Have you ever thought or heard about Plessy v. Ferguson or Brown v. Board of Education? Well these were two major Supreme Court cases that involved discrimination. Discrimination has been going on for a long time and still to this day. Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education are similar in cases because they both involve discrimination.
The Plessy v. Ferguson began when there was an act know as The Separate Car Act. The act separated the colored folk from the white majority but all races would receive equal treatment. A group of African Americans fought for the right to sit in any compartment. Homer Plessy purchased a ticket and sat in a white designated coach. He was later arrest for violating the Separate Car Act and later
…show more content…
Board of Education case began when there was segregation in schools. A girl named Linda Brown and her sister had to cross a dangerous railroad switch yard to get to their all black school. There was a school closer to their home, but it was for then white folk only. The Brown family believed that it violated the 14 amendment. A federal district court said that segregation in public education was harmful to black children. The Browns eventually took the case to the Supreme Court and was ruled in their favor. The Supreme Court stated that state laws that required separate but equal schools was violating the Equal Protection Clause. According to findlaw.com , segregation denied black children their fourteenth amendment right of equal …show more content…
Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education are similar with each other because both cases involved segregation and discrimination. Plessy v. Ferguson case was about a violation of the Separate Car Act and was in favor of Ferguson. Brown v. Board of Education was about schools being segregated and how it was a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the fourteenth amendment and this case was in favor of the Brown family. But so what if they took it to the Supreme Court it doesn't matter. Would it matter if they didn't fight? If they didn't fight for their cause, there would be many segregated communities and the friends you have today, might not have been your friends
Furthermore, there were several plaintiffs that were under the Brown v. Board of Education case, all with very similar motives to Mr. Brown. “This case was the consolidation of four separate cases arising in different states relating to segregation of schools on the basis of race. In each of the cases, black minors had been denied admittance into schools based in their race.(Brown v. BOE)” The combining of cases meant that this was a highly debated topic of the time, that had to be addressed. It therefore meant the Supreme Court knew that the Plessy v. Ferguson precedent needed to either be refurbished or
Yet they never lost the motivation of becoming better people for themselves and their kids who would be the next ones to live in their situation if they did not do anything about the situation that were occurring around them. The fought for their rights and gladly they triumphed, and although it was not an easiest movement it finally had great results because now their kids could attend any schools they wished without being denied the entrance. Their kids now had a better shot at becoming someone in life and actually being
In Browns second case the courts overruled the Plessy v Ferguson in the matters of public schools. It was then put into action by the Courts that the states must integrate their
In the 1890s, Louisiana passed the Separate Car Act where there had to be different railway cars for white and African Americans. At the time the “separate but equal” doctrine was used to make the racial segregation laws constitutional. Homer Adolph Plessy who was seven-eighths white and one-eighth African Americans, was considered to be African American under Louisiana laws. In 1892, Plessy sat in the railway car for whites only and when asked to move to the railway car for Africans Americans, he refused.
Brown v. Board of Education and Plessy v. Ferguson, are two of these cases that put discrimination on the stand. Besides being almost forty to fifty years apart, these two cases have many similarities: they were both vital cases in the Supreme Court deciding the growing issues in our country and they
The separation of races in schools ended with a case called Brown vs. Board of Education and it was possibly the most important event in the advancement of African Americans. Brown Vs . Board of Education was a landmark of United States Supreme Court case in which the courts declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. The case was named after Oliver Brown.
Ferguson case appeared in 1896 and is a landmark Supreme Court decision to this day. The court ruled that the laws made to racially segregate blacks and white were not violating the constitution as long as they were given equal rights. For example, having two restrooms one for whites and one for black is fine as long as they are both the same. This may ring a bell towards the famous line of “separate but equal.” Brown vs. Board of Education in Topeka 1954, is one of the biggest and well known cases surrounding the time of racial segregation.
Brown v. Board of Education During the 1950’s, aspects of slavery and discrimination were still prevalent in the United States, even after the 13th amendment was passed in 1865, which abolished slavery. African Americans were separated from the whites and forced into worse facilities under the justification of “separate, but equal.” This is the time period and world that Linda Brown, an eight year old African American girl, had to endure. The United States had old policies and old rules that were still in place and it was only a matter of time until someone took a stand.
The goal of the suit against the Board of Education was getting equal access to educational rights within the school system. Unable to enroll in the all white schools, due to their race, the family filed suit on February 28, 1951 against the Board of Education within Kansas Supreme Court. They lost the court case in the Kansas Court, but quickly appealed the case to the United States Supreme Court. When the case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, five cases were brought together to form Brown v Board of Education, “…Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of Education of Prince Edward Country (VA), Boiling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel… facts of each case are different, the main issue in each was the constitutionality of state-sponsored segregation in public schools” (U.S Court). Through the hearing, the subject of separate but equal was finally being
the Board of Education case in the 1950’s, the ball started rolling towards the Civil Rights Act of 1964, just ten years later. According to the fourth chapter of the Lowi textbook, Civil Liberties and Civil Rights, “civil rights are obligations (what government must do) to guarantee equal citizenship and protect citizens from discrimination.” This relates to the case because it was one of the first stepping stones towards the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This act allowed rights to vote, amongst other things, to African Americans.
When the case went to the US District Court in Kansas, they ruled that segregated schools had a “detrimental effect on children of color”, and that it was a factor contributing to a “sense of inferiority”. However, they also stated that the schools were in no way breaking the “separate but equal” doctrine. In the case of Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, there were 4 other cases bundled into it. Since they were all cases against segregation of schools, the Supreme Court ruled all 5 as one. During the case, the justices were extremely divided on the subject, as the chief justice believed that the Plessy v. Ferguson verdict should still stand.
Brown v. Board of Education The Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case was a very important case for Americans. This case was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in this court case changed majorly the history of race relations in the United States. On May 17, 1954, the Court got rid of constitutional sanctions for segregation by race, and made equal all education opportunities as the law of the land.
Brown v. Board of Education was the start of contemplation of segregation in schools. Oliver Brown wanted his daughter to go to school by where they lived, but she was not allowed to because she was of African American docent. Each state during this time period stated that whites would be separate to African Americans . Brown argued that this broke the 14th amendment (Equal Rights), but was overruled in court when the jury decided as long as students learned the same thing and classroom settings were equal than no laws were broken. This court case in comparison to the Greensboro sit-in was not mainly on the concept of segregation in schools, but
Plessy vs Ferguson is a similar topic of the book To Kill A Mockingbird. In both cases there was a bunch of segregation. Both people were found guilty because everyone on the jury was racist. Plessy and Ferguson was involved in this case. Plessy sat in the all white railroad cars instead of the all black railroad cars.
These Supreme court cases are related because one case set precedents for the other. Plessy versus Ferguson stated that separate but equal was not violating the Constitution, and that whites and African Americans can sit in different train cars, and as long as they are equal it does not violate the constitution. Not much change happened after that Supreme Court case, whites went one way, and African-Americans with the other. But years later that changed. After the Brown versus Board of Education case, they realized that African American children probably felt inferior to the white, so they changed that precedent, and after that case, not wanting any race to feel inferior to anyone else.