It wasn't until the year 1955 that segregational acts like having separate schools for blacks and whites was declared unconstitutional. In cases like Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education segregation took a huge part in making these cases. In Plessy v. Ferguson the main idea of the case , the rulings, mad the precedents it set for the country will be explained. In the case of Brown v. Board of Education the main point of the case, the opinion, and how these two cases are similar will be explained. These cases set huge precedents for the whole country during this time period.
In 1890 in Louisiana there was a man named Homer Plessy. At the time a new statue called the Separate Car Act had just been passed. It stated that all rail
…show more content…
Ferguson. In this case there was only 8 justices. The ruling was almost unanimous (7-1). The justices mostly agreed on the fact that it didn't violate the Constitution under doctrine of “separate but equal. Justice John Harlan was the one justice who agreed with Plessy. Justice John Harlan stated “ Our Constitution is color-blind and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful. The law regards man as man and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved. . .”. When Harlan says that he is saying how color doesn't matter. The law doesn't care what your skin looks like. They law is there to be a fair way to help and guide people and in the situation Harlan believes they interpreted the law wrong. While Harlan believed that the law doesn't care what color you are another justice who voted against Plessy , Henry Brown believe that no laws were violated. He believed that racial differences didn't violate anything in the Constitution as long as both of the places were “separate but equal”. The phrase separate but equal keeps coming up, but back then when people still thought whites were superior were things really equal? The case Plessy v. Ferguson set many precedents. One of the precedents was separate but equal. This set the standard for all the cases similar so
John H. Ferguson was the judge on the case and decided to uphold the state law. The law was challenged in the supreme court on grounds that it conflicted with the the 13th and the 14th amendments. By a seven to one majority vote, the controversial “separate but equal” doctrine. It was the the seminal post-Reconstruction Supreme court decision that judicially validated state sponsored segregation in public facilities. In a misguided decision, the court ruled that blacks and whites could be separated in public life if the accommodations were equal.
Although this was Johnson’s goal, that black people would not be defined and that he stayed true to what Justice Harlan’s color-blind concept stated in his dissent, but this marks a “turning point... [in] the civil rights movement as well as in the larger issue of the role of race and group consciousness in American life” (Ravitch, p.142). The Civil Rights Act that was trying to be color-blind but they had to address the issue of “racial imbalance”
The Plessy vs Ferguson court case originated in 1892. On June 7, 1892, Homer Plessy was jailed for sitting in a white car of a Louisiana train. Despite his white complexion, Plessy was considered to be “octoroon” which meant that he was 7/8 white and 1/8 black. Plessy intentionally sat on the white car and announced himself a black. Plessy challenged the separate car act which required that all railroads operating in the state provide “equal but separate accommodations” for White and African-American passengers and prohibited passengers from entering accommodations other than those to which they had been assigned on the basis of their race.
An example of a Supreme Court overturning, would be Plessy vs Ferguson. States from the south had laws that had a disadvantage for black people. Plessy who is a light colored black, decided to sit on the white section of the train, and declared his ancestry a couple of minutes after. People demanded him to move, but he refused. He was arrested for not moving.
In 1892, in Louisiana, a man who was one- eight black, Homer Plessy agreed with a group of Africa American take part in the test the constitutionality of Louisiana about the law which known as the Separate Car Act. Plessy bought a first- class ticked and board on the car for white people only in New Orleans. Also, Plessy refused to seat in the car for Africa- American which the state law required, so he was arrested and brought to court. In the Criminal Court, Plessy argued that the Fourteen Amendment prohibited racial segregation in front of judge John H. Ferguson who held the state law, and Plessy’s lawyer argued that the separate the transport car between citizens is violation Fourteen Amendment which should be not allow by legislation on
In Browns second case the courts overruled the Plessy v Ferguson in the matters of public schools. It was then put into action by the Courts that the states must integrate their
The first time separate but equal laws were scrutinized was in 1892. On the afternoon of June 7th, 1892, Homer Plessy, a shoemaker from Louisiana,
but Equal 1896 US Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson Upheld the constitutionality of segregation Provided the legal basis for racial segregation, as long as the separate facilities were equal 4B Disenfranchisement of AAs through
Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 US 537 (1896), a case regarding constitutional law of the US Supreme Court, that was upheld on a seven to one vote. Homer Plessy (1862-1925), an African American passenger on a train, sat in the whites-only train and declined when told to sit in the Jim Crow car, this action broke Louisiana law, The Separate Car Act. Judge John H. Ferguson (1838-1915) of the Criminal Court of New Orleans, the defendant, upheld the law, which was being challenged by the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendment. Ferguson was an American Louisiana judge and lawyer who served in many cases, but is most known for Plessy v. Ferguson.
Both of these cases have helped shape the way America is today. Most of America today is still widely segregated. Plessy vs Ferguson is a very important case in 1890. This case involved a man named Plessy, and he was in a rail car. He was an octaroon, meaning he was 1/8th black.
In the case people were getting desegregated because of their race such as white or black. The Courts did not find it right at all that african americans had to get treated that way and not treat others the same way. For almost 17 years southern border has been segregation ⅔ of them are african americans. Blacks were getting done wrong because of their color or should I say race. They didn't deserve to be done that
Can separate really be equal? The landmark cases Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education show two sides of an argument that changes the way many people see things today. The Plessy v. Ferguson case set the precedent that segregation was legal when Homer Plessy was convicted for sitting in the white compartment of a train. The Brown v. Board of Education case tore down this precedent when it started the desegregation of schools after two girls had a dangerous walk to their all blacks school everyday. These two cases changed court precedents greatly, one setting a precedent, and the other tearing it down.
A historic case in the U.S. supreme court was called the Brown vs. the Board of Education. Getting a good education is essential and we can see diverse population of students from different nationality in the classroom. However, this wasn’t always the case in the United States. Up until 1954, classrooms were very different than they are today—not allowing African American students to attend schools with white students. This was allowed because of the previous court case of 1896 of Plessy vs. Ferguson.
For nearly a century, the United States was occupied by the racial segregation of black and white people. The constitutionality of this “separation of humans into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life” had not been decided until a deliberate provocation to the law was made. The goal of this test was to have a mulatto, someone of mixed blood, defy the segregated train car law and raise a dispute on the fairness of being categorized as colored or not. This test went down in history as Plessy v. Ferguson, a planned challenge to the law during a period ruled by Jim Crow laws and the idea of “separate but equal” without equality for African Americans. This challenge forced the Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of segregation, and in result of the case, caused the nation to have split opinions of support and
It was a 7 to 1 decision. The decision was that separate but equal was legal as long as no discrimination was shown. They believed that "so long as separate facilities were actually qualitatively equal, the constitution did not prohibit segregation in the view of the majority of the court," as stated in the second