Racial segregation
Also called: Segregation laws · Topic: Citizenship: Idea and Indian Law · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 6 "Citizenship"
Meaning
Racial segregation was a system of laws in the southern USA that kept Black and white people apart. In the 1950s, these laws separated the races in railways, buses, theatres, housing, hotels and restaurants. Martin Luther King Jr. argued that segregation wounded Black people, harmed white people too, and set up artificial barriers that blocked the country from working together.
Example
Some towns closed public parks rather than open them to Black people, and some baseball teams were disbanded. The Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education (1954) was a major step against segregation.
Don't confuse with
- Apartheid: this was South Africa's system of racial separation (1948-1994), under which Black people were also denied the vote and property. Segregation was the American system.