By the end of the nineteenth century, thirty years had passed without slavery. Life for African Americans however, had not improved significantly. Most lived in poverty in the rural South and even those that were able to rise above poverty did not advance very far. They all fell victim to the infamous Jim Crow laws in the South, which set aside separate facilities for blacks and whites in public places such as railroad cars, hospitals and schools.
While hardship was great, sympathy was little. Opportunities for education, jobs and the accumulation of wealth were too scarce to make any real difference. Jim Crow laws and "separate but equal" legislation helped maintain segregation. The "but equal" language was almost never enforced and in all areas of life, African Americans found themselves in inferior circumstances.
Here are some of the key pieces of legislation that led to this case.
Let's start in 1865. This is the year that the 13th Amendment abolished slavery. Three years later, the 14th Amendment defined United States citizenship and prohibited states or local officials from denying rights to its citizens. The adoption of these amendments helped advance African-American civil rights.
The Civil Rights Act of 1875 guaranteed African-Americans equal treatment in public accommodations, transportation, and prohibited exclusion from serving on a jury. This act represented another significant advancement of African-American civil rights.
These positive steps forward were tempered with the "Civil Rights Cases" Supreme Court Ruling of 1883. The court declared the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional. They also ruled that the 14th Amendment prohibited discrimination by the state, but it did not give the government power to prohibit discrimination by individuals, organizations, or businesses. Finally, the court ruled that the 13th Amendment eliminated "the badge of slavery," but it did not prohibit discrimination in public accommodations.
Homer Plessy
One of the earliest challenges to the inequality
that resulted from segregation came in 1892 from Homer Plessy. Plessy was 7/8th
white of Creole descent and 1/8th African. He boarded a train in
Louisiana and took a seat in a car marked "for whites only." When he
refused to vacate the seat, he was charged with violating a Louisiana
statute that provided for separate but equal facilities in railway cars. Watch the following video clip to get an overview of Homer Plessy's act
of civil disobedience and the resulting Supreme Court case.
A Calculated Act
video clip is from the PBS series The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross
Reaction Paragraph
What do you think about civil disobedience as a tool for social change? Was Homer Plessy's act of civil disobedience effective even though it took over fifty years for segregation laws to change? The Plessy v. Ferguson decision introduced the "separate but equal" doctrine that legalized segregation. What do you think about Separate but Equal? Is it possible for two races to remain separated while striving for equality? Are separation and equality compatible? Why or why not?
