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Segregation
The environmental and organizational separation of racial or ethnic groups. After the Civil War, former slaves were granted their freedom, but laws and policies of segregation continued for approximately 100 years. The Jim Crow laws enforced policies of segregation such as the disenfranchisement of blacks. Segregation was made official policy in 1896 in the Supreme Court case of Plessy v. Ferguson, which established a policy of separate but equal facilities for different races. For more information, see Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).