Editing New Orleans (section)

===Jim Crow era===
[[Dixiecrats]] passed [[Jim Crow]] laws, establishing [[racial segregation]] in public facilities. In 1889, the legislature passed a [[constitutional amendment]] incorporating a "[[grandfather clause]]" that effectively [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disfranchised]] freedmen as well as the propertied people of color [[Manumission|manumitted]] before the war. Unable to vote, African Americans could not serve on juries or in local office, and were closed out of formal politics for generations. The Southern U.S. was ruled by a white Democratic Party. Public schools were racially segregated and remained so until 1960.

New Orleans' large community of well-educated, often French-speaking [[free persons of color]] (''gens de couleur libres''), who had been free prior to the Civil War, fought against Jim Crow. They organized the ''Comité des Citoyens'' (Citizens Committee) to work for civil rights. As part of their legal campaign, they recruited one of their own, [[Homer Plessy]], to test whether Louisiana's newly enacted Separate Car Act was constitutional. Plessy boarded a commuter train departing New Orleans for [[Covington, Louisiana]], sat in the car reserved for whites only, and was arrested. The case resulting from this incident, ''[[Plessy v. Ferguson]]'', was heard by the [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court]] in 1896. The court ruled that "[[separate but equal]]" accommodations were constitutional, effectively upholding Jim Crow measures.

In practice, African American public schools and facilities were underfunded across the South. The Supreme Court ruling contributed to this period as the [[Nadir of American race relations|nadir of race relations]] in the United States. The rate of [[Lynching in the United States|lynchings]] of black men was high across the South, as other states also disfranchised blacks and sought to impose Jim Crow. Nativist prejudices also surfaced. [[Anti-Italianism#Anti-Italianism in the United States|Anti-Italian]] sentiment in 1891 contributed to the [[March 14, 1891 lynchings|lynchings of 11 Italians]], some of whom had been acquitted of the murder of the police chief. Some were shot and killed in the jail where they were detained. It was the largest mass lynching in U.S. history.<ref>{{cite web |ref={{harvid|Library of Congress}} |title=Immigration / Italian |website=Library of Congress |url=https://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/immigration/italian8.html |access-date=December 29, 2017 |archive-date=June 28, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628191345/http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/immigration/italian8.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Gambino2000">{{cite book |last=Gambino |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Gambino |title=Vendetta: The True Story of the Largest Lynching in U.S. History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jA9-dmAsoMwC |year=2000 |publisher=Guernica Editions |isbn=978-1-55071-103-5 |access-date=January 10, 2024 |archive-date=January 10, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240110084854/https://books.google.com/books?id=jA9-dmAsoMwC |url-status=live }}</ref> In July 1900 the city was swept by white mobs rioting after Robert Charles, a young African American, killed a policeman and temporarily escaped. The mob killed him and an estimated 20 other blacks; seven whites died in the days-long conflict, until a [[Militia (United States)|state militia]] suppressed it.