Separate but equal

Separate but equal

Separate but equal is a set phrase denoting the system of segregation that justifies giving different groups of people separate facilities or services with the declaration that the quality of each group's public facilities remain equal.

United States

The American Civil War (1861–1865) policy yielded the cessation of most legal slavery in the U.S., upon which the separate but equal laws became officially established throughout the United States and represented the institutionalization of the segregation period. Blacks were entitled to receive the same public services such as schools, bathrooms, and water fountains, but the 'separate but equal' doctrine mandated different facilities for the two groups. The legitimacy of such laws was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1896 case of "Plessy v. Ferguson", "163 U.S. 537."

The facilities and social services exclusive to African-Americans were of lower quality than those reserved for whites; for example, many African-American schools received less public funding per student than nearby white schools.

The repeal of "separate but equal" laws was a key focus of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s. In "Brown v. Board of Education", "347 U.S. 483" (1954), attorneys for the NAACP referred to the phrase "equal but separate" used in "Plessy v. Ferguson" as a custom "de jure" racial segregation enacted into law. The NAACP, led by the soon-to-be first black Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, was successful in challenging the constitutional viability of the separate but equal doctrine, and the court voted to overturn sixty years of law that had developed under "Plessy". The Supreme Court outlawed segregated public education facilities for blacks and whites at the state level. The companion case of "Bolling v. Sharpe", "347 U.S. 497" outlawed such practices at the Federal level in the District of Columbia. In 1967 under "Loving v. Virginia", the United States Supreme Court declared Virginia's anti-miscegenation statute, the "Racial Integrity Act of 1924", unconstitutional, thereby ending all race-based legal restrictions on marriage ("anti-miscegenation laws") in the United States.

ee also

*Racial segregation
*Discrimination
*Jim Crow laws
*Ethnopluralism
*Second-class citizen
*Racism
*Racial segregation in the United States


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  • separate but equal — sep·a·rate but equal / se prət , pə rət / n: the doctrine set forth by the U.S. Supreme Court that sanctioned the segregation of individuals by race in separate but equal facilities but that was invalidated as unconstitutional see also brown v.… …   Law dictionary

  • Separate but equal — (engl. für „getrennt aber gleich“) galt in den Vereinigten Staaten als sozialer und juristischer Grundsatz, der von 1896 bis 1954 in den Südstaaten den als Rassentrennung bezeichneten Umgang mit der afroamerikanischen Minderheit und das… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Separate but Equal — is a 1991 American television movie depicting the landmark Supreme Court desegregation case Brown v. Board of Education , based on the phrase Separate but equal . The film starred Sidney Poitier as lead NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall, Richard… …   Wikipedia

  • separate but equal — adjective : of, relating to, or constituting a doctrine of segregation whereby Negroes and whites have equal facilities (as for education or transportation) the separate but equal doctrine has been directly challenged and the Supreme Court has… …   Useful english dictionary

  • separate but equal — pertaining to a racial policy by which blacks may be segregated if granted equal opportunities and facilities, as for education, transportation, or jobs. * * * …   Universalium

  • separate but equal — A doctrine, since repudiated, which justifies the segregation of races, particularly the white and black races in the public schools, where the accommodations and facilities provided are equal in service and comfort. Anno: 38 ALR2d 1188; 94 L Ed… …   Ballentine's law dictionary

  • equal protection of the law — equal protection of the law: equal protection Merriam Webster’s Dictionary of Law. Merriam Webster. 1996. equal protection of the law …   Law dictionary

  • equal — 1 adj [Latin aequalis, from aequus level, equal] 1: like in quality, nature, or status 2: like for each member of a group, class, or society 3: regarding or affecting all objects in the same way: impartial equal 2 …   Law dictionary

  • Equal Protection Clause — The Equal Protection Clause, part of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, provides that no state shall… deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. [… …   Wikipedia

  • Separate Car Act — The Separate Car Act (Act 111 [Hasian Jr., p. 12] ) is a law passed by the Louisiana State Legislature in 1890 which required equal, but separate train car accommodations for Blacks and Whites.Margo, p. 68] History The Reconstruction period and… …   Wikipedia

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