The Separate Car Act: Plessy V. Ferguson Of 1896

969 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: History of racism in America

quality. This act sparked the test case Plessy v. Ferguson of 1896. Homer Adolph Plessy, who was 1/8th African-American, sat in the whites-only car and was consequently arrested. Plessy’s side argued that the Separate Car Act was a violation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Yet, the majority ruled that although segregation was separate, it was equal. Therefore, segregation became legal in all states. The ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson was not overturned until 1954 by Brown v. Board of Education. All-white schools did not allow black students to attend, so the NAACP filed a lawsuit on behalf of Linda Brown Smith and 4 others in 1951. Under a unanimous decision, the court declared that separate was not equal and segregation …show more content…

In inspiration of Rosa Park’s actions, many college students took a part of sit-ins for civil rights. “When students refused to leave,” they were denied service and “the police arrested and jailed them,” just like Rosa Parks. They needed to do more, so in 1960, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Community (SNCC) formed. The SNCC would travel to bus stations to peacefully assemble in hopes to desegregate buses. Law enforcement treated them with brutality and denied them their “basic constitutional rights to free speech and peaceful assembly.” In 1963, King organized peaceful marches in Birmingham, but just like all other African American movements, whites responded with violence. The violence of the marches was so brutal, that it finally encouraged, “President John F. Kennedy to propose important civil rights legislation.” In order to push forward a civil rights legislation, “The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom… in August 1963…” This eventually lead to a new civil rights …show more content…

That is why Lincoln believed the birth of a new freedom was necessary: “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Securing the civil rights of African Americans has been a process, which has not reached its end. Supreme Court cases and Civil Rights acts needed to pass in order to guarantee the civil rights of blacks. Racial discrimination, although touched upon, is not fully addressed in these cases and acts. Therefore, I believe that the civil rights of African Americans are still not fully protected. The new birth of freedom has not been reached yet, not until the United States is not divided and everyone is fully equal. Before we reach that freedom, we are at risk of perishing, which is what Abraham Lincoln

Show More
Related

  • Equal Protection And Public Education

    763 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the 1954 court ruling of Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of schools was unconstitutional and violated the Fourteenth Amendment (Justia, n.d.). During the discussion, the separate but equal ruling in 1896 from Plessy v. Ferguson was found to cause black students to feel inferior because white schools were the superior of the two. Furthermore, the ruling states that black students missed out on opportunities that could be provided under a system of desegregation (Justia, n.d.). So the process of classification and how to balance schools according to race began to take place.

    Read More

  • Plessy V Ferguson Essay

    545 Words  | 2 Pages

    Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896, is a landmark in United States Supreme Court’s decision in the United States, of state laws requiring racial segregation in private businesses, under the doctrine of separate but equal.

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of The Separate Car Bill

    1309 Words  | 3 Pages

    For over 50 years, the southern states of the American enforced a policy of separate accommodations for blacks and whites on the buses and trains, and in hotels, theaters and schools. In 1890, the Louisiana State Legislature proposed the Separate Car Bill which segregated Blacks from Whites in separate but equal conditions on train cars. Violations of the law were considered as a misdemeanor crime that would give punishment by charge a fine of at most $25 or twenty days arrest in jail. Even though blacks superficially got their rights, but many of them still disagreed with the ruling, and felt that the separating blacks from whites in public facilities created inequality and marked one race as inferior to another. Homer Plessy, who has seven-eighths Caucasian descent and one-eighth African descent attempted to sit in an all-white-railroad car in 1896.

    Read More

  • Plessy V. Ferguson Case Summary

    1287 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Brown v Board of Education

    2329 Words  | 5 Pages

    The request for an injunction pushed the court to make a difficult decision. On one hand, the judges agreed with the Browns; saying that: “Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children...A sense of inferiority affects the motivation of a child to learn” (The National Center For Public Research). On the other hand, the precedent of Plessy v. Ferguson allowed separate but equal school systems for blacks and whites, and no Supreme Court ruling had overturned Plessy yet. Be...

    Read More

  • Plessey V. Ferguson (1896) Landmark Supreme Court Case

    1022 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to PBS’s record of landmark court cases, Plessey v. Ferguson was a case about a man who was one-eighth African American that purchased a first class ticket and sat in a white-only section. He was arrested and imprisoned. The case cited the Equal Right Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment that "any person within their jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws," The court ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment was referring to protecting civil and political rights such as serving on juries and voting, but not “social rights” such as sitting on a specific car on a train. Justice John Marshall was the only judge to dissent he said “"in view of the Constitution, in the eye of the law, there is

    Read More

  • Research Paper On Plessy V. Ferguson

    99 Words  | 1 Pages

    In this paragraph I will tell what led up to Plessy V. Ferguson, what the supreme court ruled, and how it impacted the time period. The segregation of other races by the Jim Crow Laws led to Plessy V. Ferguson. The case was to determine whether or not the Jim Crow Laws were constitutional. The supreme court determined that the Jim Crow Laws were constitutional under the fourteenth Amendment, in the guise of equal but separate. The ruling opened the way for even more segregation laws and while they said equal but separate that was very rarely the case.

    Read More

  • Why Is Plessy V. Ferguson Important

    509 Words  | 2 Pages

    Louisiana passed a law that required segregation between different races is constitutional under the 14th Amendment, as long as the “separate but equal doctrine” is obliged between the different races. The Plessy v. Ferguson case claimed that segregation was legal, as long as equal facilities were provided for both races. The associate justices voted 7 to 1. The majority opinion was written by Henry B. Brown and the opinion was written by Justice John M. Harlan. In 1954, Brown v. Board of Education case overturned the decision of the Plessy v. Ferguson case ruling.

