Plessy V. Ferguson Quotes
Professor Egerton documents how successful Reconstruction was in radically changing the positions of Blacks in the South. He points out that it was so effective that a hate-filled, racist group of Southern White terrorists, with murder, arson, torture and intimidation took over many of the governments of the South while President Andrew Johnson, who although he believed in the Union, was himself an inveterate racist and opponent of emancipation, would not use the force of the Federal Government to bring the terrorists to justice. (The KKK leaders were known in every state and county). They successfully overthrew Reconstruction and set the process back by 100 years.
Plessy v. Ferguson was one of the worst Supreme Court Decisions in American history. It held that states could provide and/or mandate racially segregated facilities and institutions so long as they were equal.
