Racial Segregation in America

On September 22^nd, 1862, president Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, in essence freeing the slaves. The question then was what was the nature of their new found freedom? The truth was, a presidential signature couldn’t erase centuries of racial resentment, though radical and presidential reconstruction efforts strived to eleviate African Americans from their depths of despair. Segregation became commonplace in many area of the United States. There seemed to be no hope in the fight for racial equality. Throughout the late 19^th century the Supreme Court passed multiple decisions, such as the invalidation of the Civil Rights act of 1875, a law that protected African Americans from private acts of discrimination. 

All hope was lost in 1896, with the verdict on the Supreme Court case of Plessy v. Ferguson. Until this decision was reached America was experiencing federal de facto segregation. This segregation occurred but there were no laws supporting or mandating its practice. All of this changed on June 7^th, 1892, when Homer Adolph Plessy, an African American man, on the orders of a black civil organization boarded a “white” railcar in Louisiana and refused to move to the “coloured” car. He was arrested for violating Louisiana’s Separate Car Act, and was found guilty in court despite his defense using the 14^th amendment as justification for his actions. He then proceeded to fight his case all the way to the Louisiana State Supreme Court, where he was again found in the legal wrong. Plessy sought a writ of prohibition, and thus took his case to the United States Supreme court. In an almost unanimous 7 to 1 vote (with Justice David Josiah Brewer not participating), the Supreme Court sided with the State of Louisiana, in essence declaring the constitutionality of segregation. Their decision provided Federal de jure segregation, and further stimulated the process of states legislating “Jim Crow Laws.”

The legal contradiction came May 17^th, 1954, when the case of Oliver L. Brown et al. v. Board of education of Topeka. Oliver L. Brown and 11 other parents with the support of the NAACP sued the Board of Education of Topeka, due to the fact that under current rules their children were forced to attend schools based on race instead of proximity. In a unanimous decision the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, ruling that the separate facilities where inherently unequal. This case resulted in increased desegregation efforts across the United States, and laid the path towards equal opportunities for all regardless of race.  

This article was contributed by Kosaluchi Mmegwa, a senior at Appleby College. A budding political science student and history enthusiast, Kosaluchi is a featured columnist at History Now. To give feedback on this article and others, please refer to the Contact Us tab.