After the
abolition of slavery in the United States and after that the Congress passed three
Constitutional amendments to grant the freedom of the African Americans (13th,
14th and 15th), the Supreme Court handed down a series of
decisions that nullified the work of Congress during Reconstruction. Regarded
by many as second-class citizens, blacks were separated from whites by law and
by private action in transportation, public accommodations, recreational
facilities, prisons, armed forces, and schools in both Northern and Southern
states. In 1896 the Supreme Court approved the H.A. Plessy v. J.H. Ferguson
decision, which doctrine was “Separate
but Equal” that claimed not violate the U.S. Constitution's Fourteenth
Amendment.
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Source: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/brown/brown-segregation.html
