The system of legal segregation, often termed Jim Crow segregation, governed the relations between white and black people in the South (and elsewhere) from the 1890's until the Civil Rights movement of the 1950's and 60's. The system decreed separation of the races in virtually every aspect of life. Segregation was based on the premise that black people were inferior to whites and should therefore occupy inferior position in society. The system gave white people every available privilege. This was a major reason why many white people fought desegregation tooth and nail.
1954 - Brown v. Board of Education: In the 1950’s, school segregation was widely accepted throughout the nation. In fact, law in most Southern states required it. In 1952, the Supreme Court heard a number of school-segregation cases, including Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. This case decided unanimously in 1954 that segregation was unconstitutional, overthrowing the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling that had set the “separate but equal” precedent.
1955 – Mississippi and the Emmett Till Case: The Supreme Court decision fueled violent segregationist backlash against black citizens by gangs of whites who committed beatings, burnings, and lynchings, usually with impunity, since all-white juries notoriously refused to convict whites for killing blacks. “The usual reasons for murder ranged from stealing food to talking back to a white person” (Williams 39). However, in 1955, two black men were murdered for trying to register black voters. But the case that drew the most national publicity was the murder of 14 year old Emmett Till, a teenager from Chicago who was visiting relatives in Mississippi that summer. On a dare from his pals, Emmett spoke flirtatiously to a white woman, saying “Bye, Baby” as he left a local store. Several nights later the woman’s husband and her brother forced Emmett into their car and drove away. Till’s body was found three days later in the Tallhatchie River. There was barbed wire around his neck, a bullet in his skull, one eye gouged out, and his forehead was crushed on one side. Despite overwhelming evidence of guilt based on eye-witness testimony, Bryant and Milan were found “not guilty” by an all-white, all-male jury. “The murder of Emmett Till had a powerful impact on a new generation of blacks. It was this generation, those who were adolescents when Till was killed, that would soon demand justice and freedom in a way unknown in America before” (Williams 57).
