HY 357 Lecture Notes - Lecture 51: Grandfather Clause, Literacy Test, Homer Plessy
6 Jun 2018
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Segregation in the United States
The end of slavery, while certainly a landmark in the history of civil rights, did not mean
equality for the former slaves. At first, the Southern states used the black codes, local laws
that limited former slaves' ability to find work and freedom to move off the plantations. In
response, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 that made African Americans citizens.
This was followed by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments (1868 and 1870, respectively),
which reaffirmed that African Americans are citizens, entitled to "equal protection," and have the
right to vote.
African Americans soon learned that the Constitution might promise equal protection,
but realizing that promise was another matter. The Supreme Court interpreted the
Fourteenth Amendment very narrowly, stating that the federal government could not
prosecute individuals for discriminatory acts. Lynchings and mob violence were left to
the states to handle. Within a generation after the end of Reconstruction (1877), African
Americans in the South found themselves deprived of their civil rights.
Jim Crow laws
Jim Crow laws were Southern statutes that effectively segregated people by race. In a
group of decisions known as the Civil Rights Cases (1883), the Supreme Court struck
down the Civil Rights Act of 1875 that had forbidden racial segregation in public
accommodations such as hotels and trains. Under the Jim Crow laws, separate facilities
for black and white train and streetcar passengers, separate schools, and separate
entrances and reception areas in public buildings were built in the South. Separate
restrooms and drinking fountains, as well as special visiting hours for African Americans
at museums, became fixtures of Southern life. Because this separation based on race
was backed by law, it was called de jure segregation.
Separate but equal doctrine
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