I began thinking of White Supremacy/Racism as a construct, paradigm if you will because we can trace the codification of White Supremacy through laws/codes designed to damage Black people. I  know everyone doesn’t have a love of history but for understanding the true nature of Institutional Racism, it is highly instructive. Although, there is much ballyhooing related to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision which officially ended the doctrine of Separate but equal not only in the South but also in the North. But, how did we get here?

As slave laws were converted into Black codes after reconstruction the racial separation intensified. By custom public transportation was segregated throughout the south.

Origins of Jim Crow – Compromise of 1877

“Federal troops left the South after the Compromise of 1877, ending Reconstruction. The Supreme Court ruled that segregation did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment in the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896.” Pay attention to the process of why federal troops were removed from the South. More @ Khan Academy

 

Plessy v. Ferguson | Separate but Equal OK’d by High Court!

Before Rosa Parks, there was Homer Plessy. Note, Homer was 1/8th Black, based on the “one-drop rule”. Do you understand the one-drop rule?