Racial segregation in the United States

High school (ages 12+)
History & Culture

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/racial-segregation-in-the-united-states

1. What is the location?
2. What is the foundational legal decision (denying citizenship)?
3. What was the Dred Scott decision and how did it affect Black people in the U.S.?
4. Why did the Supreme Court say "separate but equal" in Plessy v. Ferguson?

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the location?United States, with de jure segregation heavily concentrated in Southern states
2. What is the foundational legal decision (denying citizenship)?Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
3. What was the Dred Scott decision and how did it affect Black people in the U.S.?The Dred Scott decision said Black people could not be citizens, so they were denied constitutional rights. It helped start laws that treated Black people unfairly.
4. Why did the Supreme Court say "separate but equal" in Plessy v. Ferguson?The Court said "separate but equal" to justify laws that kept Black and white people in separate places, like schools and buses. It gave a legal shield for many unfair rules.

De jure segregation: Racial separation mandated and enforced by governmental laws and statutes.
De facto segregation: Racial separation that exists in practice and reality, often due to social patterns and historical legacies.
Jim Crow laws: State and local laws enacted in the Southern United States from the late 19th to the mid-20th centuries that enforced racial segregation.
Civil Rights Movement: A broad and sustained campaign in the 1950s and 1960s to end racial segregation and discrimination against African Americans.