Richmond (Ga.) County Board of Education)ġ908 The Supreme Court upholds a state's authority to require a private college to operate on a segregated basis despite the wishes of the school.

The ruling, built on notions of white supremacy and black inferiority, provides legal justification for Jim Crow laws in southern states.ġ899 The Supreme Court allows a state to levy taxes on black and white citizens alike while providing a public school for white children only. Ferguson, finding Louisiana's 'separate but equal' law constitutional. Because the Civil War is ongoing, the Proclamation has little practical effect.ġ865 The Civil War ends the Thirteenth Amendment is enacted to abolish slavery.ġ868 The Fourteenth Amendment is ratified, guaranteeing 'equal protection under the law' citizenship is extended to African Americans.ġ875 Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which bans racial discrimination in public accommodations.ġ883 The Supreme Court strikes down the Civil Rights Act of 1875 finding that discrimination by individuals or private businesses is constitutional.ġ890 Louisiana passes the first Jim Crow law requiring separate accommodations for Whites and Blacks.ġ896 The Supreme Court authorizes segregation in Plessy v. The Civil War begins.ġ863 President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves in Southern states. Supreme Court will later use this case to support the 'separate but equal' doctrine.ġ857 With the Dred Scott decision, the Supreme Court upholds the denial of citizenship to African Americans and rules that descendants of slaves are 'so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.'ġ861 Southern states secede from the Union. 1849 The Massachusetts Supreme Court rules that segregated schools are permissible under the state's constitution.

Brown vs board of education effects