Plessey V. Ferguson Supreme Court Case Study

Education has long been regarded as a valuable asset for all of America's youth. Yet, when this benefit is denied to a specific group, measures must be taken to protect its educational right. In the 1950's, a courageous group of activists launched a legal attack on segregation in schools. At the head of this attack was NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall; his legal strategies would contribute greatly to the dissolution of educational segregation.

“Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.” Said Justice John Marshall Harlan in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson. (“Oyez, Oyez, Oh Yay!”) In 1890 Louisiana surprisingly got the ability to pass a law called the Separate Car Act that said that all railroad companies that carried passengers must provide separate but equal services for both white and non-white passengers. (“Landmark Cases”) The penalty for sitting in a white-designated railroad car when you were not of that ethnicity was a fine of twenty-five dollars or twenty days in jail. (“Landmark Cases”) There was a doctrine passed that everything was “separate but equal.” This doctrine was false however because in almost all situations the

From 1861-1865, the Civil war raged throughout the states, so when it ended the Fourteenth Amendment made provisions for the newly freed slaves with the intention of equality. The Civil Rights act of 1875 stated all races were entitled to equal treatment in public accommodation, so as an act of civil disobedience, Homer Pleassy, a shoemaker, entered a train car for white citizens, sat down, and identified himself as a black man.

Plessy v. Ferguson This was a petition filed in the supreme court of Louisiana in 1896, by Homer Plessy, the plaintiff. He filed this petition against the Honorable John H. Ferguson, judge of The petitioner was a citizen of the United States and a descent meaning he had both white and African American ethnic backgrounds. Keep in mind that at this time Blacks were not considered equal to whites.

The landmark case of Plessy v. Ferguson is a Constitutional case in which it had to be decided who the constitution meant when it said "all men are created equal." Brown v. The Board of Education is the reason for diversity in schools. These cases are very important to our constitution and to the people being governed by the constitution because it decided the fate of our nation and of our people. They show the degree of federalism and how much attention the government devoted to it. The amendments in the constitution do not apply to a simple race nor ethnicity. Throughout history laws have been made and destroyed at the cost of colored

When this case was taken to state level, it sadly lost the case. They referred to the Plessy vs. Ferguson case. That case had allowed had allowed the separation between black and white. The Plessy Vs. Ferguson case stated that the separation was not violating any law or amendment. The state was allowing the separation because they said “It will better preparing the children for when they get later treated like this when there grown up." During this time, African American weren't allowed to eat in the same restaurants, drink from the same water fountains, or even ride in the same car train as white people. After losing the state case, Oliver and the NAACP didn't stop there. They took it to the next level. Oliver Brown and the NAACP took the

Racism has been a part of our country since the early ages. Historically, racism and equality have been central issues that have divided our country. Many actions from the past such as the decision in the Plessy versus Ferguson case, and present day actions like The Mississippi school system case have been the ongoing battle in today 's society. The struggle to achieve equality was made even more difficult by the legislation that is now considered racist in the Plessy versus Ferguson case.

7 out of 8 judges in the Plessy vs. Ferguson case said that segregation was constitutional. The Supreme Court Case between Homer Adolf Plessy and John Howard Ferguson. The object of the case was to try to decide whether or not segregation was constitutional. Mr. Plessy was 30 years old when the case started. He was the prosecutor in the case. The case was originally called “Plessy v. The State of Louisiana”. Homer Adolf Plessy was a determined man who worked hard at abolishing segregation base on your race and would do anything, including getting arrested, to get the message out that segregation was a bad thing, and it needed to come to an end.

Segregation violates the Equal Protection Clause because according to the 14th Amendment “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States”. States do not have the power to segregate communities, or individuals because of their color which is why cases like Brown v. Board of Education, Plessy v. Ferguson, and many more went to the United States Supreme Court. Brown v. Board of Education and Plessy v. Ferguson cases are relatable because they were both deprived of their 14th Amendment rights. With Brown v. Board of Education, there was racial discrimination in the public education system. With Plessy v. Ferguson, Louisiana created their own law which made it so that white

Despite the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, that outlawed segregation in public schools, African American children have remained in segregated and unequal educational environments (Blanchett, Mumford & Beachum, 2005). A significant tactic in maintaining school segregation has been the disproportionate assignment of African-American children to special education classrooms (Blanchett, 2009).

