Remember the Titans

The political and social purpose of Reconstruction was to bring more than 4 million black men, women, and children into American society with equal status. The thirteenth amendment banned slavery; the fourteenth amendment guaranteed equal protection under the law; and the fifteenth amendment gave black men the right to vote. The conquered South was forced to accept African Americans as a freed people, they did not however, accept blacks as equals.

Reconstruction was a failure. Laws were passed in the South to keep blacks from voting. Groups like the Ku Klux Klan used violence to intimidate the black population. In the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court decided that "Separate but Equal" was Constitutional. As long as facilities were equal, blacks and whites could be segregated from one another by law. Separate drinking fountains, restrooms, bus and restaurant seating, and even separate schools would be the norm for the next 100 or so years.

In 1954, the Supreme Court decided against segregated schools in Brown v. Topeka Board of Education. The Civil Rights Era of American history had begun. Leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. led a movement for black equality in the United States. Schools were ordered to be desegragated.

The film "Remember the Titans" is based on the true story of a football team in Virginia that struggles with desegregation, equality, and acceptance.