In the 1950s, the United States was divided. The law said that black and white people must stay separated. This is called segregation. Blacks and whites ate at separate restaurants. They used different swimming pools. They drank from separate water fountains. If a black person went into a place for whites, he or she could be put in jail.
The end of slavery
Slavery came to an end after the Civil War. It was fought from 1860 to 1865. The war was between the Northern and Southern states. Many Southern states broke away from the United States. They separated from the North after the United States outlawed slavery. They wanted to be able to keep on owning slaves.
When the Civil War ended, the black slaves became free.
Still, many white people had prejudice against black people. People have prejudice if they think a group of people are bad or not smart. Many white people in the South lost power after the Civil War. They wanted power back. They created new laws to keep black people from power. The Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. It made a ruling in 1896. It was called Plessy v. Ferguson. The ruling said that America could have separate places for black and white people. It was OK to keep the people apart, the ruling said. People just needed to be treated equally. But black people did not get fair treatment.
Unequal treatment in schools
…show more content…
By the 1950s, Southern states had carefully built separate school systems: one for whites, one for blacks. But these schools were never treated equally. The state governments gave more money to white schools. Teachers in white schools were paid more money. School buildings for white students were nicer. White schools got more money for school supplies. Thurgood Marshall was a famous lawyer. He led a group for African-Americans. They wanted to end segregation. The group brought a court case against public schools across the South. The group said the black schools were not treated