The Plessy V. Ferguson Case

Laws are enforced to provide our society with safety, boundaries, protection of rights, and overall justice. The United States Constitution and Bill of Rights were established years ago to reduce the tensions and conflicts of our newly founded nation. It sought out to accomplish this by providing justice through an equal voice for all citizens. However, this equal voice for justice more often times than not is squandered and diminished. Things such as race, religion, and culture often times blur the lines of the law and fair outcomes in a court. Individuals feel that their beliefs are more important than the protection of rights and the deliverance of law or the law itself cannot go outside of its limitations to provide justice. This is apparent in the court cases of Marbury v Madison, Plessy v Ferguson, and the book To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee. These cases clearly exemplify that the law does not always provide justice, although it endeavors to do so.

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.”

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'

“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

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.

In this landmark case, the Supreme Court found that segregated schools for black and white students wee unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v Ferguson case which championed the “separate but equal” doctrine. The Supreme Court saw that the implication from the previous case conflicted with the ideals of the 14th amendment. Although the doctrine came from another court ruling rather than a legislative source, it is a prime example of how judicial review is a necessary power to secure fundamental

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.

Often times, people of the twenty-first century forget that segregation was real, people do not realize the impact of segregation nor how powerful it was. Segregation was real, segregation was powerful, and segregation affected the lives of many, whites would harass anyone who was not of their color. People associate civil rights with Martin Luther King Jr., and although he sparked the Civil Rights movement, he should not be completely accredited for getting rid of segregation. Supreme Court cases have diminished segregation. The elimination of segregation was not immediate, but took decades to completely part with. Most people would agree that these three cases have stood out and made the most impact: Plessy v. Ferguson, Brown v. Board

In 1892 and in the 1950’s two cases were tried to the United States Supreme Court that would forever change black and white segregation in America. There’s amendments set in place so that America could grow from skin color based segregation, and states tried finding loopholes around these amendments. In case of Plessy vs Ferguson took place where the 14th Amendment was violated. Later in the 1950’s a case called Brown vs Board of Education was also violating the 14 Amendment. Both cases were taken to court and tried against the government for unjust violations of the 14th amendment.

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

The Jim Crow Law was based on the idea of “Separate but Equal” which impacted the African American people and challenged the Supreme Court’s efforts to give true equality for all. The idea “Separate but Equal” arose after the abolishment of slavery and birth of the Fourteenth Amendment. This new Amendment gave every citizen equal rights no matter the race. However, because of the spread of white resistance, segregation was used to keep the two races separated physically, socially and culturally. But the Plessy v. Ferguson case caused ⅞ % to be the lowest amount of white in a person to be socially considered white. Segregation not only impacted the black, but also biracial people because of this percent standard. Separated facilities such as

Ferguson v. City of Charleston, 532 U.S 67 is a case that began Oct 4, 2000 and was decided March 21, 2001. This case involved the constitutionality of drug testing pregnant women. The case began when “a state hospital’s performance of a diagnostic test to obtain evidence of a patient’s criminal conduct for law enforcement purposes is an unreasonable search if the patient has not consented to the procedure” (FERGUSON v. CHARLESTON 2001). This lead to the reviewing of MUSC policies, which lead to discovery of POLICY M–7, which involves the “Management of Drug Abuse during Pregnancy.” This policy made it possible for law enforcement to become involved if a pregnant mother tested positive for cocaine. As a result, these drug testing lead to discussion

The act of inequality unfolds further in the late 19th century in various parts of United States towards individuals of color, explained in the supreme court case Plessy v. Ferguson, to Wells-Barnett's "A Red Record" in 1895 and 1896. The separation between whites and African Americans emerge into the end of the reconstruction era and a period of social segregation arises. Supreme court case Plessy v. Ferguson addresses the separation of "railway carriages for the white and colored races". (TAN 24) In this case, the court discloses Ferguson's decision of not violating the 13th and 14th amendment, supporting the idea of "separate but equal". Furthermore, the result of Plessy v Ferguson gave states more of a reason to further the act of racial

Plessy v. Ferguson The Plessy v. Ferguson case was one of the most important and pivotal cases in the United States supreme court history. Due to both the content of the case, and the time in American history at which the case was argued, this case is thought to be vital in describing American History. The case itself originated when Homer Adolph Plessy, a 1/8 African American sat on a white car in a train. Plessy did in fact look white, and the authorities wouldn’t have realised that this was happening if it hadn’t been for a reporting. Plessy was part of a group who wanted to try racial segregation in the court, and see how strong it really is, therefore this whole activity was planned in an effort to help stop and bring attention

Prior to the 1960s Civil Rights Acts, it was an unfortunate matter to be a black U.S. citizen living in the South. They were not allowed to vote nor were they free to sit on the front-row seats of a state bus. On the other hand, these liberties were given to the white community, forcing an inequality gap between the two races. This gap eventually led the two racial groups to be separated at every possible public location, such as schools, restaurants, and beaches. Such an act was enforced by the Jim Crow Laws and supported by the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case, which the Supreme Court stated their “separate but equal” doctrine. The Ku Klux Klan and white community also made it their duty to enforce the laws; at the same time, they conducted