preview

The Importance Of Segregation In The American Civil War

Decent Essays

The American Civil War was fought in The United States from 1861 to 1865. Pulitzer Prize winning author James McPherson writes that, "The Civil War started because of uncompromising differences between the free and slave states over the power of the national government to prohibit slavery in the territories that had not yet become states.” Although we had a Civil War so our country could stop fighting, we still did not completely achieve equality, due to not being able to overcome prejudice. The struggle to achieve equality was made even more difficult by the legislation of racism in the Plessy v. Ferguson case.
First, In 1892, Plessy refused to sit in a Jim Crow car. He was arrested, after arguing with the conductor, and took the case all the way to the Supreme Court. Then, he was brought before Judge Ferguson of the Criminal Court of New Orleans. The case upheld state racial segregation laws for public facilities under the doctrine of "separate but equal.” Plessy’s lawyer argued that the law was unconstitutional. Unfortunately, Segregation and discrimination was still a law after the case. This case gave prejudice a greater opportunity to spread segregation. John Marshall wrote, “Slavery as an institution tolerated by law would, it is true, have disappeared from our country, but there would remain a power in the States, by sinister legislation, to interfere with the blessings of freedom; to regulate civil rights common to all citizens, upon the basis of race; and to

Get Access