This began to dismantle the Plessy v. Ferguson precedent of “separate but equal.”
This case study for Paper 1 focuses on the period 1954–1964.
However, to understand the basis and structure of systemic racism in the US, we must look back to the second half of the 19th century.
We will also study:
Different strategies and organizations that led legal challenges.
Small-scale activism before 1954.
The post-1954 era of widespread mass protests, which challenged deeply resistant U.S. institutions and demanded full equality for African Americans.
Background
During the American Civil War (1861–65), President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation (1863).
It declared all enslaved people in Confederate-held territory to be free.
This shifted the Civil War’s focus to include the abolition of slavery as a Union war aim.
After the Civil War, the Constitution was amended:
13th Amendment (1865): Abolished slavery.
14th Amendment (1868): Granted citizenship and equal protection under the law.
15th Amendment (1870): Secured voting rights regardless of race or former enslavement.
Note
Amendments are a formal change or addition to the U.S. Constitution that modifies its original text to expand, limit, or clarify the rights and powers of government or citizens.
They are proposed either by a two-thirds vote in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, or by a constitutional convention called by two-thirds of state legislatures. To become law, they must then be ratified by three-fourths of the states (either by state legislatures or state conventions).
This shows that the issuing of the 13th, 14th and 15th had significant consensus, but it also shows that laws were needed to combat racism and discrimination that was present in spite of the Civil War abolishing slavery.
Civil Rights Act
1866: The US Congress passed the Civil Rights Act to protect the civil rights of newly freed African Americans after the Civil War.
The Act granted citizenship to all persons born in the United States (except Native Americans).
It guaranteed equal rights to make contracts, own property, and access the courts.
Despite this, there was no sustained political will to enforce the Act.
Backlash and violence against African Americans undermined efforts for equality.
This led to the erosion of African American rights, as Supreme Court rulings weakened the 14th Amendment and allowed states to impose discriminatory laws.
The erosion of rights was cemented through the Jim Crow laws.
These laws developed after the end of Reconstruction and continued through the early 20th century.
They were enacted by state and local legislatures, especially in the Southern United States.
Jim Crow laws were passed by Southern state governments, dominated by white legislators.
Their aim was to legally enforce racial segregation and disenfranchise African Americans.
Note
The term “Jim Crow” originated from a 19th-century minstrel show character.
“Jim Crow” was originally the name of a fictional black character created and performed by white minstrel show actor Thomas Dartmouth “Daddy” Rice in the 1830s.
Rice performed a song-and-dance routine called “Jump Jim Crow,” using exaggerated and racist stereotypes of Black people.
The character became wildly popular and the name “Jim Crow” came to be a derogatory term for African Americans.
Jim Crow Laws
Jim Crow laws legalized racial segregation, enforcing it in public facilities such as schools, transportation, restaurants, restrooms, and drinking fountains.
This was justified under the doctrine of “separate but equal”, upheld by the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision.
These laws systematically disenfranchised African Americans through literacy tests, poll taxes, grandfather clauses, and intimidation.
In practice, this prevented African Americans from voting or holding office, despite the protections of the 15th Amendment. (We will elaborate on this in a later section.)
Jim Crow created deep economic disadvantages by restricting access to quality education, fair employment, land ownership, and public services.
African Americans were pushed into low-paying jobs and lived under constant threat of racial violence, including lynching. (We will elaborate on this in a later section.)
Many were trapped in sharecropping and debt peonage systems, often under conditions resembling slavery.
Southern states also exploited Black prisoners for forced labor in agriculture and industry.
Compliance with Jim Crow was maintained not only by the legal system but also through extrajudicial violence by groups such as the Ku Klux Klan.
Any Black person who challenged the system, whether by attempting to vote, using a “white” facility, or asserting their rights, risked harassment, arrest, or even death.
It is important to note that while Jim Crow laws operated in the South, Northern companies like US Steel benefited from convict labor, despite publicly claiming abolitionist principles.
The federal government largely ignored this institutionalized exploitation.
Historiography
Why did Jim Crow laws were passed in the South with the compliance of the North?
Eric Foner, a leading historian of Reconstruction, argues that Jim Crow arose after the failure of Reconstruction and the withdrawal of federal troops in 1877.
The North’s waning commitment to enforcing Black civil rights allowed Southern states to impose segregation laws with little resistance.
He highlights Northern fatigue with Southern issues and political compromises that prioritized national unity over racial justice.
For C. Vann Woodward, in his classic work The Strange Career of Jim Crow (1955), he argued that Jim Crow was not an inevitable development but a deliberate political choice by white Southern elites to restore white supremacy after Reconstruction.
He also points out that many Northern politicians and business interests ignored or tolerated segregation because they prioritized economic ties and national reconciliation over racial equality.
Glenda Gilmore focuses on how Northern indifference or complicity in Jim Crow’s rise was partly due to racial prejudices present across the country, not just in the South.
In Gender and Jim Crow: Women and the Politics of White Supremacy in North Carolina, 1896-1920 (1996), she explores the broader cultural acceptance of segregation and racial control.