Before Brown v. Board of Education, there was Plessy v. Ferguson. Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education complement each other. The ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson was the reason for the case of Brown v. Board of Education. In the late 1800’s the south was not the ideal place for a person of color. “Official segregation in the South commenced in 1887 when Florida passed a law that required racially separate transportation” (Lively, 98). In Louisiana the law required separate rail cars for whites and blacks. Homer Plessy refused to give into the rules and not confining to his ‘appropriate’ rail car. Plessy sued the Judge that was assigned to look over his trial, Judge John H. Ferguson. His plea was denied and He appealed to the Supreme
Plessy v. Ferguson was a very important topic in 1892. When an African-American man named Homer Plessy, who looked white decided to ride in a “whites-only” railroad car. Plessy told a white man who worked on the train that he was 1/8 African-American and was arrested for not moving to the “blacks-only” car. The reason he went on the “whites-only” car was to protest against Louisiana’s “Separate Car Act,” which meant blacks and whites had to be in different cars on a train so they could be seperate. This debate soon went to court and was argued if what happened on the train was constitutional or unconstitutional.
Plessy v Fergusen was yet another court case where “separate but equal” was not implementing equality. It showed that they still thought of Black men and women as being less and not deserving the same rights as the White men. Homer Plessy was a free man, that was mainly White and because of a percentage he had of being Black he was treated as a Black man. He tried to sit in the train car of the White men and much like Rosa Parks was asked to go to the back where the Black men belonged in a different car. This case resulted in the Supreme Court defending the decision of the East Louisiana Railroad stating that they weren't violating any law by the ruling they had.
Plessy V. Ferguson. In 1890, Louisiana passed the Separate Car Act, which required whites and blacks to ride in separate train cars. In 1892, Homer Plessy was arrested for sitting in a “whites only” car. Plessy filed a lawsuit declaring that his constitutional rights had been violated. However, the US Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that separate accommodations were constitutional as long as they were equal.
Plessy v. Ferguson This case dates back in to 1982 when Homer Please was arrested for sitting in a “white” car of a train (Wormser, n.d.). Obviously this goes back where discrimination against black was going on. Plessy was said to pass as white due to his light skin; however, due to Louisiana law he was required to sit in the “colored” car. He was a “Creole of Color” which is used to refer to a black person in New Orleans whose ancestor were traced to the French, Spanish, and Caribbean (Wormser, n.d.).
To understand the question, focusing on the court cases of Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education, we must first understand each court case on its own. Plessy v. Ferguson resulted in the year 1896. The case involved the 1890s Louisiana law that basically stated that there were separate railway carriages that were specifically labeled for blacks only and whites only. Plessy v. Ferguson involved Homer Plessy, who was seven-eighths white and one-eighth black and appeared to look like a white man. Plessy took an open seat in a white only railway car.
The White cars were nicer and cleaner than the Black cars. Judge John Howard Ferguson had recently ruled the law “unconstitutional on trains that traveled through many states,” but in this case, Judge Ferguson ruled that Plessy was guilty because the state had the right to regulate railroad companies that run only in the state. Mr. Plessy then appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court of Louisiana which also went against him, saying the separate but equal law was constitutional. Plessy finally appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States, because he still believed that the “separate but equal” law violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, because it did not treat Blacks and Whites equally. However, in 1896, the Supreme Court of the United States decided that Homer Plessy was guilty.
The Supreme Court case, Brown vs. Board of Education 349 U.S 294, dealt with the segregation of black children into “separate but equal schools.” The Brown vs. Board of Education was not the first case that dealt with the separating of the whites and blacks in schools. This case was actually made up of five separate cases heard in the United States Supreme court concerning the issue of segregation in public schools. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of Education of Prince Edward County (VA.), Boiling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel were the five cases that made up the Brown case. Thurgood, Marshall, and the National Association for the Advance of Colored People (NCAAP) handled these cases.
During this time, the Supreme Court case Plessy VS Ferguson resulted in African Americans and Whites having separate bathrooms. In the South, African Americans were living under Jim Crow Laws and enforced racial segregation in all public facilities. This
This case, which concerned racial segregation laws for public facilities such as restrooms, restaurants, and water fountains, made its way all the way to the Supreme Court. As way of background, in 1890 Louisiana passed a law which required blacks and whites to ride in separate train cars. However, in 1892, Homer A. Plessy, who was a black man, boarded a car designated for whites only. He was asked to leave, but refused and was arrested immediately. In the case, Plessy vs Ferguson, Plessy’s position was that his rights were violated under the 13th and 14th amendments of the Constitution, which dictated equal treatment under the law.
Without these cases, segregation might still be prevalent in America today. Homer Plessy was arrested for sitting in the first
Ferguson was a case of the Supreme Court in 1892 after passenger Homer Plessy traveled on the Louisiana railroad and refused to sit in a car for blacks only. Homer Plessy was brought before Judge John H. Ferguson to a Criminal Court in New Orleans to be trailed for refusing to follow the state law of Louisiana “separate but equal.” Such conflict challenged the violation of the 13th and 14th amendment where they ensure equality for recently emancipated slaves. They stated, “Separate facilities for blacks and whites satisfied the Fourteenth Amendment so long as they were equal.” “In the nature of things it could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social, as distinguished from political equality, or a commingling of the two races unsatisfactory to either.”
The Brown vs. Board court case is one of the most significant and groundbreaking legal battles in American history. Taking place in the mid-20th century, it tackled the issue of racial segregation in public schools, ultimately leading to the desegregation of educational institutions across the United States. This landmark case challenged the constitutionality of "separate but equal" doctrine established by the Plessy vs. Ferguson decision in 1896. Through a detailed examination of the case, its key arguments, legal proceedings, and ultimate outcome, this article explores the profound impact of Brow vs. Board in shaping educational equality and advancing civil rights.
For nearly a century, the United States was occupied by the racial segregation of black and white people. The constitutionality of this “separation of humans into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life” had not been decided until a deliberate provocation to the law was made. The goal of this test was to have a mulatto, someone of mixed blood, defy the segregated train car law and raise a dispute on the fairness of being categorized as colored or not. This test went down in history as Plessy v. Ferguson, a planned challenge to the law during a period ruled by Jim Crow laws and the idea of “separate but equal” without equality for African Americans. This challenge forced the Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of segregation, and in result of the case, caused the nation to have split opinions of support and
“To separate them from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone. " Why was Brown vs. Board of Education such an significant and milestone decision? The Brown vs. Board of Education desegregated schools which gave african american kids an equal education as white kids, it helped segregation among white and black, and introduced people like Thurgood Marshall and Ruby Bridges. First, It gave African American kids the opportunity to get an equal education as the white kids.
In the famous 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the justices held unanimously that the racial division of children in public schools was unlawful. One of the foundations of the fight for civil rights was Brown v. Board of Education, which established the precedent that "separate but equal" education and various other services were not, in fact, similar at all. In Plessy v. Ferguson, the United States Supreme Court ruled that racial discrimination in public accommodations was permissible as long as facilities for Black and White individuals were equal. The court's ruling maintained "Jim Crow" laws, which prohibited African Americans from accessing the same buses, schools, and other public facilities as white people,