View source for Separate but equal

{{Short description|Discredited US legal doctrine used for racial segregation}}
{{For|the film about the ''Brown v. Board of Education'' trial|Separate but Equal (film)}}
{{segregation}}
'''Separate but equal''' was a legal doctrine in [[United States constitutional law]], according to which [[Racial segregation in the United States|racial segregation]] did not necessarily violate the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]], which nominally guaranteed "equal protection" under the law to all people. Under the doctrine, as long as the facilities provided to each [[Race and ethnicity in the United States|race]] were equal, state and local governments could require that services, facilities, [[Public accommodations in the United States|public accommodations]], housing, medical care, education, employment, and transportation be segregated by race, which was already the case throughout the states of the former [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]]. The phrase was derived from a Louisiana law of 1890, although the law actually used the phrase "equal but separate".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/1-segregated/separate-but-equal.html|title=Separate but Equal – Separate Is Not Equal|website=americanhistory.si.edu}}</ref>

The doctrine was confirmed in the ''[[Plessy v. Ferguson]]'' Supreme Court decision of 1896, which allowed state-sponsored segregation. Though segregation laws existed before that case, the decision emboldened segregation states during the [[Jim Crow laws|Jim Crow era]], which had commenced in 1876, and supplanted the [[Black Codes (United States)|Black Codes]], which restricted the [[Civil and political rights|civil rights]] and [[civil liberties]] of African Americans during the [[Reconstruction era]].

In practice, the separate facilities provided to African Americans were rarely equal; usually they were not even close to equal, or they did not exist at all.<ref>{{cite news
|title=Rep John Lewis tells National Book awards how he was refused entry to library because he was black
|newspaper=[[Washington Post]]
|date=November 17, 2017
|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/nov/17/rep-john-lewis-national-book-awards-refused-entry-to-library-because-black
|first=Alison
|last=Flood}}</ref> For example, in the [[1930 United States census|1930 census]], black people were 42% of Florida's population,<ref>{{cite web
|page=13
|url=https://www2.census.gov/prod2/statcomp/documents/1931-02.pdf
|title=Statistical abstract of the United States
|publisher=[[Bureau of the Census]], [[United States Department of Commerce]]
|year=1931}}</ref> yet according to the 1934–1936 report of the Florida Superintendent of Public Instruction, the value of "white school property" in the state was $70,543,000, while the value of African American school property was $4,900,000. The report says that "in a few south Florida counties and in most north Florida counties many Negro schools are housed in churches, shacks, and lodges, and have no toilets, water supply, desks, blackboards, etc. Counties use these schools as a means to get State funds and yet these counties invest little or nothing in them." At that time, high school education for African Americans was provided in only 28 of Florida's 67 counties.<ref>{{citation
|page=130
|title=Florida. A Guide to the Southernmost State
|author=Federal Writers Project
|place=New York
|publisher=Oxford University Press
|date=1939}}</ref> In 1939–1940, the average salary of a white teacher in Florida was $1,148, whereas for a black teacher it was $585.<ref>{{citation
|page=3
|title=Report on the Educational Opportunities for Negroes in Florida, 1941
|publisher=State Archives of Florida: Collection M86-11, Box 04, Folder 5
|date=April 9, 1941
|url=https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/329093
|author=Florida Education Association
|author-link=Florida Education Association
}}</ref> 
In 1930s Pampano, Florida: 
<blockquote>During the era of segregation, the myth was that the races were separated but were  provided equal facilities. No one believed it. Almost without exception, black students were given inferior buildings and instructional materials. Black educators were generally paid less than their white counterparts and had more students in their classrooms.... In 1938, Pompano white schools collectively had one teacher for every 25 students, while the [[Pompano Colored School]] had one teacher for every 54 students. At the Hammondville School, the single teacher employed there had 67 students.<ref>{{cite news
|title=Schools of Pompano
|first=Daniel T.
|last=Hobby
|url=http://journals.fcla.edu/browardlegacy/article/download/82238/79349
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150529015034/http://journals.fcla.edu/browardlegacy/article/download/82238/79349
|archive-date=May 29, 2015
|magazine=Broward Legacy
|pages=21–25
|year=2012
|access-date=July 31, 2024}}</ref></blockquote>

