LEARNING TOGETHER: The Story of America
The Black Codes and Jim Crow laws that were created right after the Civil War ended made segregation legal and acceptable in America. This meant that our government had absolute controlled over everything that newly freed black slaves and free people of color were allowed to do and where they could go (in the land of the free). To add insult to injury, in 1896, in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, our Supreme Court made it legal to separate the races under the dehumanizing concept of “separate but equal.”
Legal segregation meant that Black Americans were not allowed to attend certain schools, live in certain neighborhoods, obtain certain jobs, visit certain movies theaters, drinking from certain water fountains, nor could Black Americans bury their dead in certain cemeteries, etc. Whites Only and Colored Only signs were boldly displayed with a false sense of entitlement in cities across America. This was especially true in the South where violating any of these laws could get an African American citizen beaten, arrested, run out of town, or murdered.
Noteworthy Fact: Homer A. Plessy was one-eighth Black. He challenged the law that forced him to sit in the black section of the train. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against him. This ruling by the Supreme Court legalized the treatment of Black Americans as second-class citizens.
OUR HISTORY MATTERS
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Is this our future?
