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Before the civil rights movement, there was racial segregation in America. Everything, such as housing, education, employment, transportation and even medical care was legally or socially enforced by separating the African-Americans by the white race. This meant the physical separation of all facilities, but it can more precisely be termed as discrimination because of the color of a person’s skin. This discrimination was practiced even within the US army, where black units were separated from whites, but was led by white officers. At Best Essay Forum, we provide the best essay papers, reports and critical thinking assignments for our clients, which are 100% Plagiarism free as our professional writers write them. Essay papers, reports and critical thinking assignments are written by qualified degree holders of Bachelors, Masters and PhD. They produce your academic assignments with much attention, fulfilling the requirements.
Racial segregation in the United States was mostly authorized and imposed law until Supreme Court judgments put an end to these discriminatory practices. In a landmark decision “Brown vs. Board of Education” in 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that separate public schools were against the constitution. This historic Supreme Court decision overturned the earlier decision of “Plessey v. Ferguson” in 1896, which upheld state laws requiring racial segregation in all things, following a policy of “separate but equal”. In 1867, the United States Constitution was amended to include the Fifteenth Amendment, giving blacks the right to vote and elect their own political leaders.
This was followed by the Civil Rights Act of 1875, prohibiting discrimination in housing on the basis of color. These Reconstructed amendments enforced the preeminence of the national state and termed that everyone was equal under the law. The disintegration of the reconstruction amendments was a political move that became popular in the southern states. Most of the white voters in the south were farmers, and disliked the idea of blacks voting, as that vote could be used against the whites. Racists quoted the theory of “Social Darwinism” for segregation. This theory maintains that because nature dictates the survival of the fittest, the white man deserves to dominate political and economic power.
This was a period of widespread unrest because of indecision of the importance of the farming sector. Challenges to the Democrat power were common until the end of the 19th century. Believers in white supremacy, such as the Ku Klux Klan used violence against black political leaders to upset the vote of the Republicans. For exercising their constitutional right to vote, or for being members of the political organization and even attending school many blacks were killed. Disenfranchisement of blacks was at first carried out without a direct violation of the Fifteenth Amendment. This included levying taxes and other qualifications which would discourage the black voters, but, in essence, did not deny the right to vote on the basis of color.