Because new research showed that segregating students by race was harmful to them, even if facilities were equal, "separate but equal" facilities were found to be [[Constitutionality|unconstitutional]] in a series of [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] decisions under Chief Justice [[Earl Warren]], starting with ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'' of 1954.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/5-decision/courts-decision.html|title=The Court's Decision – Separate Is Not Equal|website=americanhistory.si.edu|access-date=2019-09-26}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/brown-v-board|title=Documents Related to Brown v. Board of Education|date=2016-08-15|website=National Archives|language=en|access-date=2019-09-26}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.oyez.org/justices/earl_warren|title=Earl Warren|website=Oyez|language=en|access-date=2019-09-26}}</ref> However, the subsequent overturning of segregation laws and practices was a long process that lasted through much of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, involving federal legislation (especially the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]]), and many court cases.

==Background==

The [[American Civil War]] brought [[History of slavery in the United States|slavery in the United States]] to an end with the ratification of the [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Thirteenth Amendment]] in 1865.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://railroads.unl.edu/blog/?p=31 |title=How Slavery Ended in the Civil War |author=Williams G. Thomas |publisher=[[University of Nebraska–Lincoln]] |date=June 24, 2008}}</ref> Following the war, the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment]] guaranteed equal protection under the law to all people, and Congress established the [[Freedmen's Bureau]] to assist in the integration of former slaves into Southern society. The [[Reconstruction era|Reconstruction Era]] brought new freedoms and laws promoting racial equality to the South. However, after the [[Compromise of 1877]] ended Reconstruction and withdrew federal troops from all Southern states, many former slaveholders and Confederates were elected to office. The Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed equal protection to all people but Southern states contended that the requirement of equality could be met in a way that kept the races separate. Furthermore, the state and federal courts tended to reject the pleas by African Americans that their Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated, arguing that the Fourteenth Amendment applied only to federal, not state, citizenship. This rejection is evident in the [[Slaughter-House Cases]] and [[Civil Rights Cases]].

After the end of Reconstruction, the federal government adopted a general policy of leaving racial segregation up to the individual states. One example of this policy was the second Morrill Act ([[Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act#Expansion|Morrill Act of 1890]]). Before the end of the war, the [[Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act]] (Morrill Act of 1862) had provided federal funding for higher education by each state with the details left to the state legislatures.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage |title=A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774–1875 |publisher=[[Library of Congress]] }}</ref> The 1890 Act implicitly accepted the legal concept of "separate but equal" for the 17 states that had institutionalized segregation.

<blockquote>Provided, That no money shall be paid out under this act to any State or Territory for the support and maintenance of a college where a distinction of race or color is made in the admission of students, but the establishment and maintenance of such colleges ''separately'' for white and colored students shall be held to be a compliance with the provisions of this act if the funds received in such State or Territory be ''equitably'' divided as hereinafter set forth.<ref>"[http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/agexed/aee501/1890law.html Act of August 30, 1890, ch. 841, 26 Stat. 417, 7 U.S.C. 322 et seq.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090220100345/http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/agexed/aee501/1890law.html |date=February 20, 2009 }}" Act of 1890 Providing for the Further Endowment and Support Of Colleges of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts.</ref><ref>"[http://fdsys.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-104hr2730ih/pdf/BILLS-104hr2730ih.pdf 104th Congress 1st Session, H. R. 2730]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}" To eliminate segregationist language from the Second Morrill Act.</ref>
</blockquote>

In [[New York (state)|New York]], courts repealed the local "separate but equal" statute in 1938 and the last school for African-American children in New York was shut down in 1944.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Nearly-70-years-after-Brown-decision-New-York-16828901.php|title=Nearly 70 years after Brown decision, New York schools still separate and unequal|publisher=Times Union|author=Rachel Silberstein|language=English|date=20 February 2022|accessdate=2 October 2023}}</ref>

