State-Sponsored Segregation

Definition

State-sponsored segregation refers to policies or practices supported and enforced by government authorities that systematically separated people based on their race or ethnicity. This form of segregation was particularly prominent in Southern states during the Jim Crow era.

Related terms

Jim Crow Laws: These were state and local laws enacted after Reconstruction in Southern states that mandated racial segregation in public facilities such as schools, transportation, housing, and voting.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): A Supreme Court case that established "separate but equal" doctrine, allowing states to legally segregate public facilities as long as they provided separate facilities of equal quality.

De jure segregation: Legalized or officially sanctioned separation of races by law.