The North winning the American Civil war in 1865 marked a turning point in the lives of African Americans. Slavery was no longer legal and African American slaves were freed from their masters. During the Reconstruction period from 1865-1877, their civil rights were protected by federal laws. However Southern racism persisted, as evidenced various acts of violence against African Americans such as the shooting of two black men, one of which a World War II veteran, and their wives by a band of twenty white men.1 Following the Reconstruction period, the political strength of the Democrats in the Southern states began to grow. In many cases Democrats regained power through utilizing corrupt means such as insurgent groups and voter fraud. They suppressed black voting through poll taxes, literacy tests, Grandfather clauses, and violence. Soon enough, Democrats had regained power in every Southern state. Anti-black sentiment conceived into the legislation of a series of racial segregation laws, known as the Jim Crow Laws. The Jim Crow Laws were enacted in the southern states of the former Confederacy. The laws demanded the segregation of public schools, public places and public transportation, and the segregation of restrooms, restaurants and drinking fountains for whites and blacks. Even in some states of the North, although not ordained by law, discrimination was still observed. This is examined by a South African Novelist: "There is hardly a community in America where the purchase of a house by a Negro in a hitherto "white" section does not cause resentment, leading at times to violence. In Louisville, shots are fired and bricks hurled through the windows of Andrew E. Wade, a veteran, and the cross is burned outside his house. In Philadelphia, mobs batter the house bought by Wiley Clark and force him and his wife and four children to sell out and look elsewhere for a home. In Levittown, Long Island, and in Levittown, Pennsylvania, Mr. Levitt builds 33,700 houses, but no Negro need apply...."2 The idea was that although African Americans and white Americans are to be segregated, African Americans should still be able to enjoy the same rights and liberties as any white American. In practice, however, this was hardly the case and is basically state-sanctioned racial discrimination and oppression. Spaces offered to African Americans were often far inferior to those offered to whites. Schools and libraries that were offered to African Americans, for example, were consistently and vastly underfunded compared to those offered to whites. This is illustrated in a 1949 petition; "That the facilities, physical condition, sanitation and protection from the elements in the Scott's Branch High School. the only three schools to which Negro pupils are permitted to attend, are inadequate and unhealthy, the buildings and schools are old and overcrowded and in a dilapidated condition; the facilities, physical condition, sanitation and protection from the elements in Summert