== Early legal support ==

===Laws===
In the late 1800s, many states of the former Confederacy adopted laws, collectively known as [[Jim Crow laws]], that mandated separation of whites and African Americans. The [[Florida Constitution of 1885]] and [[Constitution of West Virginia|that of West Virginia]] mandated separate educational systems. In Texas, laws required separate water fountains, restrooms, and waiting rooms in railroad stations.<ref>{{cite book
|title=Handbook of Texas Online
|first1=Arnoldo
|last1=De León
|first2=Robert A.
|last2=Calvert
|contribution=Segregation
|access-date=February 25, 2019
|url=http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/pks01
|year=2010
|publisher=[[Texas State Historical Association]]}}</ref> In Georgia, restaurants and taverns could not serve white and "colored" patrons in the same room; separate parks for each race were required, as were separate cemeteries.<ref>{{cite web
|title=Jim Crow Laws. Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, & Kentucky
|first=Jessica
|last=McElrath
|publisher=[[about.com]]
|url=http://afroamhistory.about.com/cs/jimcrowlaws/a/jimcrowlaws.htm
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060212050132/http://afroamhistory.about.com/cs/jimcrowlaws/a/jimcrowlaws.htm
|url-status=dead
|archive-date=2006-02-12
|date=2006}}</ref> These are just examples from a large number of similar laws.

Prior to the Second Morrill Act, 17 states excluded blacks from access to the [[land-grant colleges]] without providing similar educational opportunities. In response to the Second Morrill Act, 17 states established separate [[land-grant colleges]] for blacks which are now referred to as public [[historically black colleges and universities]] (HBCUs). In fact, some states adopted laws prohibiting schools from educating blacks and whites together, even if a school was willing to do so. The constitutionality of such laws was upheld in ''[[Berea College v. Kentucky]] (1908)'' 211 U.S. 45.{{cn|date=January 2022}}

===''Plessy v. Ferguson''===
{{main|Plessy v. Ferguson}}
The legitimacy of such laws under the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth amendment]] was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1896 case of ''[[Plessy v. Ferguson]]'', 163 U.S. 537 (1896). The ''Plessy'' doctrine was extended to the public schools in ''[[Cumming v. Richmond County Board of Education]]'', 175 U.S. 528 (1899).{{cn|date=January 2022}}

[[Image:WhiteTradeOnlyLancasterOhio.jpg|thumb|"We cater to white trade only". A restaurant in [[Lancaster, Ohio]], in 1938. ]]
[[File:Negro drinking at "Colored" water cooler in streetcar terminal, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma by Russell Lee.jpg |thumb|A "colored" drinking fountain in [[Oklahoma City]], 1939]]
In 1892, [[Homer Plessy]], who was of mixed ancestry and appeared to be white, boarded an all-white railroad car between New Orleans and Covington, Louisiana. The conductor of the train collected passenger tickets at their seats. When Plessy told the conductor he was {{fraction|7|8}} white and {{fraction|1|8}} black, he was informed that he had to move to a coloreds-only car. Plessy said he resented sitting in a coloreds-only car and was arrested immediately.{{cn|date=January 2022}}

One month after his arrest, Plessy appeared in court before Judge John Howard Ferguson. Plessy's lawyer, Albion Tourgee, claimed Plessy's 13th and 14th amendment rights were violated. The [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Thirteenth Amendment]] abolished slavery, and the 14th amendment gave equal protection to all under the law.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|year=2009|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EHj_0R2rbxAC&q=%22Equal+Protection+Clause+similarly%22+encyclopedia&pg=PA153|title =Equal protection of the laws|encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of American Law|publisher=Infobase|last=Failinger|first=Marie|editor-first=David Andrew|editor-last=Schultz|pages=152–53|isbn=9781438109916|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200724001052/https://books.google.de/books?id=EHj_0R2rbxAC&pg=PA153&dq=%22Equal+Protection+Clause+similarly%22+encyclopedia&hl=de&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiR3OXkq-TqAhUQiIsKHfiVCyEQ6AEwAHoECAIQAg#v=onepage&q=%22Equal%20Protection%20Clause%20similarly%22%20encyclopedia&f=false|archive-date=July 24, 2020}}</ref>

