Legally enforced racial segregation denied everybody's personal liberty – although of course, African-Americans bore the brunt of that denial.
Berea College, founded by abolitionists in 1855, was the only desegregated and coeducational college in Kentucky – it admitted all students irrespective of their race or sex. Even though the state of Kentucky enforced racial segregation on all public educational institutions, Berea College was exempt from that as a private institution. Until 1904, when the Kentucky state legislature passed the "Day Law" (named for its sponsor, Democratic politician Carl Day), banning racially integrated private educational institutions. Since Berea was the only such institution in the entire state, it was a direct attack on Berea College's existence. Berea College refused to comply with the new law, and was convicted of the crime of being a racially integrated school; the College appealed the conviction all the way to the US Supreme Court, who in the 1908 case of Berea College v Kentucky, upheld Kentucky's law, on the rather specious grounds that the law did not infringe personal liberty, since Berea College is a corporation, and corporations don't have constitutional rights (such as personal liberty). Berea College was forced to expel all its African-American students; Andrew Carnegie gave them a large grant to open a new college for African-American students (the Lincoln Institute), although it was never very successful. Berea resumed admitting African-American students in 1950, when the Kentucky legislature revoked the ban on racial integration in private education.
So legally enforced racial segregation didn't just infringe on the personal liberty of African-Americans, it also infringed on the personal liberty of European-Americans, by denying them the freedom to associate with African-Americans when they freely desired to do so
Sure. I didn't need and I doubt anybody else needed any convincing of this, but it's still an utter deviation from and completely irrelevant to the discussion at hand.
Congratulations on derailing yet another meaningful conversation into a one-sided race war.
Legally enforced racial segregation denied everybody's personal liberty – although of course, African-Americans bore the brunt of that denial.
Berea College, founded by abolitionists in 1855, was the only desegregated and coeducational college in Kentucky – it admitted all students irrespective of their race or sex. Even though the state of Kentucky enforced racial segregation on all public educational institutions, Berea College was exempt from that as a private institution. Until 1904, when the Kentucky state legislature passed the "Day Law" (named for its sponsor, Democratic politician Carl Day), banning racially integrated private educational institutions. Since Berea was the only such institution in the entire state, it was a direct attack on Berea College's existence. Berea College refused to comply with the new law, and was convicted of the crime of being a racially integrated school; the College appealed the conviction all the way to the US Supreme Court, who in the 1908 case of Berea College v Kentucky, upheld Kentucky's law, on the rather specious grounds that the law did not infringe personal liberty, since Berea College is a corporation, and corporations don't have constitutional rights (such as personal liberty). Berea College was forced to expel all its African-American students; Andrew Carnegie gave them a large grant to open a new college for African-American students (the Lincoln Institute), although it was never very successful. Berea resumed admitting African-American students in 1950, when the Kentucky legislature revoked the ban on racial integration in private education.
So legally enforced racial segregation didn't just infringe on the personal liberty of African-Americans, it also infringed on the personal liberty of European-Americans, by denying them the freedom to associate with African-Americans when they freely desired to do so