SEPARATE BUT EQUAL? Legalized Segregation in the US

Segregation  Separation of facilities, services, and opportunities along racial lines.  Bathrooms  Libraries  Schools  Restaurants  Theatres  Busses  Waiting Rooms  Etc.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)  Homer Plessy was 1/8 African-American  He was denied a seat in a railroad car reserved for white passengers.  He sued the railroad company for discrimination  Supreme Court sided with railroad  “Separate but Equal” is upheld by Supreme Court

Life for African Americans  Jim Crow Laws: local and state laws which created separate facilities for African Americans Jim Crow Laws  Bathrooms  Schools  Housing  Public entrances  Etc.

Dallas Bus Station, 1950’s

Mississippi Train Station, 1961

North Carolina bus sign, 1956

Segregated Bus in Texas, 1956

Tennessee Rest Stop, 1943

North Carolina Restaurant, 1939

Segregated drinking Fountains, 1950

African American School in Georgia, 1941

All White Classroom, 1950s

African American School Bus in Virginia

White school bus in New York

Typical Georgia Tenant Farmer home, 1941

Model Home by Sears, 1930s

Race Relations  African Americans had to yield the sidewalk to white pedestrians, and black men had to remove their hats for white women.

Voting Restrictions  Voting restrictions: laws which denied legal voting rights to African Americans Notice Applications for Registration must be completely filled out without any assistance or suggestions of any person or memorandum. After 10 days applicants’ names and addresses are published for two consecutive weeks in the newspaper. They cannot be ruled on for 14 days after the second publication. Therefore it can take as long as 33 days before we can give you an answer as to your application being accepted or rejected. Your indulgence is appreciated. The Registrar.

Voting Restrictions  Literacy Tests  Poll Tax  Grandfather Clause

Segregation of Schools  Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954)  Linda Brown, 9, had to walk to an all black school 21 blocks away instead of going to an all white school 4 blocks from her house.  SEPARATE but EQUAL???

 The Supreme Court unanimously struck down segregation as unconstitutional.segregation as unconstitutional.  2 nd emancipation  12 million children in 21 states

Violence in the South  Lynching: an illegal hanging, without trial, usually carried out by a mob  Between 1865 and 1965 over 2400 African Americans were lynched in the United States

Emmitt Till  Chicago youth, Emmitt Till went to Alabama to visit family in 1955  Till “incorrectly” spoke to a white women, resulting in his lynching

Emmitt Till  Millions showed up at the funeral and witnessed his badly mutilated body  Till’s body, along with the release of the murderers, sparked the civil rights movement all over the country