How Did Homer Plessy Use To Improve American Life

An example of a Supreme Court overturning, would be Plessy vs Ferguson. States from the south had laws that had a disadvantage for black people. Plessy who is a light colored black, decided to sit on the white section of the train, and declared his ancestry a couple of minutes after. People demanded him to move, but he refused. He was arrested for not moving.

Case Brief - Plessy v. Ferguson Homer A. Plessy v. John H. Ferguson was a US Supreme Court case between Homer Plessy, the plaintiff, and John Ferguson, the defendant. The year this case took was place was 18961. This case almost entirely deals with the Louisiana Law passed six years prior that provided “equal but separate” railway carriages for white and colored races. The constitutionality of this law was brought into this case as Homer Plessy, who refused to sit in the colored only rail car, argued it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

In 1890, the state of Louisiana passed a law (the Separate Car Act) that required separate accommodations for blacks and whites on railroads, including separate railway cars.[2] Concerned, a group of prominent black, creole, and white New Orleans residents formed the Comité des Citoyens (Committee of Citizens) dedicated to repeal the law or fight its effect.[3] They persuaded Homer Plessy, a man of mixed race, to participate in an orchestrated test case. Plessy was born a free man and was an "octoroon" (of seven-eighths European descent and one-eighth African descent). However, under Louisiana law, he was classified as black, and thus required to sit in the "colored" car.[4]

The nation was gridlocked on how to proceed, whether to declare a Civil War or not. The Fort Sumter conflict provided the answer; Fort Sumter was a garrison on the coast of SC that was being blocked by “Confederate” troops, therefore the Union could not provide military supplies and rations for the people inhabiting the fort. Later the confederates would fire upon fort and started the Civil war. The Civil War would last four years, concluding with the Confederate surrender at Appomattox Court House. However the time during the Civil War provided for many racial and slaveholding changes for America including: the Emancipation Proclamation, 13th, 14th , and 15th amendments.

In 1857 the court case of Dread Scott v. Stanford and in 1896 the case Plessy v. Ferguson were introduced into the Supreme Court. They showed people of color were not considered to be anything other than property; the whole majority had no regard for the feelings of another person. The notion of slavery was just coming to light in the United States. As time grew on, the slaves and former slaves were rightly becoming increasingly outraged. Through evaluating language of exclusion throughout both Dread Scott v. Stanford and Plessy v. Ferguson concurrently, anyone can recognize the effects of dehumanization negatively impacting members of the black community.

“What can more certainly arouse race hate, what more certainly create and perpetuate a feeling of distrust between these races, than state enactments which, in fact, proceed on the ground that colored citizens are so inferior and degraded that they cannot be allowed to sit in public coaches occupied by white citizens?”- John Marshall Harlan. On May 18, 1896, the Supreme court passed the separate but equal act on a vote of 7-1. This allowed separate facilities to be made for whites and blacks. This was the result of the Plessy vs Ferguson case, where a man was forced out of a whites-only car because he had African descent. The Supreme court couldn’t find any differences in the train cars, yet separate facilities for blacks had a decrease in quality.

Plesssy v. Ferguson, Brown v. Board of education both dealt with one of America 's biggest problems segregation. Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education both delt with segregation, Plessy v. Ferguson was on the Louisiana rail road act, Brown v. Board of Education was on the separate but equal clause, and they were both related. In Plessy v. Ferguson was a dispute between on Louisiana rail road act which made it illegal for whites and blacks to sit together in a rail car. Homer Plessy was a man who severed as the vice president for the Justice, Protective, Educational and Social Club in New Orleans.

In America, there was an inequality issue between African Americans and Caucasians. As a result, one change for African Americans includes Supreme Court rulings that addressed the issue of segregation. The other changes include public support with movements and political response by the President and Congress. When problems were arising in the South with African Americans, the action of the Supreme Court, advocates, and government were necessary in order to achieve civil rights and equality. The Supreme Court’s decision on the Plessy v. Ferguson case and the Brown v. Board of Education case affected American in different ways.

The Cold War is a very significant event, and perhaps one of the most important throughout US history. The Cold War shaped American in many aspects like, foreign policy, political ideology (ism’s), economy, the presidency, and lives of American’s. According to APA, (American Psychological Association) the Cold War was, “intense economic, political, military, and ideological rivalry between nations, short of military conflict; sustained hostile political policies and an atmosphere of strain between opposed countries.” The Cold War on foreign policy had to step up against the Soviet Union, the strategy they implemented was called “containment”. Containment was a policy used by the US using strategies to prevent the spread of communism overseas

Despite that racial segregation in public schools became unconstitutional due to the notable Brown vs. Board of Education court case in 1954, that was merely the beginning of the transformation of American society and acceptance. Subsequently, the new racial movement allowed other minorities to have the courage to defend their civil rights. This was not only a historical moment for minorities, but for women as well. Women, regardless of race, revolted against oppression and traditions. To be politically correct was now discretional.

The Civil Right movement was a broad and diverse effort to attain racial equality, compelled to the nation to live up to its ideal that all are created equal. The movement demonstrated that ordinary men and women could perform extraordinary acts of courage and sacrifice to achieve social justice. The event of Brown v. Board of Education and advocates such as Thurgood Marshall and Rosa Parks greatly impacted the United States. Thurgood Marshall applied to the university of Maryland Law school, however he was turned down because he was and African American. Therefore he decided to go to Howard’s University an all black historical school.

Trough out the 1960, the goal for racial became priority for many Afro-Americans who suffer from segregation or also called Jim Crow. After the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision in 1896, all Afro-Americans will need to obey the law that stated separation of facilities or known as “separate but equal”. Since the 1900s, association like the NAACP fought for the equality in education, politics and economy in America between the races, in 1960 the nonviolent propaganda became a way to stop the segregation and start living as the constitution stated, with equality and freedom (Document 1). In 1954 the famous Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education the NAACP and Thurgood Marshall won against segregation when there was a concern about