Supreme Court and the End of Segregation

Jim Crow and the Segregation of Schools

The Jim Crow era lasted from after the Civil War, i.e., roughly around the late 19th century, to the mid-20th century in the United States. It was characterized by a series of policies at the state and local laws enforcing racial segregation, particularly in the Southern states. One of the most significant and pernicious aspects of this era was the segregation of schools, a policy that was a symbol and expression of the overall system of institutionalized forms of racism and inequality in the country.

The main responsibility for the segregation of schools lay with state and local governments. Following the end of Reconstruction in 1877, Southern states began to pass laws mandating separate schools for black and white students. These laws were part of a set of Jim Crow laws that segregated public spaces and accommodations (Sandoval-Strausz). State and local governments were responsible for seeing to it that white students attended white schools and black students attended black schools. It was basically a form of apartheid in education, but it was par for the course in America at the time, where diners were segregated, bus seating was segregated, bathrooms were segregated and so on.

The U.S. Supreme Court played a big role in cementing school segregation. In the landmark case Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the Court upheld a Louisiana law requiring separate railway cars for blacks and whites, establishing the doctrine of “separate but equal.” This doctrine was quickly applied to schools, giving legal backing to segregation (PBS). Another significant case was Cumming v. Richmond County Board of Education (1899), where the Supreme Court upheld the closure of a black public school to save money, and suggested that if there were no public school for African Americans, black students could attend private schools (Driver).

For much of this period, the federal government played a largely passive role, failing to challenge state and local segregation laws. This lack of intervention basically made it look like the federal government condoned the policies and allowed them to exist. Even in Washington, D.C., which was under federal jurisdiction, schools were segregated, and so the very heart of the nation reflected the nature of this policy.

The experiences of African Americans during and after World War II, along with the growing Civil Rights Movement, began to change public opinion and political attitudes towards segregation. A major turning point was the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which declared that state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students were unconstitutional. This decision was a significant step forward towards equality but it faced a lot of resistance at the state and local levels (Driver).

Following Brown v. Board of Education, many Southern states engaged in massive resistance to desegregation. State and local governments passed laws to bypass, delay, or outright defy the mandate to desegregate schools (PBS). It was not until the late 1950s and 1960s, following demonstrations from the Little Rock Nine in Arkansas and many others, that the federal government began to take a more active role in enforcing school desegregation, including the use of federal troops and national guardsmen in some instances.