Essay On Segregation And Discrimination Of African Americans

Protest against injustice is deeply rooted in the African American experience. The origins of the civil rights movement date much further back than the 1954 Supreme Court ruling on Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka which said, "separate but equal" schools violated the Constitution. From the earliest slave revolts in this country over 400 years ago, African Americans strove to gain full participation in every aspect of political, economic and social life in the United States.

In the 1960’s, black and white individuals were not recognized as being equal. The two races were treated differently, and the African Americans did not enjoy the same freedoms as the whites. The African Americans never had a chance to speak their mind, voice their opinions, or enjoy the same luxuries that the white people attained. Through various actions/efforts like the lunch counter sit-ins, freedom rides, and bus boycotts, the black people confronted segregation face on and worked to achieve equality and freedom.

In Spite of the devastating history of segregation in the United States. A lot has changed in the past fifty years since segregation ended. The United States shifted from arresting African Americans for using “white only” facilities to integrated schools all over the country. Influential individuals such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr helped pave the way for African Americans to live as equals to along with their white counterparts in the United States of America.

In Plessy v. Ferguson, (1896) 163 U.S. 537, 16 S. Ct. 1138, 41 L. Ed. 256 the courts ruled in favor of the Respondent, Ferguson, finding that since the trains accommodated black passenger’s with equal accommodations,

Plessy v. Ferguson , a very important case of 1896 in which the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the legality of racial segregation. At the time of the ruling, segregation between blacks and whites already existed in most schools, restaurants, and other public facilities in the American South. In the Plessy decision, the Supreme Court ruled that such segregation did not violate the 14th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. This amendment provides equal protection of the law to all U.S. citizens, regardless of race. The court ruled in Plessy that racial segregation was legal as long as the separate facilities for blacks and whites were “equal.”

It is known as the land of the free and home of the brave. It’s the United States of America one of the greatest countries to live in. A country where many other people from around the world wish they lived in. “This country is home to five percent of the world’s population” (13th, Netflix). But I ask is it really the land of the free for everyone? Unfair treatment to African Americans has been around for decades and it’s gone from slavery, to mass incarceration, to police brutality, and to racism that still occurs in the present time. African Americans make up to twelve point three percent of the United States. Through the decades mass incarceration of African Americans has skyrocketed. The dramatic increase in mass incarceration of African Americans has now left more blacks in prison then there was during the time of slavery. Since America started taking more and more prisoners throughout the years a film documentary named 13th illustrates that “the United States now home to twenty five percent of the world’s prisoners” and that “1 and 4 human beings are locked up with their hands on bars in this country they call the land of the free” (Netflix). Millions of dollars were spent building more and more prisons to contain and hold all of the prisoners from over the years of incarcerating so much people. So the United States may be known as the land of the free, but to the African American people it isn’t or hasn’t always been so free for them.

The Plessy v Ferguson case was a U.S. Supreme Case in 1896 that upheld the constitution of segregation. This case started when Homer Plessy refused to sit in a Jim Crow Car therefore breaking a law in Louisiana in the year 1892. He had bought a first class ticket and then took his seat in a white-only car. Homer Plessy was arrested and imprisoned immediately. In the court Plessy argued that his Constitutional rights were violated, and he filed a petition against John H. Ferguson. Plessy argued that the segregation law violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth and Thirteenth amendment. The Fourteenth Amendment keeps states from denying equal protection of the laws to every person and the Thirteenth Amendment banned slavery. The court denied Plessy’s petition and said that the Thirteenth Amendment only had to deal with slavery and nothing else.

In 1896 the U.S. Supreme Court case upheld the constitution of segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine in the Plessy vs. Ferguson case. This case examined one key issue, was it constitutional to make black people sit in separate cars from white people? In 1890, Homer Plessy broke the law in Louisiana, by sitting in the white people car and he was 1/8 black and 7/8 white. The state of Louisiana passed the Separate Car Act, which required railway companies to have "separate but equal." There was punishment for not following the law which if a person would sit in the wrong car they had to pay $25 fine or go to jail for 20 days. Plessy was asked to move, but he refused and was arrested. When he was sent to jail he argued that Separated car acts violated the 14th amendment. Plessy took his case to the U.S. Supreme Court and it was

One of the most historic cases in Supreme Court history is the Plessy v. Ferguson case of 1896. Plessy v. Ferguson was a trial that ruled segregation as legal, as long as separate, equal facilities were provided for both races. After the Reconstruction era had dispersed, the Jim Crow laws appeared. The Separate Car Act was one of the Jim Crow laws enacted upon by the Louisiana State Legislature. This law stated that blacks and whites

The Plessy v. Ferguson (16 U.S. 537 (1896) case was argued on April 13, 1896 and decided May 18, 1896, which became the standard for a long line of “separate but equal” decisions upholding the Jim Crow laws, and its consequences echoed in American education, business, and polices for decades to come.

Plessy v Ferguson: Plessy v Ferguson was a Supreme Court case ruled that segregated ‘equal but separate’ a public compromise for both colored and whites don’t violate the fourteenth amendment that made segregation legal.

In the case Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896 took place during the era of Jim Crow laws which advocated for separate but equal laws. Plessy was presumed colored due to the one-eighth black factor under the Louisiana law. It was held that Plessy was guilty since the race-based Jim Crow laws, which were applied in his conviction, were not in violation of the Constitution as long as the State of Louisiana proffered the separate but equal treatment. However, in the ruling, one jury member chose to dissent by stating that the Constitution is color blind and thus could not allow for different treatment of classes of citizens based on skin color.

The Plessy vs Ferguson case was one of the first cases that segregation came into question within the Supreme Court. The case involved a man named Homer Plessy, who at the time was only half black,, and refused to sit in a Jim Crow train car. He was always use to being able to pass off as a white male but this situation was different. He was brought before Judge John Ferguson in New Orleans who made an effort to uphold the state law on segregation on public property. The case eventually reached the Supreme Court on the stance that it was in direct contradiction to the 13th and 14th Amendments but was later put to a vote with a result of 7:1 in the favor of the judge. The Supreme Court later determined that the state law did not impede on the 14th amendment due to the fact that the law itself did not imply that either race was inferior but instead was deemed a reasonable regulation. This was the first time that segregation but equal laws became constitutional in the eyes of the Supreme Court. After this verdict,

Plessey vs Ferguson- Decision by the US Supreme Court that confirmed the principle of “separate but equal” and minority segregation.

Education has always been valued in the African American community. During slavery freed slaves and those held captive, organized to educate themselves. After emancipation the value of education became even more important to ex-slaves, as it was their emblem of freedom and a means to full participation in American Society (Newby & Tyack, 1971). During this time many schools for African Americans were both founded and maintained by African Americans. African Americans continued to provide education throughout their own communities well into the 1930’s (Green, McIntosh, Cook-Morales, & Robinson-Zanartu, 2005). The atmosphere of these schools resembled a family. The