When Did Segregation Start?

Segregation was once a time of extreme unfairness and racism in the United States of America. Although slavery was demolished, the country was still a long way from granting African Americans the rights that they deserved. However, it’s important to know the history of segregation to truly understand and appreciate the suffering that African Americans had to endure in the United States.

Segregation, or racial segregation, refers to the separation of different racial groups in daily lives. In the United States, the period of segregation usually refers to the separation between the African Americans and white Americans, and it was particularly widespread throughout the south.

This segregation usually refers to a separation in almost every aspect of life. For example, restaurants were segregated, buses were segregated, schools were segregated, and even movie seats were segregated. These are only a few examples of the widespread segregation in the United States.

Segregation's Start

After the Civil War ended, the northern states attempted to influence equality among the races throughout the South. The Reconstruction Act of 1867 and the Fifteenth Amendment of the United States granted African Americans the right to vote in the United States. The Civil Rights Act of 1875 deemed racial segregation illegal in any accommodations, and federal troops throughout the South attempted to enforce this law.

However, the racism of the South was simply too widespread to enforce the law. A series of Jim Crow laws began to be passed throughout the states, starting in 1876. These Jim Crow laws established “de jure” racial segregation in all public facilities.

The Jim Crow laws had a clause that demanded “separate but equal” facilities, although this wasn’t true in practice. The Democrats in the South were able to pass these laws because they began to demand strict restrictions for who could vote in the south. Although they could not restrict voting based on race, they restricted it based on such qualifications as literacy or through poll taxes.

Since many African Americans were illiterate throughout the South and did not have much money, this prevented them from voting and possibly overturning these laws. Thus, the Jim Crow laws (which roughly began in 1876) were the start of segregation. After the Compromise of 1877, the Federal troops left the Southern states, and segregation truly became the law of the land.

Challenges to Segregation

In 1896, segregation was challenged before the Supreme Court in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson. However, the Supreme Court ruled that these Jim Crow laws were constitutional because of the “separate but equal” clause. The court ruled that if the facilities could be equal between the races, then the African Americans have not been denied their constitutional rights.

Thus, since the law was deemed constitutional, segregation was allowed to continue throughout the south for decades. However, in practice it was never equal. African Americans frequently were given subpar facilities and equipment. In school, African American children frequently got used books from the white schools. This was after previous children had used the books for many years, and thus they were frequently unusable.

The Struggle for Civil Rights

However, after World War Two, African Americans began to fight for their rights. In 1954, the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education was brought before the Supreme Court and segregation was challenged once again. The case challenged the constitutionality of “separate but equal” in the school systems of the south.

For example, the African American schools received significantly less state funding than the white schools, and the states still declared that the schools were “separate but equal.” In a unanimous decision, the Warren Court declared that separate was not equal, and segregation was finally deemed unconstitutional. Segregation was determined to be a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.