Many Southern states were segregated, they followed the supreme courts decision in 1896; 'Separate but equal' this meant that they were still segregated but blacks had equal rights. Segregation was the separation of white people from black, some states tried to keep control over black people's segregation by; 'Jim crow' laws which kept black people segregated/separated from white, this involved separate schools, toilets and drinking fountains. Desegregation had become a problem in the 1950's, largely because of the racial hatred of white southerners towards blacks, this racial hatred had originated from the attitudes of white people towards black people after slavery was abolished in 1864, many southern states had 'Jim crow' laws which discriminated against African Americans. However, in 1954 the Brown family challenged these laws by suing the city school board for forbidding their 8 year old daughter, who was black, from attending the white school which was nearby, instead Linda Brown was forced to attend the segregated school which was a long distance away. The Brown family's case was brought to the Supreme Court by the NAACP; they were an organisation which fought for the rights of coloured people.
How far did conditions for black Americans improve in the period 1945-56? Civil right was a major issue in America during 1945-56, especially in the Deep South. This was because conditions of African Americans didn’t improve much, it was mainly the start to any change that happened, with some limited progress. The first issue is ‘Jim crow’ laws; this was a law in the Southern states of America that introduced segregation between black and white people, by passing laws which denied them access to white facilities. Many of these facilities were, education, healthcare, transport, cinemas, restaurants and churches and even housing and estates were segregated.
In the South segregation was supported by the Jim Crow laws that made it legal. All public institutions in the South were separated according to skin colour, the ones for blacks being inferior in quality. In the north, where segregation wasn’t imposed by law, the blacks were forced to move into ghettos, because of discrimination by the whites. As well as that, there was also economic inequality. It was much harder for blacks to get a job, and there employment position could be described as ‘the last to be hired, the first to be fired’.
How it became a term with segregation of African Americans in the late nineteenth-century is unclear. What historians do now however, is that by 1900, the term was generally identified with those racist laws and actions that deprived African Americans of their civil rights by defining whites as the inferior race and casted black people as members of subordinate people. The Supreme Court's of segregation in the “Plessy v. Ferguson” case in 1896 and the refusal of the federal government to enact anti-lynching laws meant that black Americans were left to their own devices for surviving Jim Crow. In most cases, southern blacks tried to avoid engaging whites as much as possible as the best means of evading their anger. These efforts at separating themselves from whites meant developing their own schools and
It is important in a democracy that every person have equal protection of the law because a democracy is composed by the citizens of that government, if not all people are included - regardless of age, race, sex, ethnicity, or nationality, then it is not a true democracy. A selective democracy does not and cannot exist. Every citizen should be subjected to the same laws and rights and any other citizen. A democracy flourishes when all citizens are involved and all citizens enjoy all the rights as any other citizen. Punishing a person harsher or inhumanly simply because he or she is of a different race for instance in unconstitutional.
Specifically for African Americans, the equality and desegregation under this act of education, the workplace, and voter’s registration has been tremendously empowering. One of the great things about America that many other countries do not have is free education. Under Plessy v. Ferguson, segregation of schools was legalized under the conditions that it was separate but equal. During that time, the schools were definitely separated, but unquestionably unequal. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 overturned Plessy V. Ferguson which not only led to African Americans having better schools, but also allowed them to learn with their Caucasian peers.
The Jim Crow laws were racial segregation laws enacted between 1876 and 1965 in the United States at the state and local level. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities in Southern states of the former Confederacy, with, starting in 1890, a "separate but equal" status for African Americans. The separation in practice led to conditions for African Americans that tended to be inferior to those provided for white Americans, systematizing a number of economic, educational and social disadvantages. De jure segregation mainly applied to the Southern United States. While Northern segregation was generally de facto, there were patterns of segregation in housing enforced by covenants, bank lending practices, and job discrimination, including discriminatory union practices for decades.
Segregation was enforced by Jim Crow laws which kept Blacks and Whites separated. They used separate churches, hospitals, toilets and schools. Whites saw Blacks as second class citizens and treated them that way. Whites tried controlling the Blacks by using violence and intimidation. The NAACP set up a network of lawyers to help advise Negro clients with legal action to attempt to change this way of life.
Also, another important cause of the civil war was issue of slavery in the territories that was dividing the North and South. The North believed that slavery was wrong. They believed that all men are equal. However, the south believed that there is nothing wrong with slavery. Slavery was part of southern culture.
In his book, Acting White: The Ironic Legacy of Desegregation, Stuart Buck states “that the “acting white” phenomenon was an ironic legacy of desegregation” (637), and that the well-intention policies that were implemented eventually led to a reversal of intention thus having an inadvertent damaging effect on African American students. In agreement with Buck’s thesis, desegregation led to the demise of black schools, and the removal of black principals and teachers who could serve as role models. It brought black students in contact with white students who made school a strange and uncomfortable environment. It also enabled black and white students to view the other race as outsiders. Because of desegregation, many black schools began to disappear.