End of Segregation

The 14th Amendment to the Constitution defined citizenship as anyone born in the U.S. or naturalized, thus giving citizenship to African Americans. Like the 13th amendment, the 14th was not enforced. Had this amendment had been enforced, as citizens of the United States the most basic rights of black people should have been protected, like any other citizen. However, they were continually marginalized. If a crime was committed against them, the legal system turned a blind eye. If they were in need, no one would offer a helping hand. The government largely funded public white schools, whereas African Americans had to raise much of their own funding for their schools. Although they raised a large sum of money, it was still insufficient to educate the millions of newly freed children and adults (Franklin 250). These are just a few examples of the inequality experienced by blacks. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 explicitly states that African Americans do have citizenship “regardless of race

Since the creation of our country, African Americans have dealt with prejudice. They have faced many challenges and obstacles, such as segregation. After all of the slaves were emancipated, most public facilities participated in the separation of colored and white people. One of the facilities that was segregated, included the bus system. African Americans had to sit in the back of the bus and, when necessary, had to give up their seat to any white bus rider. Document 1 and 4 show the segregation in schools, which invigorated children and parents, because this made many African Americans students feel inferior. The conclusion of “separate but equal” did not seem to be working in the education system. Restaurants were also segregated. White males and females were given much better service, and restaurants were often separated. Another way African Americans faced inequality, was through the denial of constitutional rights. In many instances, African Americans guaranteed rights were taken away from them. For example the 14th Amendment was violated, which guarantees equal protection of the law and it forbids any state from making laws that

For the greater part of the nineteenth century, black people were slaves for white men. The Fourteenth Amendment was placed into effect to protect the rights of the black community after emancipation. It stated that, “all persons born or naturalized in the United States” would be supported under the doctrine. However, this article failed to uphold the rights of the newly freed slaves. The blacks, ridiculed and scorned by the public, were greatly suppressed by the white backlash. The states put into effect laws that would suppress the blacks even further, even though they were protected under the Amendment. The states made stipulations on rights the African Americans were granted, like the right to own land, vote, and even hold certain jobs. Voting was a major controversy for the newly freed slaves, they wanted the chance to be heard through politics. Nevertheless, they were still denied the simple right to vote in many of the states if they could not meet the prerequisites for reading or could not pay a voting tax. They made contracts for them to work for white men, just as if they were slaves and nothing changed. Black people were still waiting for their salvation under this new piece of legislation, but were unable to grasp it through the government. African Americans stood for their newly given rights under the Constitution and were denied by the people who put

In 1951 schools were separated by skin color, or segregated. The Brown v. Board of Education trial was brought to court because a third-grader, Linda Brown, was not allowed to attend the elementary school that was closest to her house. She wa required to take the bus to school across town instead. In the trial the point that “Education for Negroes is almost nonexistent(13).” This is an example of how there were old problems in the Fourteenth Amendment that needed to be changed. Another issue that was brought up in the trial was that, “Segregation… has a tendency to retard the educational and mental development of negro children…(19).” Without the proper education at segregated

Early in our county’s history almost all black people came here as slaves. Because people in the South felt they needed cheap labor in building land and because black people in Africa knew how to farm land like the ones in the South, they were taken from their homes and forced to come to America. Arriving in this county, they were sold to whites as slaves without rights or freedom. IN 1776, the American Colonies declared their freedom from Great Britain. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson write that “all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable right; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” He declared that all citizens have their rights and equal opportunities in pursuing their goals. Efforts to give black people their rights never stopped, but the changes were not enough. After War II, many people felt that new laws were needed. In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that blacks and whites could go to the same schools. However,

African Americans were never treated the same as other Americans. One day a black man who looked white named Homer Plessy got sick of sitting in a Jim Crow car so he decided to purchase a first class ticket in the white’s only section on the train. Plessy told the conductor that he was 1/8 black and he refused to move from the car. Removed from the train Plessy was in jail overnight and was released on a 500 dollar bond. Homer Plessy protested that his 13th and his 14th amendments rights were violated. This case became known as Plessy v. Ferguson. This case upheld the constitutionality of segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine.

