Although the civil rights movement sought to dismantle all forms of racial injustice, one of its most pointed goals was the elimination of segregation, the attempt by many white southerners to separate the races in virtually every sphere of life. Segregation gained a legal foothold in the historic case Plessy v. Ferguson, which revolved around Homer Plessy, a black shoemaker in Louisiana, who was arrested in 1892 after he boarded a train and took a seat in the whites-only section. In the case that followed, the court ruled that Louisiana had a right to prevent racial mixing....
Source: Civil Rights Mvmnt, ©2004-10-29 Gale Cengage. All Rights Reserved. Full copyright.
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