In 1896 the case of Plessy v Ferguson took place. Plessy was on a train he bought a ticket for and he was in the white car. Everything went through with the ticket and nothing was suspected to be wrong or incorrect. Once Plessy sat down and the train began to move some passengers found out he was 1/8th black. He refused to move to the black part of the train because he felt as if he was being treated unfairly. This later led to his arrest on the train.
This is kind of surprising to me that he would tell them he's even 1/8th black because it's just looking for trouble. But in the end, it was very effective in serious change. In the separate but equal clause, as long as both sides get the same service or opportunity they are equal but they are just separated. This was very impactful because everything was like this: different water fountains, stores, bathrooms, services, etc.
The blacks developed very strong and independent communities that sometimes even did better than the white communities. Despite the negative connotations, segregation was good in some ways as it allowed the black community to have certain experiences that may not have happened otherwise. For example, when the black school was separated from the white school they had black teachers that cared about them and treated them fairly. This is contrasted to how white teachers would have treated black students in a combined school. Another powerful example is black Wall Street which was an area that had everything the white town had and was completely the same but it was just black. This showed blacks that it was very possible for them to be as successful as whites. I think that the situation that the blacks had to go through was very hard and miserable, something that current-day people could not understand or experience. Without the events that happened, there would likely be a different world today.
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