schools, teachers who did not have particularly good skills were taught, and all the teachers would also be black. One of the most famous cases of segregation that was brought to public attention was that of the Linda Brown case.
Before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, segregation in the United States was commonly practiced in many of the Southern and Border States. This segregation while supposed to be separate but equal, was hardly that. Blacks in the South were discriminated against repeatedly while laws did nothing to protect their individual rights. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ridded the nation of this legal segregation and cleared a path towards equality and integration. The passage of this Act, while forever altering the relationship between blacks and whites, remains as one of history’s greatest political battles.
Ever since the African American race was brought over to the United States, they have been mistreated. Upon their arrival, Americans instantly enslaved them and used them for work, not even considering them as people. With the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865, slavery was finally outlawed; however, “colored” people were still treated unequally through segregation. Segregation was legalized by the Court decision in the case Plessy v. Ferguson. But, in 1952, the case Brown v. Board of Education upturned the Plessy v. Ferguson precedent, saying that the “separate but equal” doctrine was unconstitutional.