The Supreme Court decision in ''Plessy v. Ferguson'' formalized the legal principle of "separate but equal". The ruling required "railway companies carrying passengers in their coaches in that State to provide equal, but separate, accommodations for the white and colored races".<ref>{{Cite web|title=Louisiana Separate Car Act, 1890 · Separate not Equal: Plessy v. Ferguson's Influence on Modern Discrimination · The Making of the Modern U.S.|url=http://projects.leadr.msu.edu/makingmodernus/exhibits/show/plessy-v--ferguson-1896/louisiana-separate-car-act--18|access-date=2021-01-22|website=projects.leadr.msu.edu|archive-date=2020-11-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201119211128/http://projects.leadr.msu.edu/makingmodernus/exhibits/show/plessy-v--ferguson-1896/louisiana-separate-car-act--18|url-status=dead}}</ref> Accommodations provided on each railroad car were required to be the same as those provided on the others. Separate railroad cars could be provided. The railroad could refuse service to passengers who refused to comply, and the Supreme Court ruled this did not infringe upon the 13th and 14th amendments.

The "separate but equal" doctrine applied in theory to all public facilities: not only railroad cars but schools, medical facilities, theaters, restaurants, restrooms, and drinking fountains. However, neither state nor Congress put "separate but equal" into the statute books, meaning the provision of equal services to non-whites could not be legally enforced. The only possible remedy was through federal court, but costly legal fees and expenses meant that this was out of the question for individuals; it took an organization with resources, the [[NAACP]], to file and pursue ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]].''{{cn|date=January 2022}}

[[File:JimCrowCar2.jpg|left|thumb|1904 caricature of "White" and "Jim Crow" rail cars by [[John T. McCutcheon]]]]
Equal facilities were unusual. The facilities and social services offered to African Americans were almost always of a lower quality than those offered to white Americans, if they existed at all. Most African-American schools had less public funding per student than nearby white schools; they had old textbooks, discarded by the white schools, used equipment, and poorly paid, prepared, or taught and trained teachers.<ref>{{cite web|title=Black-white student achievement gap persists|publisher=[[NBC News]]|date=July 14, 2009|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna31911075}}</ref> In addition, according to a study conducted by the [[American Psychological Association]], black students are emotionally impaired when segregated at a young age.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Jackson|first=John P.|url=http://archive.org/details/socialscientists0000jack|title=Social scientists for social justice : making the case against segregation|date=2001|publisher=New York : New York University Press|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0-8147-4266-2|location=|pages=113}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Kenneth B. Clark|url=http://archive.org/details/KennethClarkTestimony|title=Kenneth Clark Testimony|date=1951|publisher=|isbn=|location=|pages=16Sa|language=English}}</ref> In Texas, the state established a state-funded law school for white students but none for black students. As previously mentioned, the majority of counties in Florida during the 1930s had no high school for African-American students. African Americans had to pay state and local taxes that were used for the benefit of whites only. (See [[Florida A&M Hospital]] for an example.)

Although the "Separate but Equal" doctrine was eventually overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in ''Brown v. Board of Education'' (1954), the implementation of the changes this decision required was long, contentious, and sometimes violent (see [[massive resistance]] and [[Southern Manifesto]]). While modern legal doctrine interprets the 14th amendment to prohibit ''explicit'' segregation on the basis of race, societal issues surrounding racial discrimination still remain topical (see [[racial profiling]]).{{cn|date=January 2022}}

==Legal rejection==
=== Before Warren Court ===
{{Original research section|date=March 2014}}The repeal of such restrictive laws, generally known as [[Jim Crow laws]], was a key focus of the [[Civil rights movement (1896–1954)|Civil Rights Movement]] prior to 1954. In ''[[Sweatt v. Painter]]'', the Supreme Court addressed a legal challenge to the doctrine when a Texan black student, [[Heman Marion Sweatt]], was seeking admission into the state-supported [[University of Texas School of Law|School of Law]] of the [[University of Texas]]. Since Texas did not have a [[Thurgood Marshall School of Law|law school for black students]], the lower court continued the case for six months so that a state-funded law school for black students (now known as [[Thurgood Marshall School of Law]] at [[Texas Southern University]]) could be created. When further appeals to the [[Texas Supreme Court]] failed, Sweatt, along with the [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People|NAACP]], took the case to the federal courts, before it eventually reached the [[Supreme Court of the United States]]. Here, the original decision was reversed and Sweatt was admitted into the [[University of Texas School of Law]]. This decision was based on the grounds that the separate school failed to qualify as being "equal", because of both quantitative differences, such as its facilities, and intangible factors, such as its isolation from most of the future lawyers with whom its graduates would interact. The court held that, when considering graduate education, intangible factors must be considered as part of "substantive equality". The same day, the Supreme Court in ''[[McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents]]'' ruled that segregation laws in Oklahoma, which had required an African-American graduate student working on a Doctor of Education degree to sit in the hallway outside the classroom door, did not qualify as "separate but equal". These cases ended the "separate but equal" doctrine in graduate and professional education.{{cn|date=January 2022}}

