Today, most students in American schools do not have to think twice before sharing a rug, a fountain or a bathroom with their classmate of a different race. However, this was not always the case. As recently as the 1950s, students were segregated based on the color of their skin 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 upon request. It also meant that white and black students would never share the same restroom, play equipment, lunch table, or even the same school building. Although the practice of school segregation was finally abolished in 1954, racial minorities until then faced many frustrating and unfair discriminatory practices that paved the way for the civil rights movement to follow. Say no to plagiarism. Get Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get Original Essay “Separate but Equal” was the justification put forward by a legal doctrine in United States constitutional law for people of color are treated differently from their own. Caucasian counterparts. The doctrine held that as long as equal access to the same facilities and opportunities was afforded to people of color, they could receive these services and opportunities separately from their white peers. While this may have seemed a fair accommodation for the government at that time, many facilities and opportunities – particularly in education – were in fact not equal. They were usually far from equal, and often times did not exist at all. While white schools received significant government funding, better infrastructure, and school supplies, black education was often provided in churches or small cabins without furniture, toilets, or even blackboards (Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, nd). Laws that allowed the segregation of blacks and whites became known as “Jim Crow laws.” Jim Crow laws were essentially laws at the local level (including state laws) that allowed and required the segregation of whites and people of color. These laws not only allowed segregation in schools, but also in train cabins, buses, lodgings, restaurants, fountains, restrooms, motels, theaters and financial institutions (lending practices were different for blacks and whites). The laws also permitted unfair treatment by unions and discriminatory hiring practices. Federal work environments even became racially segregated in 1913, due to a decision by President Woodrow Wilson. In some ways, the black codes of the 1860s were revived by Jim Crow laws (U.S. Courts, n.d.). In the wake of the battle for equality faced by people of color, a new legal battle emerged: Plessy v. Ferguson. Homer Plessy was only one-eighth African American and had a light complexion. 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 defend his case in court,.