What does separate but equal mean in the civil rights movement?

Answer 1

Separate but equal is a set phrase (or idiom) that was commonly used in the United States to describe systems of segregation giving different "colored only" facilities or services for blacks, with the declaration that the quality of each group's public facilities were (supposedly) to remain equal. The phrase was derived from a Louisiana law of 1890[1].

It was also the title of an anonymous article written in 1869, detailing how people had equal rights but were separated because of race

Answer 2

"Separate but equal" is a legal doctrine observed in the United States from the end of Reconstruction until the famous Supreme Court case Brown v Board of Education.

The doctrine came about after Reconstruction in response to the 14th Amendment's direction that states may not deny the equal protection of the laws to people in the state. Specifically concerning schools, states were permitted to segregate the races as long as they provided facilities for non-whites that were "equal" to those provided for whites.

The doctrine was confirmed in the 1896 Supreme Court decision in Plessy v Ferguson, and overturned in the 1954 case Brown v Board of Education.

Before and during the Civil Rights Movement, African-Americans and whites where separated, but were supposed to have access to the same quality of facilities. Whites rationalized this was acceptable treatment that would keep them from having to interact with African-Americans, whom they saw as inferior and undesirable. In reality, the mere fact of segregation ensured African-Americans could never be seen as equal, and the lower quality of facilities and services they received both reinforced this idea and demonstrated the legal doctrine's hypocrisy.

Answer 3

That was the attempt at segregation that thought we could have equal treatment for blacks and whites while keeping separate facilities for them. But somehow, they never were quite equal.

Answer 4

That blacks and whites would have segregated schools, but the education must be equal for both races.