Brown v. the Board of Education was a case that helped shaped America’s education system into what it is today. ‘Separate but equal’ is phrase well attributed to the civil rights movement in all aspects of life: water fountains, movie theaters, restaurants, bathrooms, schools, and much more. This phrase was coined legal in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896. Plessy v. Ferguson said that racial segregation of public facilities was legal so long as they were ‘equal.’ Before this even, Black Codes, passed in 1865 under President Johnson legalized the segregation of public facilities including schools. In 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified guaranteeing all citizens equal protection under the law. Still, though, blacks were not given equal opportunities when it came to voting, schooling and many other inherent rights. 1875 brought the Civil Rights Act that prohibited the discrimination in places of public accommodation. These places of public accommodation did not seem to include educational facilities. Jim Crow Laws become widespread in 1887, legalizing racial separation. These downfalls were paused by development of the Nation Association for the Advancement of Colored People that was founded in 1909. This association began to fight the discriminatory policies plaguing the country, especially in the southern areas. Finally Brown v. the Board of Education fought these decisions, stating that ‘separate but equal’ and discrimination allowed by the latter decisions did not have a

Education was and still is a very important aspect in life, but Jim Crow laws made receiving an equal education an impossible task. “Education: The schools for white children and the schools for Negro children shall be conducted separately” Florida (“Jim Crow Laws”). Although both races did receive an education, they were not equal. Schools for white

Since Reconstruction, many aspects of American life were segregated. “ laws known as Jim Crow laws permitted and often required segregated bathrooms, drinking fountains, parks, restaurants, and other public spaces. The Supreme Court upheld this legal practice in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson.” While, a half century later, “On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education that segregated schools are ‘inherently unequal.’” And “In a related case known as Brown II the Court ordered schools to desegregate ‘with all deliberate speed.’” Southern resisted the decision of Brown II order.

As you can see from the amendments, African Americans and other minorities were treated differently from whites. As whites were proclaimed to be superior than them. This was very true in the South. The Jim Crow laws were laws that prohibited blacks from doing things like not using the same public facilities, busses, and even attending the same schools. Many people believed that these laws were unjust. But it wasn’t until the 1890’s until they were changed in court. Homer Plessy wouldn’t give up his seat on a train to a white man in New

In 1868 when the 14th Amendment was ratified it was supposed to “wipe out the last vestige of inequality between the races” (Supreme Court declares school segregation unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education. 2012, May 17). That was not the case; because in 1951 Brown v. Board of Education came about due to the fact that Mr. Brown’s daughter was forced to ride the bus to an “all-black school” instead of going to an “all-white school that was located “blocks from her house” (Supreme Court declares school segregation unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education. 2012, May 17).

In 1875 the U.S congress passes a Civil Rights Act giving African Americans the right to public facilities.”This was an effort to make full citizens of and guarantee the rights of the freed slaves” ( Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History).When efforts were made to enforce the law better, the southern legislatures reacted by making a legal system that separated races from everyday life things. Under these new laws called “Jim Crow laws” people of color were put in second class a denied entry into public education and transportation. The original Civil rights act was never enforced, which led to the unfair Jim Crow laws and that affected African Americans lives in many

African Americans were granted full citizenship, by the Fourteenth Amendment, in the year of 1868; segregation did not end until almost a hundred years later, in 1964. The “separate but equal” doctrine allowed segregation as long as blacks and whites had equal facilities. During the time of “separate but equal” many debated whether this doctrine was constitutional or not. The monumental Supreme Court cases Plessy vs Ferguson and Brown vs Board of Education shaped America’s society by deciding the constitutionality of the “separate but equal” doctrine.

By the 19th century, many social forms of discrimination existed to keep Black Americans from being equal to White Americans. Laws like separate but equal where put into places to keep Black Americans from being in the same places as White Americans, like; neighborhoods, schools, churches, restaurants, and so on. White Americans also believed that Blacks should not have the right to vote; which led to many black movements for the continuous fight for equality in the nation of freedom. By 1954 the Brown vs. Board of Education case reversed the “separate but equal” doctrine that previously had been set in 1896, allowing children both White and Black children to attend the same schools and same classrooms. In

This inequality and unnecessary act called racism within many school systems can be dated back to 1896 to the Plessy V. Ferguson case which resulted in “separate facilities for education” and an “equal education” (Campbell). This case is what provided us with the term “separate but equal”, this meant that white and black children had to attend separate schools but would supposedly get an equal education. Another case addressing racism in education is the Cumming V. Richmond case in 1899. This case involved three black families who petitioned the court to allow their children to finish their high school education at a white high school, due to the closing of the local black high school which would integrate African Americans and whites under one facility (Campbell). Racial segregation and its unfairness even continued into the 1950’s with the Sweatt V. Painter case involving an African American, Homas Sweatt, who was being denied access to the University of Texas Law School because he was black (Campbell). All of this unfair treatment of separate but equal education continued until 1954 when one of the most popular and familiar cases to all of us occurred, “Brown V. Board of Education”. In this case a young girl from Kansas had to walk 21 blocks to the closet black only school when a