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 …show more content…
Ferguson was a landmark Supreme Court case in 1896 regarding Jim Crow railroad cars in Louisiana. The Court decided by 7 to 1 that legislation could not overcome racial attitudes, and validated the South's segregationist social order. They ruled that "separate but equal" facilities were constitutional under the "equal protection" clause in the Fourteenth Amendment while in reality the quality of African American life was grotesquely unequal to that of whites. Intended for the law community the legal analysis of the Plessy v. Ferguson case (seen under circumstances of determining constitutionality) did its job in contributing the legitimate context under which the case was tried and judged. The Legal Information Institute of the Cornell University of Law provided this analysis of the Plessy v. Ferguson case with objectivity and forthrightness, simply recounting the case in a legal procedural fashion with tight diction. The analysis the institute offered was supported by direct primary source material used in the case. Plessy v. Ferguson was a seminal case for which Tourgée acted as Homer Plessy’s attorney, defending the Citizens Committee and Civil Rights and advocating that, "…citizenship is national and knows no color”. His argument was that “separate but equal” laws could not be equated to slavery, but ultimately lead to it. ." This was Tourgée’s last significant fight in the civil rights arena as he lost the case leading to the legalization of …show more content…
It showed a sharp focus on the events in Ferguson less than two years ago. Darren Wilson, a white Ferguson police officer, shot the unarmed Michael Brown from a distance, but it was unclear whether Brown was surrendering or threatening Wilson. The unclear circumstances of Brown's death, the resulting nationwide protests, and police forces' perceived overreaction to the protests all led to a serious national debate about law enforcement's treatment of African-Americans in the United States. Such recent occasions of police brutality have brought the question of race into the picture as the public and media continue to evaluate the situation our country has found itself in, allowing this particular article to fulfill its purpose in fueling a discussion on race relations and the “colorblind” law. The Washington Post’s Christopher Ingraham, whose works center on politics, drug policy and data analysis, offers a candid and inquisitive tone in an article arranged in a sequence of data, statistics and information on the subject matter. The author’s use of straightforward language and extensive support from credible race-centered research and sources make the article instructive and indicative of the current status of race. In the novel, Mark Elliott held that, “...white skin is the greatest blessing that has been enjoyed on American soil.” This statement may ring true to some in
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.”
In this book, Barber and Zelter use a lot of different sources whether it be biblical or historical. There are uses of bible verses are there to ground their arguments on a religious basis and historical references such as Martin Luther King or the court case Plessy v. Ferguson to give us historical context. Their sources also consist of the North Carolina Constitution and Declaration of Right, to show the hypocrisy of the political officials that govern. He uses all these sources to explain where the power really lies, and this is the power of the people. They use secondary source with news are article of the event in North Carolina in the early 2000s and primary source with speeches from MLK and Supreme Court cases. Barber offers sound evidence
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
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.
In 1896 is was a landmark in the constitution law was case by the us Supreme Court was considered the constitutionality. Plessy vs Ferguson was an unshared in the era of legally sunctioned of racial segregation. On june 7 of 1892 he purchased a first class ticket for a trip between New Orleans and Covington La. Which banned in the slaver. In the court of the of Justice.In the 1892 Pleesy was refuse to sit on a Jim Crow car was breaking a Louisiana law. In 1954 Then fight in 1954 it was Brown vs Board of the education of the capital of kansas is Topeka in the 1954. When time the Plessy vs the Ferguson is the battle of the Supreme Court of the Washington Monument. When the plessy won on the first debate. Then his die on
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 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
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.
Ferguson case allowed legal segregation to continue for more than 60 years in the south. Homer Plessy, a light-skinned, calm, well dressed, 1/8th black man, entered the first class railroad car on June 7, 1982. “When he took his seat, Plessy triggered a series of legal actions that would eventually reach the Supreme Court of the United States.”(Fireside, 5) Plessy had absolutely no intention of reaching his destination. He was charged with a crime for not moving to the car in which he belonged. This was one of the first sit in’s in the United States. The Louisiana Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court ruled against him. They said that the cars were “separate but equal” even though this was untrue and that it was constitutional. Finally, the ruling was overturned in 1954. Plessy vs. Ferguson was the most criticized decision the court made of all
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.
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.
The Plessy versus Ferguson case started with an incident where an African American passenger on a train, Homer Plessy, broke Louisiana law by refusing to sit in a Jim Crow car, a separate cart on the train where African Americans had to sit. This
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,
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
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;