ipl-logo

The Case Of Plessy Vs Ferguson

623 Words3 Pages

Plessy v. Ferguson had upheld segregation of our society. This case was in Louisiana a southern state, which had enacted a Jim Crow law the Separate Car Act which made whites and blacks have to ride in separate trains. Mr. Plessy was a mixed race man who was mostly white and was arrested for sitting in the all white train and refusing to move. This happened in 1892 and Plessy was brought to Criminal Court in New Orleans, where Judge Ferguson had upheld the law. Plessy challenged this ruling and was brought to the supreme court of the United States. Plessy argued that this law was unconstitutional because this type of racial segregation was against the 14th and 13th amendment since it stigmatized blacks and made them inferior. The opinion of the court was given by Justice Brown and supported by all others except one judge dissenting. The decision was 7-1 supporting Ferguson the respondent. Justice Brown stated that the responsibility of the ‘colored’ race being inferior was their own, “...the underlying fallacy of the plaintiff’s argument to consist in the assumption that the enforced separation of the two races stamps the colored race with a badge of inferiority. If this is so, it is not by reason of anything found in the act, but solely because the …show more content…

Ferguson upheld the separate but equal clause. According to the judges the state was following the constitution. Plessy's grievance was rejected stating that this Louisiana state law was not in violation of the constitution because it was separate and equal. This was similar to other cases that upheld segregation such as Roberts v. City of Boston. The separate but equal doctrine still had power for many years after this and this was a precedent that was followed especially in the south. The conclusion of this was that racial segregation when done equally is not unlawful discrimination. The court had also cited other states which had used their 10th amendment police powers for similar separate but equal

Show More
Related

  • What Is The Plessy Vs Ferguson A Landmark Case

    1150 Words  | 5 Pages

    Plessy vs Ferguson : A Landmark case While I was researching the Plessy Vs Ferguson case I found many interesting facts. Plessy's life before the case was an average life he had many jobs . He worked as a shoemaker ,an insurance agent and clerk ,and he stepped onto the stage of history in June 1892 (Cassimere). One major problem he had in life was his race, he was considered to be Plessy was an “octoroon”—a person who had one black great-grandparent (Cassimere).

    Read More

  • African-American Plessy V. Ferguson Case

    781 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Homer Plessy Vs. Fergusen: Supreme Court Case

    548 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Plessy V. Ferguson Case Summary

    891 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Supreme Court Decision Of 1954 In The Case Of Hernandez V. Texas

    721 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Brown decision reversed the separate but equal doctrine established by the Plessy decision. Forming the 14th amendment guaranteeing equal protection under the law, and the Court ruled that separate facilities based on race was unequal. This law and the Brown case were significant when fighting the rights of Hernandez because it labeled Mexican Americans as minority

    Read More

  • Case Of Plessy Vs. Ferguson And Brown V. Board Of Education

    769 Words  | 4 Pages

    Ferguson. In this case there was only 8 justices. The ruling was almost unanimous (7-1). The justices mostly agreed on the fact that it didn't violate the Constitution under doctrine of “separate but equal. Justice John Harlan was the one justice who agreed with Plessy.

    Read More

  • Essay On Plessy V Ferguson

    416 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Court declined his argument. The Court determined that the segregated schools were considerably equal enough under the Plessy doctrine. It wasn 't until the mid twentieth century when Brown v Board of Education came into play that Plessy’s argument was given the okay by the constitution. The Court tried to use Plessy v. Ferguson to deny the argument that Oliver Brown was giving during the Brown v. Board of Education case. Once the Courts decided that separating children by race could have an overall affect on the black children 's ability to learn.

    Read More

  • Plessy Vs. Ferguson: Bakke V. California

    882 Words  | 4 Pages

    "We must learn to live together as brothers, or we will parish as fools" (Martin Luther King Jr). That is what was said from one of the most experienced leaders, at during a very judgmental time. Martin Luther King Jr was just one of the many men that changed America. During this time, there was a lot of harassment towards blacks. They were not considered as an equal people.

    Read More

  • Brown V. Board Of Education Case Study

    974 Words  | 4 Pages

    The famous outcome of Plessy V. Ferguson (separate but equal) awakened the hunger of the African American society. African Americans sought to gain equal rights in the field of education. In Brown v. Board of Education, decided May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court collectively held that segregated public schools are constitutionally differing and so it stripped African American students of their Fourteenth Amendment right to equal security. This overall agreement completely upturned Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) that entrenched the “separate but equal” doctrine and allowed laws wanting isolated places for blacks and whites.

    Read More

  • Plessy Vs Ferguson Research Paper

    688 Words  | 3 Pages

    The year of 1965 the black community let out a collective victory cry. They had finally gotten the rights they fought hard for. They could at last vote, go to school and college, and got the working condition they deserve. They couldn 't have done it without Martin Luther King Jr., but there were a slew of cases that were tried and further assisted in opening the black community 's opportunity pool. They were well known cases, like the Plessy vs. Ferguson, Brown vs. Board of Education, and the Regents of the University vs. Bakke, all very influential cases in the fight for rights.

    Read More

  • Plessy Vs Ferguson Essay

    697 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ferguson. Plessy v. Ferguson is known as the case that put Jim Crow laws on the map and with is an era of discrimination and segregation in the United States. The case was brought to the Supreme Court in 1896, Mr.Plessy was a man from Louisiana who went on a train and took an empty seat where white people were normally accommodated , the interesting tidbit was that the rail line had no policy of distinguishing passengers based off of race or ethnicity. However a conductor of the train went up to Mr. Plessy and told him to move with the threat of ejection and or imprisonment. After refusing to move from his seat he was arrested and was taken to court to talk of issues regarding racial mixing

    Read More

  • Why Is Plessy V. Ferguson Important

    427 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.”

    Read More

  • Plessy V. Ferguson's Theory Of Civil Rights

    1551 Words  | 7 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • 14th Amendment And Discrimination In The 1800s

    1634 Words  | 7 Pages

    Plessy v. Ferguson, argued in 1896, stated that Homer Plessy violated the “Separate Car Act” when he sat in a “white” railway car. According to the government, this law still satisfied the pre-existing doctrine, “Separate But Equal” (Jim Crow Stories). The term “Separate but Equal” justified having separate facilities for different races, as long as both races had the same amount of amenities. According to the government, this did not contradict the 14th Amendment as both races were receiving “equal” access to what claimed to be “equal” services, though white facilities were often better kept than black ones. Plessy was arrested for refusing to get up from a seat reserved for white people, and over time, the controversial case made it to the Supreme Court (American History).

    Read More

  • Post Civil War And Reconstruction Essay

    393 Words  | 2 Pages

    Particularly in the South, they continued to seek opportunities to legal slavery. As a result, Southerners pass a state law, Black Codes, during reconstruction. This law restricted the civil rights and public activities of legally freed African Americans. Owning weapons, freedom of movement, and land ownerships were against Black Codes. Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896), the court case that upheld authority of the state law claiming, “separate-but-equal facilities for whites and blacks” , led up to another significant factor, segregation, which arose to be controversy in mid-1900s.

    Read More

More about The Case Of Plessy Vs Ferguson

Open Document