In 1950s America, blacks didn’t have to imagine enemies. They were all too real. Lynchings and cross burnings had left their horrific mark even before 1954, when a Supreme Court decision initiated a new wave of racial turmoil. Brown v. Board of Education was understood to have wider implications than ruling that “separate but equal” schools for white and black children were unconstitutional. The court’s unanimous vote set aside Plessy v. Ferguson, an 1896 court ruling establishing “separate but equal” as a legal basis for all forms of segregation. Clearly, the Supreme Court was now prepared to
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