Plessy V. Ferguson Case Summary

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This court case, one that impacted many people and the society at the time, began in Topeka, Kansas and heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. It was actually two decisions, Brown I and Brown II, and five cases; all centered around racial segregation. The Supreme Court initially did not want to take on the case of racial segregation because of the 1896 case Plessy v. Ferguson. This previous case, between Homer Plessy and John Ferguson, had ruled that separate but equal facilities were constitutional. It set a precedent that the Supreme Court itself did not want to challenge. In summary, this case was established when Plessy, a man with a white appearance but had an African American background, opted for a seat in a “white” section of a car on the …show more content…

This is mentioned whenever the Fourteenth Amendment was challenged. The unanimous decision for Brown in Brown v. Board of Education helped to expand the specific constitutional civil liberty of equal protection. It happened when the judges decided to reverse the separate but equal precedent that was set almost 60 years earlier. If it wasn’t for the efforts of Charles Hamilton Houston, Thurgood Marshall and Earl Warren this decision would probably not have been reached. Houston was a dean of the Howard Law School and a vital member of the NAACP. The NAACP organization set the stage for these cases by desegregating law universities in cases like Sweatt v. Painter. He was also connected to Thurgood Marshall since Marshall graduated from Howard Law School. Marshall was essential as he was the defense lawyer in Brown v. Board of Education. He assisted in arguing for Brown and eventually winning his case. Finally Warren wasn’t originally on the Supreme Court until Chief Justice Vinson died and President Eisenhower appointed Warren. Warren had a large part in making the Court’s decision unanimous through multiple rearguements, presenting it as a moral issue, stating that voting for desegregation would open up another topic of how the actual desegregation would occur, and giving a “broad outline of his opinion.” Throughout these methods Warren was able to persuade Jackson and Reed to agree with desegregation while maintaining the support he previously

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