Today, most students in American schools don't have to think twice about sharing a rug, a drinking fountain, or a bathroom with a peer class of a different race. However, this was not always the case. Until the 1950s, students were segregated by skin color under Jim Crow laws. This meant that African American students had to sit at the back of the bus and give up their seat to a white student if asked. It also meant that black and white students would never share the same bathroom, playground equipment, dining table, or even the same school building. Although the practice of school segregation was finally abolished in 1954, up until that point racial minorities faced many frustrating and unjust discriminatory practices that set the stage for the subsequent Civil Rights Movement. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay “Separate but equal” was the justification given under a legal doctrine in United States constitutional law that people of color were treated differently than their Caucasian counterparts. The doctrine held that as long as people of color were afforded equal access to the same facilities and opportunities, they could receive these services and opportunities separately from their white peers. While this may have seemed like a fair accommodation to the government at the time, many of the structures and opportunities – especially in education – were not, in reality, equal. They were usually not even close to equality and often times didn't exist at all. While white schools received ample government funding, better infrastructure, and school supplies, black education was often provided in churches or small shacks without furniture, restrooms, or even blackboards (Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, n.d.). Laws that allowed the segregation of blacks and whites became known as “Jim Crow laws.” Jim Crow laws were essentially local-level laws (including state laws) that allowed and required the segregation of whites and people of color. These laws not only allowed the segregation of schools, but also of train cabins, buses, housing units, restaurants, drinking fountains, restrooms, motels, theaters, and financial institutions (lending practices differed for blacks and whites). The laws also allowed for unfair treatment by unions and discriminatory hiring practices. Federal workplaces were even racially segregated in 1913, due to a ruling by President Woodrow Wilson. In a sense, the Black Codes of the 1860s were revived through Jim Crow laws (U.S. courts, n.d.). As a result of the battle for equality that people of color were facing, a new legal battle came to light: Plessy v. Ferguson. Homer Plessy was only 1/8 African American and had a light complexion, so in 1892 he decided to buy a first-class train ticket from Louisiana and joined the cabin reserved for whites. In doing so, he informed the conductor of his racial origin and the conductor asked him to give up his first class seat and move to the separate cabin for blacks. When Homer refused to do so, he was arrested. He decided to take his case to court, arguing that the separation of blacks and whites on the train violated the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, which promised.