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Article: Desegregation
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
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DESEGREGATION
DESEGREGATION.
Efforts to eliminate the legally required separation of the races in schools, housing, transportation, and other public accommodations began almost as soon as segregation laws were enacted. The Supreme Court upheld a law requiring railroads to provide separate facilities for whites and African Americans in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), holding that the Constitution was not violated by laws requiring facilities that, though separate, were equal. In 1915 the Court indicated that it stood ready to enforce the requirement of equality. But Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada (1938) was the first case in which a state's segregation law was declared ...