On May 17, 1954, the Warren court unanimously struck down the ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson and ended both the use of “Separate but Equal” and de jure racial segregation of blacks in America. This made Brown v. Board of Education (347 U.S. 483 [1954]) one of the most important cases of the civil rights movement as it allowed the African-American community to progress further in their quest to obtain equal rights with other races in America.
Homer Plessy was recruited to board a train by the Citizens Committee to test the Constitutionality of Louisiana’s Separate Car Act. Mr. Plessy , a thirty year old colored shoemaker and resident of Louisiana, boarded a railroad train on June 7th, 1892 that was for white use only. He was asked the leave the car and move to the railroad car designated for colored use, and he subsequently refused stating that he was only 1/8th black. Consequently he was arrested and charged with violating Louisiana’s Separate Car Act of 1890 (”Landmark Supreme Court Cases”). In his case he argued using the Fourteenth Amendment, which, in essence states that “life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”
In a 7-1 decision, the court ruled in the favor of Ferguson. Associate Justice Henry Brown stated when the verdict was delivered, “If the civil and political rights of both races be equal, one cannot be inferior to the other civilly or politically. If one race be inferior to the other socially, the Constitution of the United States cannot put them upon the same plane” ("OurDocuments.gov"). The case made de jure segregation legal and created systematic segregation under the law. This type of segregation was legal from that point on as the law of the land. Separate but Equal may seem to uphold equality o...
... middle of paper ...
...Ronald L. F. "Creating Jim Crow: In-Depth Essay." The History of Jim Crow. Web. 20 Nov. 2009.
Finkelman, Paul. "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka." Encarta. Microsoft. Web. 31 Oct. 2009.
"Jim Crow and the 1890s." Ferris State University. Web. 25 Nov. 2009.
Johnson, Letha E. "Brown v. Topeka Board of Education Oral History Collection." Kansas Historical Society. Web. 27 Nov. 2009.
"Our Documents - Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)." OurDocuments.gov. Web. 22 Nov. 2009.
"PLESSY v. FERGUSON, 163 U.S. 537 (1896)." FindLaw: Cases and Codes. Web. 26 Nov. 2009.
"Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)." Landmark Supreme Court Cases. Web. 22 Nov. 2009.
"School facilities for Negroes here held comparable (8/3/51)." The Topeka Capital Journal. 16 Mar. 2004. Web. 25 Nov. 2009.
"Separate but Equal - Separate Is Not Equal." National Museum of American History. Web. 22 Nov. 2009.
The Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896) ‘equal but separate’ decision robbed it of its meaning and confirmed this wasn’t the case as the court indicated this ruling did not violate black citizenship and did not imply superior and inferior treatment ,but it indeed did as it openly permitted racial discrimination in a landmark decision of a 8-1 majority ruling, it being said was controversial, as white schools and facilities received near to more than double funding than black facilities negatively contradicted the movement previous efforts on equality and maintaining that oppression on
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.
Segregation has played a substantial role throughout American history. Many court cases and different trials in different time periods have proven that a person’s skin color can dictate many things, such as where they go to school and where they sit on public transportation. The struggle to achieve equality was made even more difficult by the legislation of the Plessy vs. Ferguson case.
The Plessy v Ferguson case would be overturned, ruling the “separate but equal” law to be unconstitutional. Melba Beals was in school that day and was sent home early with the warning to hurry and stay in groups. Even so, it had been decades since the passing of the Fourteenth Amendment. No much had changed. Melba’s teacher knew that this ruling would cause rage among the citizens of Little Rock and she was right.
Board of Education was a United States Supreme Court case in 1954 that the court declared state laws to establish separate public schools for black segregated public schools to be unconstitutional. Brown v. Board of Education was filed against the Topeka, Kansas school board by plaintiff Oliver Brown, parent of one of the children that access was denied to Topeka’s none colored schools. Brown claimed that Topeka 's racial segregation violated the Constitution 's Equal Protection Clause because, the city 's black and white schools were not equal to each other. However, the court dismissed and claimed and clarified that segregated public schools were "substantially" equal enough to be constitutional under the Plessy doctrine. After hearing what the court had said to Brown he decided to appeal the Supreme Court. When Chief Justice Earl Warren stepped in the court spoke in an unanimous decision written by Warren himself stating that, racial segregation of children in public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which states that "no state shall make or enforce any law which shall ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." Also congress noticed that the Amendment did not prohibit integration and that the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees equal education to both black and white students. Since the supreme court noticed this issue they had to focus on racial equality and galvanized and developed civil
The famous Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka can be used to illustrate when judicial review should be implemented to aid one or a faction in actions that are unconstitutional. In the town of Topeka, Kansas a black third-grader was forced to walk one mile through a switchyard in order to get to her black elementary school, although a white elementary school was only a few blocks away. Her parents attempted to enroll her into the white school but were repeatedly denied. The Brown v. Board of Education case was tried on behalf of the black minority that was the target of racial segregation in public schools.
Cozzens, Lisa. "Plessy v. Ferguson." After the Civil War:. N.p., 17 Sept. 1999. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.
Lasting hatred from the civil war, and anger towards minorities because they took jobs in the north probably set the foundation for these laws, but it has become difficult to prove. In this essay, I will explain how the Separate but Equal Laws of twentieth century America crippled minorities of that time period forever. Separate but Equal doctrine existed long before the Supreme Court accepted it into law, and on multiple occasions it arose as an issue before then. In 1865, southern states passed laws called “Black Codes,” which created restrictions on the freed African Americans in the South. This became the start of legal segregation as juries couldn’t have African Americans, public schools became segregated, and African Americans had restrictions on testifying against majorities.
Before the decision of Brown v. Board of Education, many people accepted school segregation and, in most of the southern states, required segregation. Schools during this time were supposed to uphold the “separate but equal” standard set during the 1896 case of Plessy v. Ferguson; however, most, if not all, of the “black” schools were not comparable to the “white” schools. The resources the “white” schools had available definitely exceed the resources given to “black” schools not only in quantity, but also in quality. Brown v. Board of Education was not the first case that assaulted the public school segregation in the south. The title of the case was shortened from Oliver Brown ET. Al. v. the Board of Education of Topeka Kansas. The official titled included reference to the other twelve cases that were started in the early 1950’s that came from South Carolina, Virginia, Delaware and the District of Columbia. The case carried Oliver Brown’s name because he was the only male parent fighting for integration. The case of Brown v. Board o...
The next big step in the civil rights movement came in 1954, with the BROWN vs. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF TOPEKA case, where Thurgood Marshall, representing Brown, argued that segregation was against the 4th Amendment of the American constitution. The Supreme Court ruled, against President Eisenhower’s wishes, in favour of Brown, which set a precedent in education, that schools should no longer be segregated. This was the case which completely overturned the Jim Crow Laws by overturning Plessy vs. Ferguson.
Plessy vs Ferguson was a case in which it stated a precedent. In 1892, an African American named Homer Plessy did not give up his seat to a white man("HISTORY OF BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION"). He then got arrested and taken to jail. Plessy than went to the Supreme Court to argue that his Fourteenth Amendment was violated. However, the Supreme Court ruled against Plessy and set the precedent that “separate but equal” is really equal("HISTORY OF BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION") .
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...
In 1896 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law of racial segregation in public. It was known as separate but equal. Yet one cannot be equal, because Cauca...
... Brown v. Board of Education. n.d. 8 May 2014 http://www.pbs.org/jefferson/enlight/brown.htm>. History:
Unger, Harlow G. "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas." Encyclopedia of American Education, 3rd Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. African-American History Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 19 Nov. 2011.