Segregation

When the North's Union army won the American Civil War (1861–65) and the United States ratified the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1865, the institution of slavery was dissolved. As such a centuries-old structure of race relations in the South was removed. Though the concept of freedom looked hopeful to the former slaves, the dominating white society resisted any suggestion that free meant equal.

Southern states worked quickly to enact pieces of legislation called Black Codes . These laws defined the new social status of blacks in southern society. In most instances the Black Codes acknowledged certain rights that came with freedom, but limited them.

Congress passed several civil rights laws to undo the limitations of the Black Codes. The nation also adopted the Fourteenth Amendment

and Fifteenth Amendment to require equal rights under the law. Southerners responded by creating a social system of segregation. Through both legal and customary means, whites protected their economic and social advantages by separating themselves from blacks.

Segregation laws allowed racial designations to be separate for blacks and whites in public restaurants, hotels, transportation systems, schools, churches, and even residential areas. Patrons could be separated by race within different areas of the same establishment, or an establishment could be dedicated to serving only one race or the other. Sometimes access to a public park or theater was limited by race to certain times or performances. Customs, state laws, city ordinances, and company policies each played a role in establishing segregation as the norm in all aspects of public life.

Black Americans challenged segregation through petitions, sit-ins , boycotts, and court challenges. There were many white supremacist groups, however, like the Ku Klux Klan , devoted to keeping social advantages for whites. Blacks who challenged the system risked violent and often deadly retaliation from these groups.

For decades American courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court , found no legal basis for changing segregation laws. Court decisions upheld every kind of segregation policy, which opened the door for other discriminatory statutes and practices. As long as “separate but equal” facilities existed for the black population, courts said there was nothing to be done about segregation. While public facilities for blacks were rarely equal to those for whites, there was little interest among white majorities to change the system. Hence segregation became entrenched in southern living, where blacks effectively were second-class citizens.

Jim Crow

Jim Crow was a popular term used to describe racial segregation. The term alluded to both the legal aspects of segregation as well as the cultural conventions or behaviors that framed social relations between blacks and whites. Jim Crow laws established segregation policies, and Jim Crow signs established black entrances to public areas. Jim Crow was used wherever racial bias was apparent.

The term Jim Crow originated from the performances of a white minstrel, or entertainer, “Thomas Daddy” Rice, in 1828. He created a stage character based on a slave named Jim owned by a Mr. Crow. Rice represented Jim by blackening his face with burnt cork and wearing a ragged costume. Mocking the black race as he performed, Rice sang a song called “Jump Jim Crow.” By the 1830s Rice's performances both popularized the term Jim Crow and propelled blackface minstrelsy into mainstream entertainment.

While segregation took an unyielding hold in the southern states after the American Civil War, such laws began to fade in northern states following the end of slavery in 1865. Though racism still existed, civil rights began to grow for black Americans in the north. Through organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), black Americans continuously challenged the legal limits of separation. Black unions, civic leagues, voter organizations, and nationalist groups all organized to protest the injustices of segregation.

Particularly strong national efforts during the 1950s and 1960s brought about great change in the United States. With a change in policy from the U.S. Supreme Court, separate no longer counted as equal under the law. Legal segregation gradually ended in the latter half of the twentieth century with new congressional legislation and enforcement by the federal government. Now truly free under the law, many black Americans continued working to create equal economic and social opportunity in the United States.