ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author provides a brief explanation of some of the rhetorical forces that were responsible for the creation of one of most troubling discursive concepts, the notion of "separate but equal". During the latter part of the eighteenth century, Boston's schools were not segregated. However, blacks soon learned that the absence of segregation did not mean that white society would treat black children as if they were politically, economically, or socially "free" or "equal". While blacks agreed on the harmful effects of racial discrimination in the city, they had strong disagreements about the best ways to remove the taint of "caste." This resulted in a lack of consensus on such issues as racial intermarriage, travel accommodations, housing, and, of course, education. In many ways, the legal arguments deployed during this time provided the prefigurative claims that would reappear in the popular press and in the law journals for more than a hundred years.
