Racial Segregation

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how segregation, which was established by the Jim Crow laws of the Civil War period and ended in the 1960s with the Civil Rights Act, saw the public separation of blacks and whites. It looks at how, nearly a century later, the Jim Crow laws of the late 19th century, along with the reversal of the Civil Rights Act of 1875, were re-examined for their constitutionality. In particular, it discusses how two important cases were Plessy vs. Ferguson, which established the legal mode of "separate but equal," and Brown vs. Board of Education, which ended racial segregation. It attempts to show how the historical analogy of these two events demonstrates that history helps to define our actions, allowing us to learn from past mistakes and generate new and better ideas for the future.

From the Paper:

"The civil rights struggle focused on reversing legal decisions made in the late 1800s, which were also supported for the first half of the 1900s. The eventual provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ending racial segregation was the result of an accumulated effort to organize individuals and groups to resist the acceptance of "separate but equal." The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) organized in 1909 with the mission to renew the civil and political liberties of all disadvantaged people, like the blacks who suffered the most under discrimination. The NAACP launched numerous public protests advocating the improved treatment of blacks. As the court cases that led up to legalized segregation established white dominance, the likewise assertion by groups like the NAACP and other civil-minded individuals, whites included, brought new cases to the Supreme Court."

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