Plessy vs. Ferguson Case the principle of “equal protection” case in which the U.S. Supreme Court, on May 18, 1896, by a seven-to-one majority (one justice did not participate), advanced the controversial “separate but equal” doctrine for assessing the constitutionality of racial segregation laws. Plessy v. Ferguson was the first major inquiry into the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment’s (1868) equal-protection clause, which prohibits the states from denying “equal protection of the laws” to any person within their jurisdictions. Although the majority opinion did not contain the phrase “separate but equal,” it gave constitutional sanction to laws designed to achieve racial segregation by means of separate and supposedly equal public facilities

Color-blind justice is a concept that we in the United States see as a staple of our free, equal, and democratic nation. We believe that the values of liberty and equality have worked to develop a current reality that paints everyone with a single brush rather than separate groups. In many ways, this can be considered true in the progress we have made in civil rights and social responsibilities. However, it may be idealistic and naïve to believe that we have simply left behind the history that has built this nation. Institutionalized racism is an unfortunate but tangible issue in today’s world, but nowhere do we see it stand out as prominently as we do in our justice system. Events in recent years have called attention to the growing incidents

Civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., defined segregation in 1963 as “a system which forever stares the segregated in the face, saying ‘you are less than. You are not equal to.’” This statement was made decades after the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution declared that everyone was equal and nobody could be denied their privileges of life, liberty, or property. Segregation went against everything that the 14th Amendment stood for. For many years, African American students were kept apart from white students. They were forced to go to the lesser schools - dilapidated schools without new books, cafeterias, gyms, and many more basic necessities. This was up until the ruling of Brown vs. Board of Education was announced in 1954. It stated that separate but equal was no longer constitutional, and the public schools must integrate. During the decades to follow, many individuals stood up against segregation, dedicating their lives towards integrated and equal schools. Efforts to integrate schools began in the South, but slowly moved towards the North until, in 1974, courts demanded that Boston’s Public Schools integrate. Today, while there are no laws preventing students from attending any school they want to, and despite all of the efforts that have been made in the past 60 years, public schools are still widely segregated. By looking at the integration of Boston schools in 1974 and comparing it to the state of Boston’s public

Since the Civil Rights Movement, America has still had difficulties in fully desegregating the nation’s school system. Even though it has been 63 years after the Supreme Court's historic Brown v. Board of Education decision, the classroom is becoming more and more racially isolated. According to a report published by the Government Accountability Office, the number of Black students enrolled in impoverished K-12 public schools increased 11 percent between 2001 and 2014. These schools have higher rates of students unable to advance from the ninth grade, as well as more students who had been suspended or expelled. Fifty years ago, when Dr. King shared his concerns and dreams with America, segregation was a normal part of

Six decades after Brown v. Board of Education ruled segregation unlawful, schools in America are more segregated than they were in the early 1960’s. Recently a study made by UCLA’s Civil Rights Project released a list of severely segregated school districts in the nation, which showcases New York City at the top of the list. Contrary to New York City’s appeal on diversity, “81.7% of black students in New York City attend segregated schools” highlighting the failure of educational equity (Yin). Segregation in New York City’s public-school system occurred, in part, as a result of the construction of public housing in the city. During the 1950’s, the federal and local governments used public housing to increasingly segregate African Americans into low income urban neighborhoods while funding middle-class whites with mortgage guarantees and forcing them to abandon the urban areas for a more affluent area (Rothstein). Even with the desegregation mandates backed by Brown v. Board of Education and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, there was a lot of resistance for integration causing segregation to travel into schools. Within each school, ability grouping (or grouping students into classrooms and/or courses based on ability) purposely creates a “superior” group that considers itself greater than others in their level. In the years immediately following integration those who were in the lower group were often minorities from a disadvantaged background (Nelson 364).