The 13th Amendment

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.

The Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson is known for having established the precedent of “separate but equal.” The case originated in Louisiana and was specifically made to the separate passenger cars that were for the black and white races. The Supreme Court, in this case, upheld the right of Louisiana to separate the races and “this decision provided the legal foundation to justify many other actions by state and local governments to socially separate blacks and whites” (Zimmerman, 1997). It was not until the famous Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954 that the highest court in the land outlawed the principal of segregation and the concept of “separate but equal.”

The 13th Amendment says “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.” (Doc C) Although many years later African Americans still were not being treated like people, abolishing slavery was a big step to the stop of harsh treatment toward African Americans. The citizenship, and the right to vote are granted to African Americans by the 14, and 15 Amendments. The passing of these Amendments insured that the African Americans are people.

Argument found in 13th: 13th states a problem about our 13th amendment claiming that everyone is free to their freedom but in all reality African Americans are still being targeted and put in prisons and treated like slaves for no reason.

In 1881, the legislature of Tennessee enacted a law requiring rail roads to provide separate cars or compartments for the use of African Americans. Ida Wells was an African American woman who sat on a railroad car in the nonsmoking section that was designated for whites, while she refused to move sections the conductor of the train forced her to remove herself (Law, Society, Identity, and the Making of the Jim Crow South: Travel and Segregation on Tennessee Railroads, 1875-1905). Ida sued the court and lost by the Supreme Court. She disappointed with the outcome of her case, Ida Wells, wrong in her diary: "I have firmly believed all along that the law was on our side and would, when we appealed to it, give us justice" (Law, Society, Identity, and the Making of the Jim Crow South: Travel and Segregation on Tennessee Railroads, 1875-1905). In the 1880s, the law of common carriers had grew to be a critical point in “the working out of the social, political, and economic order in the New South” ( Law, Society, Identity, and the Making of the Jim Crow South: Travel and Segregation on Tennessee Railroads, 1875-1905). Equally important, laws were also made for segregation of public schools, public places, restrooms, restaurants and drinking fountains for whites and African Americans. The alleged "JimCrow" law of 1881 were enacted by a legislature in which one house was controlled by the Republican party that included four Negro members. Only two Negro members voted against the measure; the other two did not vote (The Origin of the First "Jim Crow" Law). Furthermore, rich whites were upset that African Americas had become free because of the 13th amendment and wanted to keep African Americans from gaining any

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

Thanks to the groundbreaking Thirteenth Amendment, no person may be forced to work except in retribution for a crime he or she committed. The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is often viewed only as the amendment that abolished the insufferable slavery of African-Americans, - and this does appear to be the case on the surface - however many more interpretations promise many useful arguments for the labor movement and cause controversy over its ineffectiveness in combating racism and its hand in creating the hotly-debated American for-profit prison system.

Plessey boarded a car of the East Louisiana Railroad that was designated by whites for use by white patrons only. Although Plessey was one-eighth black and seven-eighths white, under Louisiana state law he was classified as an African-American, and thus required to sit in the "colored" car. When Plessey refused to leave the white car and move to the colored car, he was arrested and jailed. The Court rejected Plessey's arguments based on the Thirteenth Amendment, seeing no way in which the Louisiana statute violated it. In addition, the majority of the Court rejected the view that the Louisiana law implied any inferiority of blacks, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Instead, it contended that the law separated the two races as a matter of public policy.

The war against colored people and white people is an ongoing event since the 17th centuries. During that timeline, the whites were dominant back then. The KKK known as the Ku Klux Klan, started lynching the colored folks. Over 3,000 black people have been hung due to their skin tone. The 13th amendment gives freedom to all Americans. Skin tone does not affect the the 13th amendment. Incarceration is mostly sustained from racial injustice.

involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been

Negroes were allowed to travel in common streetcars, trains and carriers with other whites. This system would take thirty to forty years to take the form racism. Besides, Jim Crow was not just a system of discrimination based on race; it was a legal system, backed up by United States Supreme Court in cases such as Plessy v. Ferguson and sustained by thousands of local states and ordinances. In 1883, in the Civil Rights Cases, the Supreme Court invalidated the Civil Right Acts of 1875, which had outlawed racial discrimination by hotels, theaters, railroads, and other pubic facilities. In Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896, Supreme Court gave its approval to state laws requiring separate facilities for blacks and whites, reasoning that segregated facilities did not discriminate so long as they were ‘separate but equal.’ John Marshal Harlan, a Kentucky lawyer, objected the Supreme Court’s decision in Plessy v. Ferguson case. He believed that the decision was unconstitutional as it interfered with the “Personal Liberty” of the people; and believed racial segregation as a badge of slavery. He regretted that Supreme Court that was supposed to guarantee this right is actually denying people of the right.

Ferguson case prove otherwise. Harlan concludes that these are several of the reasons he does not agree with the court decision. Overall, Harlan stays clear of biases because he includes information about rights for both races and does not defend one single side. However, there are potential biases because he did not directly include the court decision or Louisiana Separate Car Act in his dissent. It is also is unclear what Judge Harlan’s background is and what his opinions could have been before the specific case. In this document, it is obvious that the time period was facing a time of segregation in the country. The Louisiana Separate Car Act that is part of the Plessy vs. Ferguson case shows the physical separation between the races. During this time period, it was typical for whites and non-whites to have separate public resources because the Redeemers hoped to undo the Radical Reconstruction progress in African American and non-white rights. In addition, non-whites were disrespected and dehumanized, as shown by Harlan’s mention of the Louisiana Separate Car Act dismissal of the fact that whites could not sit with a non-white group of people.

The amendment reads: “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”, which was designed to prohibit discrimination against voters on the basis on race or previous condition of servitude. Although it ratified, the Fifteenth Amendment would not be completely realized for almost a century. In the ensuing decades, southern states tried to prevent African Americans from exercising their rights to vote by various discriminatory practices including poll taxes, grandfather clauses and literacy tests, along with violence and bullying (Fifteenth Amendment). Afterwards, because of the Voting Rights Act, which signed by President Lyndon in 1965. It finally conquered legal barriers at states that denied of right of African Americans to vote under the Fifteenth Amendment. Eventually, African Americans got their voting rights though their arduous

On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. All the slaves were free, but there was still an underlying issue; slavery was not abolished. On the date of December 6, 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified by Congress. It stated, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction (“13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery (1865).”)." The 13th amendment was the United States government’s final resolution to slavery. A key phase used in the amendment was “except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted (13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery (1865).”)”. Thus, slavery is illegal, unless the individual has committed a crime then it is allowed. The 13th amendment was the last page in an awful chapter of United States history and the first page in a new chapter titled, Mass Incarceration.

This documentary was infuriating and almost painful to watch. When I first started watching I thought it was going to be a snooze fest however, it really intrigued me.