and justice systems of America. Both of these elements reinforced the separation of whites and blacks. Slavery existed in the U.S. from its beginnings, but it was during the 1800s segregation became sanctioned by federal law. In 1857, the infamous Dred Scott case resulted in the Supreme Court declaring “that blacks could never be citizens” (Segregation 1). In 1883, the Supreme Court once again legally sanctioned segregation by refusing to allow Congress the right to intervene in private instances of it. In The Civil Rights Cases, the Supreme Court declared “that Congress had no power to prevent private acts of discrimination” (Segregation 2).
Of course, segregation was at its worst in the South, even though the Jim Crow Laws responsible for the spread of segregation were first developed in the North. These laws were adopted by many Southern states to the point that the entire South would be completely segregated at the start of World War II. These laws were nothing but disguised racism. In an effort to keep blacks relegated to an inferior group of individuals, especially as a means of robbing them of any political, educational, economic or legal voice, states used these laws to legally sanction the denial of Constitutional rights to blacks. These laws ranged from denial of voting rights to absurd denials of equal use of public facilities for blacks and whites. Often, they were akin to what in retrospect can only be labeled an insanity brought about by a nation with deeply rooted and reinforced prejudice and fear:
Jim Crow Laws, first developed in a few Northern states in the early 1800s, were adopted by many Southern states in the late 1800s. These segregation laws required that whites and blacks use separate public facilities. No detail was too small. At one time, for example, Oklahoma required that whites and blacks use separate telephone booths. Arkansas specified separate gambling tables, and many court...