Post-Civil War Segregation in America

• After the Civil War, black Americans were not enslaved but they had not achieved equal status with whites in American society.
• The Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1875, and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution, were made virtual dead letters by hostile court decisions, culminating in 1896 with the Supreme Court’s Plessy v. Ferguson decision.
• In fact, separate facilities for black people rarely were equal. They were inferior because segregation—the separation of people based on skin color—was based on the idea, expressed in the Supreme Court's Dred Scott v. Sandford decision of 1857, that "negroes" were "an inferior and subordinate class of beings."
• Despite the Civil War and emancipation, this remained the attitude of most whites; segregation became commonplace—and was codified by white-dominated legislatures. “Jim Crow,” a name taken from a fictional minstrel character, came to be the nickname for America's own system of racial apartheid.
• When Black people traveled—in uniform—they often were not allowed to use restrooms at bus terminals and gas stations, and instead were directed to a nearby tree.

Explore the history of post-Civil War segregation in America and its impact on black Americans' struggle for equality. Learn about the legal and societal barriers that perpetuated racial injustice during this period.