Plessy v. Ferguson rules that "separate but equal" is unconstitutional

It wasn't until Brown vs. Board of Education until the ruling on "separate but equal" was reversed.

What if we had that same decision all the way back in 1896? How does this affect civil rights and race relations?
 
Since this is speculating about nebulous stuff-- like the relation between government policy on social issues (like racism) and how society behaves-- it's much more complicated than "what if Pickett didn't charge?".

But more fun!

If Mencken's take on Southern White American mindsets can be trusted, it seems a big motivation in areas with large numbers of Blacks was to maintain white supremacy. So if the Federal government really was willing to enforce integration of public institutions from 1896 on, you would have seen an early version of "white flight" from public institutions (like schools), then no doubt starving them of public money ("equally"), while a parallel system of private schools would have come about for those who could afford them. Private splendor and public squalor, American-style.

Wow, to have had education go the way that school systems did in most big cities in the 1960s and 70s -- but sixty years earlier, and in huge swathes of the country. The mind reels, and I say this as someone who likes American public schools.

Thinking about it again, though, around 1900 kids, white and black, were more willing to submit to the full authority of teachers (or else!), so maybe "integration" wouldn't have become a synonym for "mayhem". Maybe it could have been a success, the way integration of the armed forces was. That would have been nice.
 
Plessy v Fergusson was about separate passenger cars for Blacks.
This means that the Supremes hold that seperate Commerical accommodations for Blacks is Un Consitutional.
This gets rid of separate Facilities for Black across the board , No white- black Water fountains, Separate lunch Counters, Back of the Bus seating etc.
I think it removes all De Jure Segregation, that developed over the next 30 years. [It does nothing about De facto Segregation - like whe have today]
Remembre Non Segergation is NOT Integration, nor did the 1954 decision call for Integration

The next big challenge for this Court would be a Inter-Racial Marriage case.
OTL in 1964, the Supremes used the Marriage Case to declare Race -An Insidious Distinction, and struck down all Race Based Laws.
I Most Seriously doubt the Supremes in the early 1900's going that far.
 
well, given that in OTL the case was 7-1 (Justice Brewer, did not take part in the case) it'll take a POD to change that, i am not saying it's ASB but given the ruling in OTL and the views of the day it's unlikely Plessy V Ferguson could of gone any other way, the Court in those days was unlikely the court today, the court today see it's self as bound to the Constitution and little else (as it should be) then the Court was more interested in up holding the social norms
 
So if the Federal government really was willing to enforce integration of public institutions from 1896 on, you would have seen an early version of "white flight" from public institutions (like schools), then no doubt starving them of public money ("equally"), while a parallel system of private schools would have come about for those who could afford them. Private splendor and public squalor, American-style.

I disagree, actually. Sure, this might happeni n the south, but the palce spent astonishingly little on education in this period anyway.

But prior to the Great Migration, it wouldn't be an issue in the North.
 
Hmmm, could we see possibly also earlier versions of Litterock 1957 or Ole Miss 1961, with US Marshals and federal troops being sent in to protect black students from white mob violence in enforcement of such a court ruling ? I'd like to think so, but heck, I doubt any Washington administration's desire to actively enforce civil rights at bayonet point at that time, together with the unwillingness of alot of white lawmen and National Guardsmen to protect blacks from lynch mobs during that era :(
 
Hmmm, could we see possibly also earlier versions of Litterock 1957 or Ole Miss 1961, with US Marshals and federal troops being sent in to protect black students from white mob violence in enforcement of such a court ruling ? I'd like to think so, but heck, I doubt any Washington administration's desire to actively enforce civil rights at bayonet point at that time, together with the unwillingness of alot of white lawmen and National Guardsmen to protect blacks from lynch mobs during that era :(

Oh, I wouldn't be so sure. Grant was willing to send the army in to bust the KKK at one point, for instance.

What's usually forgotten is that the barrage of Civil Rights legislation forbidding, for instance, discrimination in housing, employment, etc. in the South after the Civil War came in part because of support from White Republicans.

Now I will grant that the Southerners who instituted a campaign of terror and force to destroy democracy were firmly opposed, but IMO it's not as insurmountable as you'd think.
 
North-South tensions grow and the plight of Blacks in the South is no longer hidden. I envision more outright conflict, perhaps leading to riots and even small uprisings. The US may be weakened or at least more focused on its own affairs, and maybe never enters WWI... but that's if you want to take this TL that far.
 
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