Why Is Plessy V. Ferguson Important

Plessy vs Ferguson : A Landmark case While I was researching the Plessy Vs Ferguson case I found many interesting facts. Plessy's life before the case was an average life he had many jobs . He worked as a shoemaker ,an insurance agent and clerk ,and he stepped onto the stage of history in June 1892 (Cassimere). One major problem he had in life was his race, he was considered to be Plessy was an “octoroon”—a person who had one black great-grandparent (Cassimere).

Plessy v. Ferguson Case The Plessy v. Ferguson case is often looked at as one of the most well-known cases to make it to the U.S. Supreme Court. This case took place in 1896 and received much attention from both the black and white press, and was mainly accountable for the spread of segregation in the United States. In 1890, Louisiana passed a law that required blacks and whites to be separated on railroad cars.

On June 7th, 1892, Homer Plessy boarded a Louisiana train with a first class ticket. Plessy was one-eighth black, and was therefore an easily white-passing man. When he seated himself in the whites-only carriage of the train, he was soon forcibly removed and placed under arrest. The reason for his imprisonment was for ‘violating an act of the General Assembly of the State,’ as specified in the Supreme Court’s transcript of the Plessy v. Ferguson case. At the time, a law was in place in the state of Louisiana dictating that people of color and whites must sit in separate train carriages.

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.

Ferguson, the majority believed that the 13th Amendment was "too clear for argument" and the 14th Amendment stated “it could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social…equality.” The court then identified that the 14th Amendment was only concerned with legal equality rather than social equality, so putting different races in separate rail cars wasn't unconstitutional. It was a 7-1 vote therefore the dissenting opinion only consisted of one person, Justice John Marshall Harlan, he states “than state enactments which, in fact, proceed on the ground that colored citizens are so inferior and degraded that they cannot be allowed to sit in public coaches occupied by white citizens? That, as all will admit, is the real meaning of such legislation as was enacted in Louisiana.

However it dose not say anything about stopping distinctions based on color, such as segregation. In conclusion the Supreme Court ruled that segregation is okay as long as the different parties are treated equally. The Supreme Court has the job of interpreting the constitution. So when a one eighth black man named Plessy Ferguson was questioning the constitutionality of the Louisiana state Separate Car Act he took it to them.

Ferguson” written in 1896 by Mr. Justice Brown grotesquely discriminated against people of color and attempted to justify it using the 14th Amendment as a loophole for blatant racism. The document was written following the civil war in the southern state of Louisiana. The southern United States still had a rather old fashioned way of thinking towards equality and was not happy with the outcome of the Civil War years after its settlements. Racism against people of color was still heavily favored because they were still viewed as inhumane, and unworthy of equal treatment. The essential basis of the document “Plessy v. Ferguson” reinstates laws concerning the accommodations of railways for “colored people” and whites.

The Plessy v Ferguson case originated from the arrest of Homer Plessy. He decided to sit in the car that was designated for white people, because

Ferguson began because a man was investigating his freedom. Homer Plessy sat in the white section on a train, which resulted in his arrest for violating state law. Soon after, Plessy decided to go to the Criminal District Court for the Parish of Orleans, where his lawyer, Albion W. Tourgée argued that the law requiring “separate but equal accommodations” was unconstitutional. Immediately, the Judge John H. Ferguson ignorantly ruled against him, and Plessy took his case to the Supreme Court. Later, the Supreme Court Justices decided to enable the expansion of “separate but equal” policy to be spread across the south.

One of the Supreme Court Cases that were held was Plessy V. Ferguson, which was argued on April 18, 1896 until May 18, 1896. This issue was over the law that trains, would have to provide separate accommodations to both black and white races equally. One man who was mostly Caucasian and partially African had the rights of a white citizen. For this reason, he bought a ticket for first class, however was not allowed to be seated within this area due to the judgment of a conductor. The man who is Plessy, refused what he was told to do and as a result was taken off to be imprisoned in jail.

This case came from Louisiana where in 1890 had a law passed that stated “equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races” on its railroads. Plessy in 1892 had bought a first class ticket and was confronted and was forced to sit in what they called “Jim Crow train”. When Plessy refused, they sent him to the Criminal Court in New Orleans who stayed true to the state law, the case was then sent to the Supreme Court. It was also brought up that it violates the 13th and 14th amendments. That idea was brought down when the vote came to 7-1 and said that the law only “implies merely a legal distinction” between the two races and that it didn’t go against the 13th amendment forbidding involuntary servitude.

Case Analysis: Plessy v. Ferguson Citation: Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896) Argued: April 18, 1896 Date Decided: May 18, 1896 Vote: 7-1: This decision was in favor of Ferguson. The court ruled that segregation alone does not necessarily establish discrimination that goes against the law.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) decision formally introduced “Jim Crow” laws to the nation. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately maintained that, “as long as equal facilities were provided to citizens, classification of individuals by race was neither a violation of the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause nor inhibitory of the Black community’s advancement” (Guthrie, 2004, p 7-8). For the era, which followed the Supreme Court ruling, African Americans struggled for an equal life in society and tried to gain rights. With the creation of the NAACP in 1909 it “became instrumental in advocating the rights of its minority constituency…”

Oliver Brown, whose child was denied entry to a white Topeka school, fought to break the ruling of the Plessy v. Ferguson case from 1896. The ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson stated that the separation of schools were constitutional as long as both schools were equal. Brown believed the African American schools in Topeka were not equal to the white schools. He believed his daughter’s rejection was a violation of the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause. However, the court ruled the schools to be “substantially” equal enough that the denial was constitutional under the Plessy doctrine.

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