James Lee Dickey: An Analysis of One African-American's Leadership in Jim Crow Texas

Separate But Equal

Meanwhile, the stranglehold on Negroes tightened with the Supreme Court ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)  in which the Court determined that separate facilities for Negroes did not violate the 14th amendment as long as facilities were available. Justice Brown opined that social prejudices may not be “overcome by legislation” and that “social equality…must be the result of natural affinities.” In Justice Harlan’s  dissent, he prophesied that prohibiting racial mixing in railcars would also segregate streets, juries, and political assemblies. With this case, Negroes lost any legal opportunity for equality. Both Booker T. Washington and Justice Brown underestimated the irrational hatred instilled by Justice Roger Taney in the Dred Scott case (1857) in which the Taney court officially denied humanity much less civil liberties to Negroes.
 

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