=== The Warren Court ===
In 1953, [[Earl Warren]] became the 14th [[Chief Justice of the United States]], and the [[Warren Court]] started a [[Liberalism in the United States|liberal]] constitutional revolution which outlawed [[racial segregation]] and "separate but equal" throughout the United States in a series of landmark rulings.<ref>E.g., Virginia [[Racial Integrity Act]], Virginia Code § 20–58 and § 20–59</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/5-decision/courts-decision.html|title=The Court's Decision - Separate Is Not Equal|website=americanhistory.si.edu|access-date=2019-10-20}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/73968804.pdf|title=The Warren Court: Completion of a Constitutional Revolution|website=William & Mary Law School Scholarship Repository|access-date=2019-10-20|archive-date=2019-10-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191003223936/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/73968804.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/347us483|title=Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka|website=[[Oyez Project]]|language=en|access-date=2019-10-20}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.oyez.org/cases/1964/515|title=Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States|website=Oyez Project|language=en|access-date=2019-10-20}}</ref>

In ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]] (1954)'' ''347 U.S. 483'' , 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 [[Thurgood Marshall]] (who became the first black Supreme Court Justice in 1967), was successful in challenging the [[Constitutionality|constitutional]] viability of the "separate but equal" doctrine. The [[Warren Court]] voted to overturn sixty years of law that had developed under ''Plessy''. The Warren 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]]. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote in the court opinion:<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />
<blockquote>We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.</blockquote>

Although ''Brown'' overturned the doctrine of "separate but equal" in institutions of public education, it would be almost ten more years before the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]] would prohibit racial discrimination in facilities that were deemed public accommodations (transportation, hotels, etc.).

Additionally, in 1967, under ''[[Loving v. Virginia]]'', the Warren Court declared [[Virginia]]'s [[anti-miscegenation]] statute, the [[Racial Integrity Act of 1924]], unconstitutional, thus invalidating all [[anti-miscegenation laws in the United States]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://www.oyez.org/cases/1966/395|title=Loving v. Virginia|website=Oyez Project|language=en|access-date=2019-10-20}}</ref> Chief Justice [[Earl Warren]] wrote the court majority opinion:<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/388/1|title=Loving v. Virginia|website=LII / [[Legal Information Institute]]|language=en|access-date=2019-10-20}}</ref>

=== After Warren Court ===
In 1975, Jake Ayers Sr. filed a lawsuit against [[Mississippi]], stating that they gave more financial support to the predominantly white public colleges. The state settled the lawsuit in 2002, directing $503 million to three historically black colleges over 17 years.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://politics.gaeatimes.com/2009/11/19/opposition-strong-to-barbours-plan-to-merge-mississippis-3-black-universities-into-1-795/|title=Opposition strong to Barbour's plan to merge Mississippi's 3 black universities into 1|date=November 19, 2009|agency=[[Associated Press]]|access-date=2010-01-21}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Apartheid]] ("separate development")
* [[Anti-miscegenation laws in the United States]]
* [[Federal voting rights in Puerto Rico]]
* [[Jim Crow laws]]
* [[Racial segregation in the United States]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category-inline|Racial segregation in the United States}}
* {{Internet Archive film clip|id=NAACP_South_Carolina|description=''A Study of Educational Inequalities in South Carolina''}}
* [http://topics.law.cornell.edu/wex/Civil_rights Cornell Legal Information Institute]

{{African American topics}}
{{Civil rights movement|state=collapsed}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Separate but equal}}
[[Category:American legal terminology]]
[[Category:American phraseology]]
[[Category:Law of the United States]]
[[Category:African-American segregation in the United States]]
[[Category:Jim Crow]]