Final answer:
De jure segregation in the United States lasted for many years after the Civil War, with segregated facilities for Black and White people enforced by Jim Crow laws. The landmark Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson upheld the principle of separate but equal facilities, allowing segregation to continue for several more decades. It wasn't until the 1954 case of Brown v. Board of Education that the Supreme Court ruled separate educational facilities as inherently unequal, putting an end to de jure segregation.
Step-by-step explanation:
De jure segregation occurred in the United States for many years after the Civil War. During this time, many former Confederate states passed Jim Crow laws that required segregated facilities for Black and White people. These laws were codified in 1896's landmark Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson, which stated that "separate but equal" facilities were constitutional. For the next five decades, Black people were subjected to legalized discrimination, forced to live, work, and go to school in separate-but unequal-facilities. It wasn't until 1954 and the Brown v. Board of Education case that the Supreme Court declared that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal," thus ending de jure segregation in the United States.