The segregation laws arose as a result of fear of African Americans being able to be equal to whites. Many white Southerners saw blacks as financial opponents in the employment market, as many blacks were being given jobs because of they were willing to work for a lower wage. Furthermore, they believed that African Americans were the natural lower class and should always be so. Also, the theory of Social Darwinism strengthened their beliefs; this theory applied Charles Darwin’s concept of evolution to humans and races, in the idea that only the fittest races would survive and the others would die out. Therefore, it justified their racist beliefs of African Americans and other non-white races, especially for whites who felt guilty about their treatment of other races. In addition, white southerners who were hesitant about the segregation laws were being convinced that the laws would help evade race riots and violence. These beliefs of countless white Southerners were significant in the development of more formal segregation laws.
Carrying on, the actions of the Supreme Court were significant in allowing the racist white Southerners to enforce the segregation laws and didn’t do much to stop them. When many cases, regarding the segregation laws in action, were brought to the Supreme Court, it would rule the laws as constitutional. For example, in Plessy v Ferguson (1896) a mixed race man went to the Supreme Court when he was refused a seat in white railway carriage; however the Supreme Court ruled the segregation as constitutional. The case set the precedent for other segregation cases, such as US v Cruikshank (1876).
Furthermore, most African Americans didn’t seem to be challenging the status quo. Some were intimidated by white Southerners and racist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, who frightened blacks against speaking out. They wanted to avoid the violence. Also, people like Booker T. Washington accepted the idea of white supremacy and there weren’t other leaders to guide African Americans into gaining their rights in reality, not just in theory. In addition, blacks had lost the support of the Northern states, which had lost the Radical Republicans. They were now controlled by the moderate Republicans, who were only interested in gaining votes from African Americans. However, voting amongst blacks was in a decline, due to racist white campaigns of preventing African Americans voting, in the same way they applied segregation. Therefore, blacks couldn’t gain attention to their situation through voting for someone who would be interested in helping them.
In conclusion, the development of the formal segregation of African Americans, in the south after the Reconstruction Period happened because of racist white Southerners wanting to make sure their future was firm, due to the threat of African Americans being free and able to be equal to them. They believed that whites were to be dominant and that was the way it should be. The segregation laws ensured that white Southerners would stay dominant. However, the US government, in the form of the Supreme Court, made certain that formal segregation laws could develop in the south due to its constant rulings that the segregation laws were constitutional; it was significant in allowing the racist Southern states to keep African Americans segregated from whites. Also, perhaps if African Americans, themselves, had done more to actually gain their rights in reality and fought against segregation instead of accepting it, the laws may have not become so formal. But they didn’t have he support needed, which is why the segregation laws weren’t questioned in the beginning.