Pre-Brown

In 1857 the U.S. Supreme Court held in the infamous Dred Scott decision that a free African-American could not become a citizen. Though overruled by the 14th Amendment in 1868, this decision set the stage for many years of racist and discriminatory treatment of African-Americans. Over the next 20 to 30 years, this treatment was institutionalized in the Jim Crow laws mandating racial segregation. The Supreme Court weighed in again, in 1896, holding in Plessy v. Ferguson that “separate but equal” facilities for African-American and white railroad passengers did not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Justice Harlan, the lone dissenter, stated that “the arbitrary separation of citizens, on the basis of race, while they are on a public highway, is a badge of servitude wholly inconsistent with the civil freedom and the equality before the law established by the constitution.” Some 58 years later, this argument became part of the majority reasoning in Brown v. Board of Education.

• Plessy v. Ferguson

• History of Jim Crow

• Timeline of Events Leading to Brown

• Images of American Political History

• African American Odyssey: Quest for Citizenship

• Law & Race in the U.S.: Outline for Understanding