Root Magic

Root Magic takes place in 1963 during the United States’ Jim Crow era in South Carolina. The Jim Crow era refers to the period of time following the Reconstruction era, which lasted from 1865 to 1877. During the Reconstruction era, federal law provided some protection for Blacks after the Civil War. However, this initiative ultimately failed, and new laws restricting voter registration and enacting segregation began to proliferate in the South in the late 1870s through the 1900s. These laws enshrined racist practices, and with institutions, businesses, and other services split between white and Black Americans, less funding went into supporting services and facilities for Black Americans. Additionally, Jim Crow laws also made it more difficult for Black Americans to register to vote, disenfranchising them so that they could not be more involved in local, state, and national elections. While racism was perhaps most explicit in the South, racist organizations like the Ku Klux Klan still existed across the US (“A Brief History of Civil Rights in the United States, Jim Crow Era.” Howard University, 2023).

In 1954, Brown v. Board of Education made it to the Supreme Court, and all nine justices ruled that segregation was unconstitutional. This ruling overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, which had enshrined the notion of “separate but equal,” supporting the existence of separate schools and other facilities for Black Americans. In the wake of the Brown decision, schools began to integrate, but it would be years before every state followed the ruling. As alluded to in Root Magic, South Carolina is the last to do so, finally integrating schools for the first time in 1963, though it took until 1970 for the federal government to ensure that all schools within the state obeyed the Brown decision (“Separate but Equal? South Carolina’s Fight Over School Segregation.” National Park Service, May 2023).