Assess the Short Term Impact of the Supreme Court’s Decision in Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896) Between 1896 and 1914

Assess the short term impact of the Supreme Court’s decision in Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896) between 1896 and 1914

It is clear that Plessy was a landmark case in the history of the. USA and the approval of segregation by the Supreme Court impacted on African Americans for several generations after the event. However it is important to look at how Plessy affected people at the time, how rapid and how reaching was the impact, and what kinds of impacts were there? Were they all bad? From the analysis of both primary and secondary sources it is clear that several key themes occur. Most sources agree, Separate but equal, was extremely degrading for African Americans leaving the race feeling humiliated, but this humiliation may have led to a “new generation of African American entrepreneurs” . However some sources point to an increase in the consciousness of African Americans about their civil rights and this can be seen by the formation of the NAACP and a protest over the segregation of federal employee’s by the Equal National Rights league in 1914. This may be as a result of the spread of segregation to almost every aspect of life.

Sanders writes that “by 1900 southern public transport, churches, theatres, parks and beaches were segregated” . This idea of the spread of segregation to every human activity is supported by George Brown Tindall and David Emory when they write “Extremists had proceeded from an undiscriminating attack upon the Negros ballot to a like attack upon his schools, his labour and his life” . By extremists it can be inferred that they are referring to a significant percentage of southern whites, many of whom held an extreme prejudice against African Americans. The attack on the ballot refers to voting laws such as the grandfather clause, his schools would undoubtedly mean the segregation of schools. "His labour” means a spreading of segregation to the workplace. “His life” is perhaps the most interesting term they use and suggests that segregation...