What Does the Government Do in Relation to Civil Rights?

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 May 17, 1954, in the Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education, the High Court, for the first time in American legal history, challenged the “separate but equal” doctrine previously established in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and outlawed racial segregation in public schools. The decision, igniting fierce debates throughout the country, was met with violence and strong defiance in the South. The years after Brown, however, saw the passing of several important Acts: the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Today, Americans remember Brown v. Board of Education as a success in African Americans’ struggle for equal rights, a change of sea tide for the civil rights movement. While

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.”

Brown v. the Board of Education was a case that helped shaped America’s education system into what it is today. ‘Separate but equal’ is phrase well attributed to the civil rights movement in all aspects of life: water fountains, movie theaters, restaurants, bathrooms, schools, and much more. This phrase was coined legal in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896. Plessy v. Ferguson said that racial segregation of public facilities was legal so long as they were ‘equal.’ Before this even, Black Codes, passed in 1865 under President Johnson legalized the segregation of public facilities including schools. In 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified guaranteeing all citizens equal protection under the law. Still, though, blacks were not given equal opportunities when it came to voting, schooling and many other inherent rights. 1875 brought the Civil Rights Act that prohibited the discrimination in places of public accommodation. These places of public accommodation did not seem to include educational facilities. Jim Crow Laws become widespread in 1887, legalizing racial separation. These downfalls were paused by development of the Nation Association for the Advancement of Colored People that was founded in 1909. This association began to fight the discriminatory policies plaguing the country, especially in the southern areas. Finally Brown v. the Board of Education fought these decisions, stating that ‘separate but equal’ and discrimination allowed by the latter decisions did not have a

There is a difference between civil liberties and civil rights in relation to the government. Civil liberties refer to an individual’s unalienable freedoms that cannot be taken away by political intervention. On the other hand, civil rights are provided by the government in order to promote equality. This ideology was introduced to the founders of the nation by John Locke, who believed in natural rights. Locke stated that these natural rights are to be protected and secured by the government. The question that should be raised now is whether the government truly does protect our civil rights and have the citizens’ best interest in mind.

When our founding fathers sat down to illustrate and create the foundation of the United States, they had many goals and ideals they set out to uphold. One of those is equality. It states clearly in our constitution that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” It can sometimes be a blurry line to if these ideals are still upheld in a rapidly changing and disunified country. This is where our civil sequences: Liberties and Rights, keep our country intact. 1 Both Civil Liberties and Rights are granted and defined in the Constitution. We must continue enforcing our civil sequences to maintain order for ourselves, our states,

After the Civil War, following the Compromise of 1877 and the end of Reconstruction, the protection for the rights of African American ended if there was any. Southern States had moved to impose a system of segregation on nearly all areas of life. New laws that required segregation that stirred “separate but equal” doctrine that disenfranchise African Americans for almost six decades. It is hard in this days and age to be able to imagine segregation as a law, but the remnants just change form and name. A petition file on June 7, 1892, in the supreme court Louisiana by a local shoemaker named Homer Plessy against Honorable judge John H. Ferguson. His filling set a test case to challenge Separate Car Act that prompt Plessy v. Ferguson case perhaps one of the most noticeable actions to nullify “separate but equal” doctrine.

Board of Education (1954), which is a name given to five separate cases that were heard by the U.S. Supreme Court concerning the issue of segregation in public schools. They were Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of Education Prince Edward County (VA), Boiling v. Sharpe, and Gilbert v. Ethel. While the facts of each case differed the main issue in each case was the constitutionality of state-sponsored segregation. African American children had been denied admittance to certain public schools based on laws allowing public education to be segregated by race. Marshall Thurgood and his team of lawyers argued that the segregated facilities violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The plaintiffs were denied any relief because of precedent set by Plessy v. Ferguson, which established the “separate but equal” doctrine that stated separate facilities for the races was constitutional as long as the facilities were “substantially equal.” In short, the Brown decision on education spilled over into social issues that had never been discussed before, resulting in a constitutional revolution that lasted throughout the

Brown vs. Board of Education (1954) was a landmark Supreme Court Case that overturned the separate but equal ideology established by the earlier Supreme Court Case Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896). The Plessy vs. Ferguson court case had a profound affect on the social interaction of racial groups in the late 19th to early 20th century causing tension between the two most prominent races within the United States, the Caucasians and the African Americans, which included Hispanics and other non-white citizens. The Supreme Court Case Brown vs. Board of Education eradicated legal racial discrimination given to the state government by the implementation of Jim Crow Law in schools and public settings leading to the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement which fought to put an end to the white supremacy and give all people especially those of color equal rights and protection under a court of law and in the eyes of government.

Civil rights refer to the constructive activities that the government must conduct to establish equality for all the citizens in the country. In most cases, the term is normally linked with the shielding of minority persons including women, Hispanics, and African Americans (Patterson, 2014). The civil rights are used to counterbalances the rule of the majority in a democracy, which normally disregards the minorities. Therefore, it ensures that all persons are treated equally regardless of their marital status, gender, or races in areas such as housing, education, and employment (Patterson, 2014).

As many people are aware, African Americans struggled a lot when trying to receive equal rights. Even though the Civil War that took place from 1861 to 1865 had accomplished to abolish slavery in 1865, African Americans were still being treated poorly and weren’t receiving civil rights. “Civil Rights are the rights of all Americans to equal protection under the law, as provided by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution” (Bardes, Schmidt, Shelley 92).

Throughout the first half of the Twentieth Century, American statutes and judicial precedents operated to preserve advantages of the white citizens of the country. In 1954 the Supreme Court, made a profound decision in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, which brought about a fundamental change in the legal and racial organization of American society. Mr. Oliver L. Brown’s attorneys convinced the justices to overturn the precedent in Plessy v. Ferguson, in order to permit Mr. Brown’s daughter Linda to attend a white elementary school that was seven blocks from her home instead of going ten blocks to get on a bus to go to a segregated elementary school. This unanimous decision swept aside the legal principle of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

In the Court case Plessy V. Ferguson the Court said that requiring blacks and whites to be transported in different railroad cars was alright as long as the different cars were equal in all ways. (Plessy V. Ferguson 1896) But in a later case (Brown V. Board of Education 1954) It was proven that having segregated schools was damaging the psychological development of young African Americans. The separate but equal doctrine was removed for violating the 14th Amendment.

After Reconstruction, African-American rights gained during that period withered, as many states did not enforce the laws enacted to guarantee their rights. If they happened to live in the South, their rights were as good as gone. Not only did those states not impose the laws, they circumvented it and created a new system of oppression for Blacks and other colored people. Moreover, the infamous ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) made racial segregation legal in public accommodations. The fight for equal education for students regardless of their race was a long battle and it extended into the Deep South state of Texas. Sweatt v. Painter was among a number of important legal cases that occurred during the twentieth century, in which African-Americans

“The law was challenged in the Supreme Court on grounds that it conflicted with the 13th and 14th Amendments...Plessy’s violation of the local law was actually a challenge to..laws separating the races. Following the Civil War, three amendments to the U.S. Constitution,...seemed to promote racial equality.” (Robert McNamara). While the 13th amendment abolished slavery, the 14th amendment included citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws, forbidding states to restrict simple rights of citizens. And the 15th amendment granted black men the right to vote. “The Court endorsed the "separate but equal" doctrine, ignoring the fact that blacks had practically no power to make sure that their "separate" facilities were really "equal" to those of whites. It was not until the 1950s and the 1960s that the Supreme Court began to reverse Plessy... and later cases abolished the separate but equal doctrine in other areas affecting civil rights as well.” (Encyclopedia, Plessy v. Ferguson