    Read More

  • Success and Failure of the Civil Rights Movement

    1574 Words  | 4 Pages

    Success was a big part of the Civil Rights Movement. Starting with the year 1954, there were some major victories in favor of African Americans. In 1954, the landmark trial Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka Kansas ruled that segregation in public education was unfair. This unanimous Supreme Court decision overturned the prior Plessy vs. Ferguson case during which the “separate but equal” doctrine was created and abused. One year later, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. launched a bus boycott in Montgomery Alabama after Ms. Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat in the “colored section”. This boycott, which lasted more than a year, led to the desegregation of buses in 1956. Group efforts greatly contributed to the success of the movement. This is not only shown by the successful nature of the bus boycott, but it is shown through the success of Martin Luther King’s SCLC or Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The conference was notable for peacefully protesting, nonviolence, and civil disobedience. Thanks to the SCLC, sit-ins and boycotts became popular during this time, adding to the movement’s accomplishments. The effective nature of the sit-in was shown during 1960 when a group of four black college students sat down at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in hopes of being served. While they were not served the first time they commenced their sit-in, they were not forced to leave the establishment; their lack of response to the heckling...

    Read More

  • Ain't Scared of your Jails

    1527 Words  | 4 Pages

    One of the first documented incidents of the sit-ins for the civil rights movement was on February 1, 1960 in Nashville, Tennessee. Four college African-Americans sat at a lunch counter and refused to leave. During this time, blacks were not allowed to sit at certain lunch counters that were reserved for white people. These black students sat at a white lunch counter and refused to leave. This sit-in was a direct challenge to southern tradition. Trained in non-violence, the students refused to fight back and later were arrested by Nashville police. The students were drawn to activist Jim Lossen and his workshops of non-violence. The non-violent workshops were training on how to practice non-violent protests. John Lewis, Angela Butler, and Diane Nash led students to the first lunch counter sit-in. Diane Nash said, "We were scared to death because we didn't know what was going to happen." For two weeks there were no incidences with violence. This all changed on February 27, 1960, when white people started to beat the students. Nashville police did nothing to protect the black students. The students remained true to their training in non-violence and refused to fight back. When the police vans arrived, more than eighty demonstrators were arrested and summarily charged for disorderly conduct. The demonstrators knew they would be arrested. So, they planned that as soon as the first wave of demonstrators was arrested, a second wave of demonstrators would take their place. If and when the second wave of demonstrators were arrested and removed, a third would take their place. The students planned for multiple waves of demonstrators.

    Read More

  • Jim Crow Law: Plessy Vs. Ferguson

    136 Words  | 1 Pages

    In 1865, the 13th amendment had implemented which made slavery illegal in the United States. And in 1896, Plessy v. Ferguson — a Supreme Court decision which upheld the constitutionality requiring racial segregation in public facilities under the doctrine of “separate but equal”. Although the Declaration of Independence stated that “All men are created equal” and it seems that the U.S had made an effort to advocate equality through various acts, African Americans were treated differently than the Whites, especially in the South. Jim Crow Law was enforced until 1965 which decreed segregation of public schools, public transportation and public facilities. Although the African Americans felt that they were treated unequally, it was not until

    Read More

  • Plessy V. Ferguson Case Study

    438 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the Plessy v. Ferguson case of 1896, the Court ruled segregation constitutional as long as the white and nonwhite facilities were physically equal (163 U.S. 537). In 1938, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) began and continually challenged the decision, resulting in several small victories where facilities were ordered to integrate. Furthermore, the Fair Employment Practices Commission called for the integration of labor unions, and President Truman ordered desegregation of the armed forces. In 1953, the parents of Linda Brown, an eight-year-old African American girl living in Kansas, filed suit against the Board of Education of Topeka in an attempt to force the school to enroll her at a white campus closer to home. Brown appealed the Federal District Court’s decision that equal segregated public schools were constitutional to the U.S.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Plessy Vs Ferguson

    562 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Plessy v. Ferguson case took place on May 18, 1896 when a man named Homer Plessy sat in the "white" section in one of the cars on a train. The judge at this time was John Howard Ferguson. He had previously declared the separate cars were "unconstitutional on trains

    Read More

  • Brown V. Board Of Education Case Study

    868 Words  | 2 Pages

    On May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court face with the most difficult ruling in the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. It unanimously held that the racial segregation of children in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and it over turns Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) decision of separate but equal because White public schools and Black public schools were not equal. The lawsuit was filed by a woman name Oliver Brown, who children was denied access to the Topeka’s White schools. She sued the school board because the city of Topeka violated the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause because the Topeka’s black and white schools were not equal to each other in terms of education

    Read More

  • The Lunch Counter Movement

    154 Words  | 1 Pages

    On February 1st, 1960, in Greensboro, North Carolina, four African-American college students sat down at a whites-only lunch counter. They asked for coffee, and were refused service. Still, the students waited patiently to be served. They were threatened, and intimidated, but they did not leave. This sparked a wave of sit-ins all through the South. Sometimes the students were beaten, and many times they were arrested. Once the students at the lunch counters were arrested, a new group took their place. The SNCC was created in response to this, which stands for the student nonviolent coordinating committee, and they organized sit-ins and other protests all over the country.

    Read More

More about The Separate Car Act: Plessy V. Ferguson Of 1896

Open Document