Plessy V. Ferguson Case Analysis

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.”

Segregation had been something the United States had struggled with for years. During the 1890’s segregation started to become more common and white people felt superior to other races, especially African Americans. White people believed, black people did not deserve the rights and respect that they had. Homer Plessy, the so called wrongdoer in the Plessy vs Ferguson case, was seven-eighths white and one-eighths black, and he had an appearance of a white man. On June 7, 1892, he purchased a railroad ticket from New Orleans to Covington La, and sat in an empty seat in a whites only car. Homer told the conductor he was black, and when asked to leave and move on to the appropriate car, he refused. He was an American citizen who had bought a first-class ticket and deserved to sit on that train. When the conductor called the police, Homer Plessy was arrested and later in court his case challenged the system and had a large impact on the African American community.The Plessy vs Ferguson trial affected humanity in both a positive and a negative way, because of the small negative short term cultural effects, such as disrespect towards African Americans, and the long term positive effects that lead to the equality between black and white people.

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." This case is very important to our constitution and to the people being governed by the constitution because it brought up issues that hadn't been discussed in the U.S before. This case shows the degree of federalism and how much the government paid attention to it. The amendments in the constitution do not apply to a simple race or ethnicity. Throughout history laws have been made and destroyed at the cost of colored people, in the Plessy v. Ferguson case it is shown that due to the thirteenth and fourteenth amendments all citizens have equal protection under the law. Plessy was denied his right, as well as other colored people because they belonged to different bathrooms, they belonged to different train cars and they belonged to different water fountains at this time in history, but Plessy'

In 1892 the Supreme Court ruled 7-1 against Homer Plessy, a one-eighth black man who fought to sit in a train car reserved for white people in Louisiana 1. Since he was not allowed to ride in said cars, his 14th amendment right against discrimination of any American citizen was violated 1. The Supreme Court rejected Plessy's argument that Louisiana law conflicted with the thirteenth amendment and the fourteenth amendment 1. The justices claimed however, that separation of races does not make someone feel

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.

The Plessy vs. Ferguson case of 1892 was the case that was overturned by the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling of 1984. This case was trying to challenge the Louisiana 's Separate Car Act, a law that made railroads in Louisiana provide “equal but separate accommodations” for patrons of different races. A multiracial man name named Homer Plessy

The State of Louisiana passed a law “that all railway companies carrying passengers in their coaches in this State shall provide equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races by providing two or more passenger coaches for each passenger train … No person or persons, shall be admitted to occupy seats in coaches other than the ones assigned to them on account of the race they belong to.” The Plessy v. Ferguson case was brought before the high court to decide if Mr. Plessy civil rights under the Thirteenth and Fourteenth was violated when Plessy was assigned a seat in the black car and when he refused was subsequently arrested for violating the law. The court felt the Thirteenth Amendment was about abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude which the court proved was not applicable to apply to this case. Since the case Roberts v. Boston, 59 Mass. (5 Cush.) 198 (1850) the states had widely accepted the concept of separate but equal education system, and the separation of races in places of entertainment have become widely approved throughout the country. Based on these examples, the court felt no infringement of equal rights was inflicted on Mr. Plessy as stated in the Fourteenth Amendment. The Supreme Court affirms the lower courts ruling that Mr. Plessy civil rights were not

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.

He was seven-eighths white and one-eighth black and had the appearance of a white man. Nevertheless, he was arrested and convicted of violating the 1890 law. He filed a petition against the judge and the Plessy v. Ferguson started. The Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of a Louisiana law passed in 1890 "providing for separate railway carriages for the white and colored races." The law, which required that all passenger railways provide separate cars for blacks and whites, stated that the cars be equal in facilities and banned whites from sitting in black cars and blacks in white cars and reserving the right to penalize passengers or railway employees for violating its terms. The Court expressly rejected Plessy's argument that the law stigmatized blacks "with a badge of inferiority," pointing out that both blacks and whites were given equal facilities under the law and were equally punished for violating the law. "We consider the underlying fallacy of (Plessy's) argument" contended the Court, "to consist in the assumption that the enforced separation of the two races stamps the colored race with a badge of inferiority. If this is so, it is not by reason of anything found in the act, but solely because the

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,

Brown V. Board Education was one important because it ended school segregation. Most of the people who wanted this to happen were mostly people in school. Also is mostly the African American people who wanted this changed for their own good. Also there was this time this African American family sued a school because her daughter was not allowed to be teacher in a white public school.

Since Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, the criminal justice system of the United States has moved past racial discrimination greatly. With the election of President Obama in 2008, it would be easier to say that discrimination no longer exists in the criminal justice system. However, despite the progress that people of colour have made in society, there still exists a great racial disparity that can be seen through the rising trends of the sentencing and incarceration of minorities.

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

This escalated across the country over the years and led to Blacks being viewed as criminals for even the smallest of crimes. The infamous Plessy vs. Ferguson case of 1896 that challenged the constitutionality of segregation in Louisiana, would prove to be a turning point in the Civil Rights Movement later. According to “Color Blindness, History, and the Law” by Kimberle Crenshaw, Homer Plessy challenged the state under the Fourteenth Amendment under two arguments: first that the state deprived him of equal protection of the law due to irrationality of the classification system and second, that the state was being unconstitutional due to its separation of blacks and whites (Crenshaw 282). Even though the state was in fact truly regarding blacks as second-class citizens, they continued to enforce segregation within the community.

In 1892, Homer Plessy was a passenger in a railroad and who refused to sit in a Jim Crow car. He brought before Judge John H. Ferguson of the Criminal Court from New Orleans, who upheld the state law. The law was challenged in the Supreme Court on grounds that it conflicted with the 13th and 14th Amendments. Although, the Supreme Court had ruled in 1896, Plessy v Ferguson inculcated the “separate but equal” doctrine and passed laws entailing the segregation of races, arguing that Jim Crow laws were constitutional. The case was devastating for African Americans allowing the oppression of an entire race. The Supreme Court system in practice was separate and unequal;