This course will explore the development and decline of legal segregation (Jim Crow) in American history from the end of the Civil War to the 1954 Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. Students will explore how Jim Crow was maintained by laws and violence and perpetuated by political systems, culture and social mores. This course will also examine how large numbers of African Americans, sometimes aided by white sympathizers, fought against the Jim Crow system to acquire land, build communities, provide educational opportunities, and maintain a sense of dignity and community spirit.