How does de facto segregation differ from de jure segregation? In Plessy v. Ferguson, what did the Supreme Court say about the relationship between de jure segregation and equality?

Question

What did the Supreme Court say about this relationship in Brown v. Board of Education? Evaluate the extent to which de facto segregation leads to inequality, and illustrate your answer with two examples.

Answer 1

Answer: An ideal response will:
1. Compare de facto segregation, which results from the decisions of private individuals, with de jure segregation, which is legally mandated segregation.
2. Explain how Plessy v. Ferguson upheld de jure discrimination in the form of Jim Crow laws as permissible as long as the facilities were equal.
3. Explain how Brown v. Board of Education overturned the separate-but-equal doctrine, arguing that de jure segregation necessarily produced inequality.
4. Evaluate whether citizens' private decisions to segregate lead to inequality. Those who believe that it does may point to the same logic used by the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education. Those who believe that it does not may point to the fact that the two concepts are completely distinct: individuals can be both segregated and equal or both integrated and unequal.
5. Illustrate the relationship between de facto segregation and inequality with two examples. For example, describe whether residential neighborhoods and churches (two entities with de facto segregation) promote inequality.