Segregation, which kept blacks and whites separate in their social relations, developed in the aftermath of Reconstruction as a system of race control and oppression. Its constitutionality was questioned and then affirmed in the infamous Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896, in which the Supreme Court made “separate but equal” legal—blacks and whites could be segregated, so long as separate facilities were provided. Until the 1950s, therefore, segregation on streetcars and railroad carriages, and at movie theaters grew throughout the South despite intermittent protests. Under the regime commonly referred to as “Jim Crow” in the South, separate public schools, washrooms, water fountains and park benches were established for blacks and whites, while churches, clubs and neighborhoods echoed this division.

In the North de facto segregation also existed, with blacks commonly required to sit in balconies at neighborhood movie theaters in cities like Chicago, IL, or excluded from downtown hotels and restaurants. Restrictive covenants kept blacks out of white neighborhoods, while unions and employers also enforced divisions of race and class.

Challenges to segregation came early nonetheless. Even Plessy v. Ferguson was itself a challenge, while individuals like Ida B. Wells endeavored to fight discrimination through the legal system. In a climate of pervasive lynching, however, such challenges faced a veritable reign of terror. However, the establishment of the NAACP in 1911, and its strong legal department, brought more systematic challenges in the courts. By the 1930s and 1940s, the NAACP had numerous incremental successes, generally challenging instances of segregation where southern states were clearly not providing equal facilities for blacks (e.g. Gaines v. University of Missouri, 1938).

The 1940s also witnessed two other important milestones in changing American apartheid. One was President Truman’s 1948 decision (urged by A. Philip Randolph) to desegregate the armed forces. The other was Branch Rickey’s 1945 signing of Jackie Robinson for the Brooklyn Dodgers, beginning the desegregation of baseball. Both, in turn, profoundly influenced the South. Desegregating army bases increased pressure to integrate areas surrounding US army bases. Similarly northern teams with black players put pressure on the towns hosting their spring training to change.

By the mid-1950s, other challenges to segregation emerged through the Supreme Court and black consumer power. The NAACP made a fullfrontal assault on segregation, persuading the Supreme Court to declare in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) that segregation was “inherently unequal.” Other decisions attacked segregation on interstate travel. But such decisions were meaningless unless they were enforced. It fell to African Americans to test the decisions and make federal and local authorities enforce them. In 1957, at Little Rock, Arkansas, black school children enrolled at Central High School, pushing President Eisenhower to send in troops and federalize the national guard to protect them. In 1960 CORE and SNCC volunteers embarked on freedom rides on interstate buses through the South, forcing Attorney-General Robert Kennedy to intervene.

Meanwhile, attempts were made to pressure businesses and communities. In 1956, in Montgomery AL, E.D. Nixon, the regional representative of the NAACP, orchestrated a bus boycott following the arrest of Rosa Parks. The rise of Martin Luther King, Jr.

during this boycott and its successful conclusion led to the creation of SCLC and further attempts to dismantle segregation. Students, first in North Carolina and then throughout the South, developed the strategy of sit-ins employed at the lunch-counters in stores like Krell’s and Woolworth’s.

The Civil Rights movement successfully destroyed the southern system of segregation. It was not as effective at breaking down less concrete racial barriers in the North, or creating equal and integrated societies. Further, integration was not without its own negative side effects. While some commentators have overly romanticized the segregated communities that existed around schools, colleges and baseball leagues, it is nevertheless true that the black middle class of these segregated communities was greatly disrupted by desegregation. Though members of the segregated elite parlayed their talents into successful positions in previously all-white schools and sporting leagues, the effect also severed the black middle class from the rest of the black community in ways not seen by immigrants who had “escaped” earlier ghettos.