Prior to the Reconstruction Era, the Union and the Confederate states had just engaged in a war concerning slavery and the unity of the United States, which is also known as the Civil War. The damage from the war was economically, socially and politically devastating to the United States of America as a whole. The newly liberated African Americans were harassed, tormented and even killed in the communities they had developed after the Civil War. Literacy tests were implemented as a way to prevented the miseducated African American male from suffrage. Lastly, early Jim Crow laws originated during this time period. The Reconstruction Era not only did not solve any of the existing economical, political or social problems but also introduced several …show more content…
This case went to the Supreme Court, where Plessy lost and the doctrine “separate but equal” was adopted (Document 10). This disproved the 14th Amendment, which states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws” (Document 2). This amendment grants citizenship and equal protection of innate rights and protection under the court of law, in simple terms. Plessy was denied fair trial due to the fact that he was of African descent. 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 …show more content…
While the enslaved African American were liberated physically, the system of Jim Crow and numerous ideologies and/ or doctrines kept them idle as a race in the American society. The Reconstruction Era promoted a new culture of people with new ideas, but the violence, injustice and torment impeded the growth of the African American people and what the nation could be as a whole. Today, we, the African American people, still face these same injustices. We are tormented by police and while we are the “minority”, we make up the prisons’ “majority.” A fair trial does not apply to those of color due to the many prejudices against us. The school systems provided in urban areas where the population is majorly African American and/ or colored people alike is less than the education system and resources provided elsewhere. Similar to Susie Taylor King:Reminiscences of My Life, no matter how much we fight for and contribute to this country, the odds still remain against us. The Reconstruction Era did not solve any issues regarding politics, economics or society, instead it created a long lasting cycle that seems to be never ending considering that we still deal with the same issues
The South, home to most African Americans in that time, sought out ways to legally exclude African Americans. Homer Plessy had decided to test new segregation laws that had been passed a year earlier. A few months prior, Daniel Desdunes had also sat in the whites-only section, and his case had never made it to trial. However, in Plessy’s case, the Supreme Court was able to rule the new laws constitutional in a seven to one decision; “separate but equal” would be completely legal if both sections are equal.
Plessy v. Ferguson was a supreme court case in 1896 and the decision entrenched legal segregation and it made “separate but equal” the law of the land. Brown v. Board of Education was also a supreme court case in 1954 and it ended legal segregation. Plessy was a black man (great grandmother was black) and Plessy violated Louisiana law by sitting in the white part of the train. Plessy sued based on the 14th Amendment and Equal Protection clause. Brown v. Board was a supreme court case that Brown sued the board of Education because the schools were unequal.
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.
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
The “Plessy V. Ferguson” case is a very important case in U.S. history and U.S. civil rights, as it legalized segregation for decades. Homer Plessy appeared to a white man living a Louisiana, but he was ⅛ black, which was considered black in Louisiana. When Plessy tried to board a “whites only” railroad car in protest of Louisiana's “Separate Car Act” that legally separated train cars, he was arrested when he refused to move to colored car on the train. Once the case went through both district and state courts, it moved up to the U.S. Supreme Court where Plessy and his attorney argued that the law ostracized the colored people from the white, which would be unconstitutional. This was known as the “Plessy V. Ferguson” case.
Plessy v. Ferguson case was a racial incident that happened in 1892 and the court date was set on 1896. Plessy fought his battle, but the odds were against him. Plessy v. Ferguson case was a landmark case which had an impact on the segregation law “separate but equal.” It changed the daily lives of African American beings during the 1900’s.
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
One man, Homer Plessy refused to move to a black train car when asked. This eventually started the Plessy v. Ferguson Court Case. Plessy V. Ferguson decided the “separate but equal” doctrine, meaning that the black and whites could have separate facilities, as long as they were the same in equality. In 1890, U.S government officials decided to put the Separate Car Act into place in Louisiana.
The 14th amendment was not in conflict because that deals with someone being deprived of life, liberty, or property and equal protection in laws. Plessy was not deprived of life, liberty or property because it was a state law that separation was necessary constitutional. Touching on the fact that Plessy is 7/8 Caucasian Mr. Justice Brown states, “It is up to the state, some holding that any visible admixture of black blood stamps the person as belonging to the colored race, others that it depends upon the preponderance of blood, and still others that the predominance of white blood must only be in the proportion of three fourths.” After this court decision it enabled the foundation for Jim Crow laws to be put in place and stay there till mid
Plessy v. Ferguson had upheld segregation of our society. This case was in Louisiana a southern state, which had enacted a Jim Crow law the Separate Car Act which made whites and blacks have to ride in separate trains. Mr. Plessy was a mixed race man who was mostly white and was arrested for sitting in the all white train and refusing to move. This happened in 1892 and Plessy was brought to Criminal Court in New Orleans, where Judge Ferguson had upheld the law. Plessy challenged this ruling and was brought to the supreme court of the United States.
Decades ago, children of various races could not go to school together in many locations of the United States. School districts could segregate students, legally, into different schools according to the color of their skin. The law said these separate schools had to be equal. Many schools for children that possessed color were of lesser quality than the schools for white students. To have separate schools for the black and white children became a basic rule in southern society.
Reconstruction caused prejudice and inequality. To elaborate, the creation of the Ku Klux Klan and the Black Codes were both in the time period of reconstruction, which caused chaos and violence throughout the Union. One of the goals of reconstruction was to repair the economy in the South, because it depended on slavery, which was now illegal, due to the thirteenth amendment. The South’s economic system now depended on Sharecropping, which caused former slaves to be in constant debt and was unjust to the black society. The reconstruction time period, was a time of dispute between the Union.
To begin with, the whites seemed to violate the 14th Amendment which ensured equal protection under the law for all citizens. Going back to about 1892, Homer Plessy’s case made it through the Louisiana court system, but of course Louisiana tried to get around it,
This case is most known for legally establishing the law in the United States the “separate but equal” doctrine, also known as segregation. The separate but equal doctrine has been engrained in the segregated South during the Jim Crow era. The infamous decision in Plessy v. Ferguson did not only physically separate whites and blacks, but public facilities, including school systems, buses, water fountains, lunch counters, restrooms, movie theaters, and courtrooms.
This articulates that even years after African Americans are still not free and they’re not getting the freedom they deserve. People have a fixed mindset that African Americans should be regarded as nonentities but that is now slowly changing