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Thomas Nast. Emancipation — The Past and the Future. Harper’s Weekly, January 24, 1863

foot in North America, within reach of every man, regardless of race, color, or previous
condition of servitude. The nation hoped to redeem itself with the three Reconstruc-
tion Amendments — Thirteenth in 1865, Fourteenth in 1868, and Fifteenth in 1870 —
which abolished slavery, granted birthright citizenship and equal protection under the
law, and the right to vote to those freed from slavery. More laws, too, were enacted to
enforce these guarantees.
Despite these measures, the Jim Crow laws of the South codified white suprem-
acy and enforced racial segregation throughout the first half of the 20th century. The
Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, which took the Civil
Rights Act of 1875 as its model, banned discrimination in public accommodations and
the segregation of schools, among other provisions. This landmark law followed in the
wake of protests from the African American community and its leaders, such as Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. In the South, Jim Crow laws legalized economic, educational,
and social disadvantages. In the North de facto segregation often prevailed, supporting
discrimination in housing, banking, and employment practices. As late as 1985, in
Yonkers, Federal Judge Leonard B. Sand’s desegregation order was a response to the
findings of de facto segregation in Yonkers’ public housing practices.

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