Even before the 1950s and 60s, African Americans still faced a lot of mistreatment. Once segregation was a normal part of life, more and more legal segregation rights took place in society, schools and in the workplace. After the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863 and the 14th amendment was brought into the United States Constitution, blacks were freed from slavery and could now vote. Then, when Jim Crow Laws were then implemented, southern states still had a hold over African Americans even though they were technically free. In the course of the Plessy vs Ferguson case, the court ruled that Jim Crow Laws were constitutional if they were “separate but equal”. Each race would have the same public accommodations, but they had to be …show more content…
The next method that proved to be effective was having the support of the federal government to help integrate schools. On numerous occasions, the US government had to step in to allow black students to go to school, let alone enter the building. Having the military step in and force the schools to let the African American kids attend school was another huge turning point in desegregation. When you look inside document 16, it has pictures and newspaper articles from the Little Rock Nine. The purpose of this document was to examine the impact of using federal troops to get the nine students from Little Rock, Arkansas into Central High School. If you look at the picture on the right, you will see the military officials escorting the nine students to school with their loaded weapons. In the other picture on the left, you can see the angry mothers and parents walking behind them in outrage. So many people were upset by this, which demonstrates how insane it was that the only way to get an education was to have a military escort. Another instance where a black student was denied entry to the school closer to her house just because it was an all-white