Supreme Court Decisions That Affected The Civil Rights Movement

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.”

On June 7, 1892, the law was tested again, when Homer Adolph Plessey, an “octoroon”, a very fair person with white features, purchased a ticket and boarded the Louisiana railroad with the consent of the Citizens Committee with the express purpose of violating the Separate Car Act. He sat in the “whites- only section” and when his ticket was collected by the conductor, Homer Adolph Plessey informed the conductor that he was 7/8 white and was not going to sit in the “black-only car.” Arrested and jailed, Plessey as released on $500 bail the next day. A White New York lawyer, Albion Winegar Tourgee, was retained. Plessey’s case was heard one month later before John Howard Ferguson. Tourgee argued the violation of the 13th and 14th amendments before Justice Ferguson. Tourgee’s argument was for absolute equality of all races. However, on May 18, 1896, Justice Brown, by a vote of 7 to 1, ruled in favor of the State of Louisiana upholding the constitutionality of state laws under the doctrine of “separate but equal" that justified a system of

The "Separate Car Act" was a law passed in 1890, which prevented blacks from sitting with the whites. A man named Homer Adolph Plessy, who was one eighth black, was part of a group, formed in 1891, called the "New Orleans Citizens Committee to Test the Constitutionality of the Separate Car Law." Plessy was chosen to represent this group by taking action and testing the law. He took action on June 7, 1892, when Plessy bought a ticket to New Orleans on the Louisiana Railroad to go to New Orleans. Once he boarded the train, he was asked to go to the "coloreds only" car, but refused to go. He was later fined and jailed for this, and soon was taken to court. When his case was brought up at the Supreme Court, he unfortunately

Homer A. Plessy was an African American cobbler (shoemaker) who was riding the Louisiana train. He sat in the Railroad car reserved for whites and was arrested when he revealed to the conductor that he was African American. When Plessy stated his plea that the Louisiana Jim Crow Railroad Car Law was unconstitutional, it was overruled by John H. Ferguson, a judge of the criminal court for New Orleans. There were challenges with their law in their Supreme Court; the problem was that it was conflicting with their Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendment. The Thirteenth amendment was meant to prohibit slavery and the Fourteenth amendment stated that any human born or naturalized in the US of any race are american citizens. When the case was brought

Homer Plessy was a white man who boarded a train carriage in Louisiana, in 1892, and was kicked out because his blood was one eighth African. Plessy was taken to a police station and charged with the crime, recognized by Louisiana law, of having refused to ride the train in a black only carriage.

The Dred Scott decision, Plessy v. Ferguson and the Brown v. Board of Education all have made a huge impact on the civil rights movement. Many will argue that if these specific cases never evolved then we might not be where we are today as a country.

Ten years prior we had Brown v. The Board of Education, which a few of the same Justices serving on Katzenbach v. McClung were on, that stated that “separate educational facilities is inherently unequal”. Then, with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 we saw the outlawing of segregation and discrimination in public places. This was put to the test by two small southern businesses that claimed Congress had no right to interfere with their local establishments, but the Supreme Court did right by upholding the constitution, and it seemed to be a no brainer as seen by the unanimous decision by the court. It was tense time and shameful part of our history, but without decisions made by these men we might not be where we are today. Racism and discrimination still exist all over the globe to this day. We have come a long way though, and if it wasn’t for people continuing to do the right thing whether they are a majority or minority then we wouldn’t have the freedoms that we have today. The Supreme Court got it right with this decision, not just by upholding the Constitution, but for our Country and Humanity in

On July 19, 1890, Louisiana passed an act that provided equal but separate accommodations for black and white American citizen. Homer Plessy, challenged the statute in 1896 declaring, since he was seven-eighths Caucasian and one-eighth African blood, he was entailed to all of the same rights and privileges of the

The Plessy V. Ferguson and Brown V. Board of Education are two cases that changed the way that we live today in a quite dramatic way. The Plessy V. Ferguson was a case that promoted segregation. The majority voted for segregation and the minorities opposed the idea and the key precedent that was established after this case was that the U.S. Supreme Court didn't base their trial off of the constitution and instead based their trial upon the statement 'separate but equal'. The Brown V. Board of Education case was a case that completely opposed the idea of 'separate but equal' because the whole case revolved around the fact that a mother wanted her children to go to a school that was easier to get to however it was a school that was only for white children so the mother decided to take the case to court and the majority voted on letting the African American students attend white schools and the minorities voted otherwise. The key precedent that was established after this case was that segregation in schools violates the 14th amendment and it should not be permitted by the U.S. Supreme Court. These two cases were important for the transformation for the America we have today, and they influenced America's thought process and actions significantly.

Supreme Court cases like Loving v. Virginia (1967), Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg (1971), and Bakke v. University of California (1978) made the government realize civil rights were a serious problem. The governments ignorance toward this issue caused people to be harassed, segregated, and even put in prison. After all, everybody is equal and should be treated with the same

There was no clarification on what race would be considered white or what would be considered black. During this incident, “Homer Plessy, who was seven-eighths white and one-eighth African American, purchased a rail ticket for travel within Louisiana and took a seat in a car reserved for white passengers. (The state Supreme Court had ruled earlier that the law could not be applied to interstate travel.) After refusing to move to a car for African Americans, he was arrested and charged with violating the Separate Car Act.”(Duignan 2017). Judge Ferguson ruled that the separation was fair and did not violate the fourteenth amendment. The state Supreme Court also backed up this decision. The case was brought to the Supreme Court and "The law was challenged in the Supreme Court on grounds that it conflicted with the 13th and 14th Amendments. By a 7-1 vote, the Court said that a state law that “implies merely a legal distinction” between the two races did not conflict with the 13th Amendment forbidding involuntary servitude, nor did it tend to reestablish such a condition." (History.com Staff 2009). This decision set the key precedent of Separate but Equal in the United States. Racial segregation kept growing.

Like Martin Luther King Jr said, “We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now". In the 1800's and mid 1900's there were several cases where it lacked equality to the blacks. The Civil Rights movement helped people understand that nobody is better or greater than somebody else because of their skin color. Three Supreme Court cases influenced the civil right movement by showing why everybody should be treated equal and should have the same rights that the whites had: Dred Scott v. Sanford, Brown v. Board of Education, and Loving v. Virginia.

Plessy v. Ferguson challenged Louisiana's segregation laws by an African American man named Homer Plessy who sat in a white man’s seat

The Supreme Court was important in both suppressing and aiding the Civil Rights Movement. However, decisions taken by the President, the continued white opposition and improvements in media communications also had an effect. Although all were important, the Civil Rights movement alone would have reached the same end without the help of the Supreme Court, and the devotion of its many members and leaders is the major factor in advancing Civil Rights.

The landmark Supreme Court cases of Dred Scott v. Sandford, Plessy v. Ferguson, and Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas have had a tremendous effect on the struggle for equal rights in America. These marker cases have set the precedent for cases dealing with the issue of civil equality for the last 150 years.