In 1954, the United States Supreme Court ruled that it had no place in the nation's public schools. Great moral leaders, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., and political leaders, such as President Lyndon Johnson, railed against it. It is often called Jim Crow. .
I speak, of course, about segregation--an American system of legalized separation of the races, .
one in which blacks, and other groups of color, were subjected to political and economic disenfranchisement. .
New Jersey has had its own troubling encounters with Jim Crow. .
Its legal foundations were planted long before the Civil War when colonial laws submerged blacks and mulattos into an inferior legal and social status. Indeed, in 1844, the state's second constitution limited to white men the right to vote. .
Two generations later the legacy of segregation in public life would shape virtually every feature of 20th century New Jersey. .
City neighborhoods became demarcated along racial lines. Job opportunities for blacks and whites were consistently different and unequal. And white perceptions of blacks would have much in common with the 19th century. But there are many stories of triumph which come from behind the veil of black segregation in New Jersey. .
Not unlike other ethnic groups, blacks both opposed segregation and took advantage of its benefits. Black communities used their collective energies to build churches, social service organizations, and business organizations devoted to group progress. They used their separate schools, which were prevalent in South Jersey during much of the 20th century, to encourage educational advancement. .
But, most important, blacks themselves realized that their historical experience and their culture could best be remembered if they, under certain conditions, remained separated from the mainstream of the larger society. .
And so, although Jim Crow cast a wide and ugly shadow across New Jersey for most of the State's history, blacks accomplished the great feat of keeping alive those things they most admire in themselves by keeping quietly and honorably to themselves.
