Separate But Equal Doctrine

According to the Supreme Court on May 18, 1896 in a 7 – 1 decision, the state of Louisiana was within its constitutional boundaries. The Supreme Court claimed that the state of Louisiana was within its constitutional rights because of an idea that would be called the separate but equal doctrine. The Supreme Court made it clear the segregation was not a violation of the fourteenth Amendment as long as both parties were treated “equally”. In the case of Plessy and the Separate Car Act, the Supreme Court states that if people of colour are provided their own train car of equal value to travel within, no constitutional rights are violated. In the eyes of the American Supreme Court, segregation was deemed acceptable if the people of colour were treated equally under the law and service.

The decision of this case provided constitutional sanction until overruled by the Brown v. Board of Education case. This case introduced the “Separate but Equal” Act. The Plessy v. Ferguson case legalized segregation in public accommodations, education, and

The Brown decision reversed the separate but equal doctrine established by the Plessy decision. Forming the 14th amendment guaranteeing equal protection under the law, and the Court ruled that separate facilities based on race was unequal. This law and the Brown case were significant when fighting the rights of Hernandez because it labeled Mexican Americans as minority

African American demanded the right to serve in combat rather than support the cause, and once given access to combat roles, it was difficult to desegregate the armed forces. Even

Ferguson case appeared in 1896 and is a landmark Supreme Court decision to this day. The court ruled that the laws made to racially segregate blacks and white were not violating the constitution as long as they were given equal rights. For example, having two restrooms one for whites and one for black is fine as long as they are both the same. This may ring a bell towards the famous line of “separate but equal.” Brown vs. Board of Education in Topeka 1954, is one of the biggest and well known cases surrounding the time of racial segregation.

A common phrase at this point in time, “separate but equal,” was put to the test during the Brown vs. Board of Education case, and was proven wrong when the Supreme Court started integration because of public places such as schools showing inequality. Schools were called equal while they were still segregated, but they were not. After this court case, segregation was put to an end in all places. Integration was implemented and both races were equalized. The Brown vs. Board of Education case strongly impacted the United States because it ceased segregation, formed equal schools, and integrated all people.

A social problem that arose was due Jim Crow Laws. Jim Crow Laws legalized racial segregation in all public facilities in southern states, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for African Americans. These laws were legalized in the Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, which stated that “separate but equal” was constitutional. This

This case made the separate but equal doctrine constitutional in all public accommodations (Document 10). This “separate but equal” doctrine trickled into the education system, workforce and etc. From prior knowledge, it is fact that white people were paid more than African American people for doing the same job. Black children received separate educations from white children, in separate school buildings and in separate communities with less funding. Early Jim Crow laws originated in the Era of

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

The Plessy versus Ferguson case from two different views on equal rights, Plessy thought that treating people equal meant treating them the same. However the courts said that they are giving people the same treatment, but that does not mean it has to be in the same place. The courts said that the states have the power to decide if they are going to separate the colored from the whites. Plessy still believed that treating people equally meant treating them the same. He argued that the railroads were not treating people equally, because he was not allowed to sit with the whites.

The ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson said that all black and white people will be separate but equal, but in reality, this was not the case ("Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)"). Whites were of course given the most elaborate and fancy equipment when in public; from schools to water fountains to bathrooms, whites were living in complete luxury compared to the increasingly struggling blacks of the time. A major flaw with the idea of segregation, was the issue of schooling. Whites were given the better schools with better teachers, while blacks had schools that were very poor and not the best teachers. Because of this, African-Americans were again being penalized just because of their race, truly showing how unequal their lives really were.

When these laws, also called Jim Crow Laws, were taken to the Supreme Court through the case of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). The Supreme Court established the concept of separate but equal, which would not be challenged until the 1950’s. This concept would not be as bad if the facilities and opportunities were actually equal, but this was not the case. (Lecture

Particularly in the South, they continued to seek opportunities to legal slavery. As a result, Southerners pass a state law, Black Codes, during reconstruction. This law restricted the civil rights and public activities of legally freed African Americans. Owning weapons, freedom of movement, and land ownerships were against Black Codes. Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896), the court case that upheld authority of the state law claiming, “separate-but-equal facilities for whites and blacks” , led up to another significant factor, segregation, which arose to be controversy in mid-1900s.

Supreme Court Decisions Setting Precedent Discrimination may not seen as big a problem today, but people had to fight for that problem, and court cases set precedents for today. The case of Plessy versus Ferguson and Brown versus Board of Education helped change the way we view discrimination today. The case of Plessy versus Ferguson decided that segregation was legal as long as everything was equal. But on the other hand, Brown versus Board of Education included separate but equal schools made African-American children feel inferior to the white children. 1896, Supreme Court heard the Plessy versus Ferguson case.

The ruling thus lent high judicial support to racial and ethnic discrimination and led to wider spread of the segregation between Whites and Blacks in the Southern United States. The great oppressive consequence from this was discrimination against African American minority from the socio-political opportunity to share the same facilities with the mainstream Whites, which in most of the cases the separate facilities for African Americans were inferior to those for Whites in actuality. The doctrine of “separate but equal” hence encourages two-tiered pluralism in U.S. as it privileged the non-Hispanic Whites over other racial and ethnic minority