Compare And Contrast Plessy Vs Ferguson

Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character,” Martin Luther King Jr. Our world was and still is black and white. There has been many court cases which escalated all the way to the US Supreme Court. Many of these cases have challenged the actions of discrimination. 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

Ferguson Law Case). A man named Homer Plessy, who had bought a ticket for the reserved white seating, was told to go to the African American seating. Plessy, was 7/8 white and 1/8 black. The police had ordered him to go and sit where he was “supposed to,” but he refused. Homer Plessy was arrested for not following the Separate Car Act, and he sued the railroad company. Plessy’s case would be heard at the District Court. Plessy's side argued “That the law requiring “separate but equal accommodations” was unconstitutional” (Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). However, when it came time for the verdict, Judge John H. Ferguson ruled against Plessy. This wouldn't be the final verdict Homer Plessy was willing to accept, so he filed for a Writ of Prohibition and Certiorari. These would both be granted, and his appeal would be headed to the Supreme Court. Plessy’s arguments at the Supreme Court wouldn't change much, but he still believed that separate but equal was unconstitutional. Plessy stated that the actions against him violated his 14th amendment right. The 14th amendment makes known that anyone born or naturalized in the United States is a citizen. Being a citizen in the United States, means that you have the rights that everyone else has, and these

Plessy v. Ferguson dealt with segregation in transportation of railroad cars, while Brown v. Board of Education dealt with the segregation in our schools. These were both landmark Supreme Court cases, that helped lead the current generation on a new path, while helping the future generation start a new one. These cases pushed our society and humanity out of the mindset that one race is superior to another, white over black or black over white. The cases defined the 14th amendment and what it meant. In America at the time, people weren't treated the same and the 14th amendment states that you can't be discriminated on an account of race. These cases opened our eyes to that amendment and cleared a path for our country to better