ipl-logo

Plessy Vs. Ferguson And The Separate But Equal Laws

1402 Words6 Pages

Plessy v. Ferguson and The Separate but Equal Laws
A pivotal moment of the history of the United States is the segregation of blacks. Although they were both provided with race-containing facilities, blacks were still not equal to whites. This is because of the Plessy v. Ferguson case and separate but equal laws. It came to the Supreme Court when it was said that the 13th and 14th Amendments were violated; the court enacted upon the separate but equal laws after the trial to isolate blacks from whites. The Plessy v. Ferguson trial and separate but equal laws was unfair towards black citizens due to the discriminatory social standards set against them.
The Plessy v. Ferguson trial displayed discrimination against blacks. The event that started …show more content…

Ferguson trial was based off of inequitable situation that whites and blacks were not able to sit on the same train car. Additionally, the Supreme Court had a biased opinion due to the majority of whites. The members of the Supreme Court included, “David J. Brewer, Henry B. Brown, Stephen J. Field, Melville W. Fuller, Horace Gray, John Marshall Harlan, Rufus W. Peckham, George Shiras and Edward D. White” (Buchanan). The men listed above were all white; thus, the final decision to create separate but equal laws, segregating blacks from whites, was because of the preconceived viewpoints of the justices. The creation of the separate but equal laws indicated an aversion towards black rights. For instance, “the Court endorsed the ‘separate but equal’ doctrine, ignoring the fact that blacks had practically no power to make sure that their "separate" facilities were "equal" to those of whites” (Buchanan). These laws denoted the strong disliking of blacks, and it showed the unfairness of the separate but equal laws that segregated blacks from whites. Moreover, the discrimination against blacks was demonstrated throughout the Plessy v. Ferguson …show more content…

A critical event in the book is when Atticus accepts to defend Tom Robinson, a black man, who is accused of raping Mayella Ewell; however, he is disfavored against by the town due to his race. In the book, Atticus says, “...The only thing we’ve got is a black man’s word against the Ewells’. The evidence boils down to you did--I-didn’t. The jury couldn’t possibly be expected to take Tom Robinson’s word against the Ewells’...” (Lee 117). This represents that no matter his argument, Tom Robinson was already determined to be convicted of rape because he was black. Additionally, the man Dolphus Raymond was seen as a disgrace to the residents of Maycomb since he has children with a black women. He said that he must pretend to drink alcohol out of a brown paper bag because, “...they could never, never understand that I live like I do because that’s the way I want to live” (Lee 286). As stated above, Dolphus Raymond has to pretend to be out of his right mind since people can not accept that he associates with blacks on a daily basis. The separate but equal laws were demonstrated in To Kill a Mockingbird through the segregation of white and black facilities. For example, when Calpurnia takes Jem and Scout to her church one of the women there asked, “I wants to know why bringin’ white chillun to a nigger church” (Lee

Show More
Related

  • The Jim Crow Laws: The Plessy Vs. Ferguson Case

    451 Words  | 2 Pages

    “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.

    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

  • The Case Of Dred Scott Vs. Ferguson And Brown V. Board Of Education

    495 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ferguson case was about how the slaves had to use a separate door, restroom, hotels, hospital and other public services to serve equal but separate accommodations for African Americans. This doctrine was making a step toward equality but yet it was still unfair that the Africans couldn't eat or do anything with the white people. In the sole dissent, Justice John Marshall Harlan -- a former slaveowner -- said the ruling would "stimulate aggressions, more or less brutal, upon the admitted rights of colored citizens.” ( full citation-Plessy vs. Ferguson, Judgement, Decided May 18, 1896; Records of the Supreme Court of the United States; Record Group 267; Plessy v. Ferguson, 163, #15248, National

    Read More

  • Essay On Plessy V Ferguson

    416 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Plessy Vs Ferguson

    593 Words  | 3 Pages

    Near the end of the Reconstruction Era, laws and amendments were passed to give African American’s rights. The Civil Rights Act of 1875 was passed to forbid racial discrimination in public areas. However, Congress ended up repealing the law saying that it was unconstitutional. As a result, more laws dealing with segregation were passed. Plessy v. Ferguson was an important landmark court case because it paved way for African American civil rights movements that challenged the laws under “separate but equal.”

    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

  • Plessy Vs Ferguson Research Paper

    688 Words  | 3 Pages

    Plessy vs. Ferguson, one of the bigger cases in the turning point for rights, gave the black community a big boost forward. There was a man named Homer Adoph Plessy that had a problem with the way things were going at the time and he wanted equal rights. But there was another man named John Ferguson who thought that everything was just skippy. They went to court to settle their quarrel.

    Read More

  • What Is The Impact Of The Plessy V. Ferguson Case

    1437 Words  | 6 Pages

    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.

    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

  • The Supreme Court Case Of Brown Vs. Board Of Education Is Separate But Equal

    519 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Separate but equal” is what education was said to be in Topeka, Kansas in 1954. It was separate, but was it really equal? In Topeka, black children were forced to walk twenty-one blocks to school when there was one right around the corner, but it was a school for white children only. This caused many issues among the community of Topeka and even caused a Supreme Court case between Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka. Oliver Brown was the parent of a child at a black only school.

    Read More

  • Negative Effects Of Sharecropping

    453 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Fourteenth Amendment mainly focus on all men or women are created equal. But in the ‘’Plessy v. Ferguson’’ article, the author quote, ''Separate but equal’’ means that even though the black and white people are not together, but both of the races will be provided with public facilities, such as drinking fountains, hotels, toilets and education. These laws were called the Jim Crow laws. The supreme court says that separation does not mean that one is less equal. If blacks were to take it differently so it would be their own fault.

    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

  • Gilded Age Dbq

    1299 Words  | 6 Pages

    The ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson said that all black and white people will be separate but equal, but in reality, this was not the case ("Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)"). Whites were of course given the most elaborate and fancy equipment when in public; from schools to water fountains to bathrooms, whites were living in complete luxury compared to the increasingly struggling blacks of the time. A major flaw with the idea of segregation, was the issue of schooling. Whites were given the better schools with better teachers, while blacks had schools that were very poor and not the best teachers. Because of this, African-Americans were again being penalized just because of their race, truly showing how unequal their lives really were.

    Read More

  • Rumors In To Kill A Mockingbird

    725 Words  | 3 Pages

    The only thing we’ve got is a black man's word against the Ewells’. The evidence boils down to you-did—i didn’t. The jury couldn’t possibly be expected to take Tom Robinson’s word against the Ewells’— are you acquainted with the Ewells?’”(100). Atticus knows there is little hope in the case because of Tom Robinson’s skin color. People in Maycomb barely, if at all, think of blacks as people.

    Read More

  • Plessy Vs. Ferguson And Brown Versus Board Of Education

    516 Words  | 3 Pages

    Supreme Court Decisions Setting Precedent Discrimination may not seen as big a problem today, but people had to fight for that problem, and court cases set precedents for today. The case of Plessy versus Ferguson and Brown versus Board of Education helped change the way we view discrimination today. The case of Plessy versus Ferguson decided that segregation was legal as long as everything was equal. But on the other hand, Brown versus Board of Education included separate but equal schools made African-American children feel inferior to the white children. 1896, Supreme Court heard the Plessy versus Ferguson case.

    Read More

More about Plessy Vs. Ferguson And The Separate But Equal Laws

Open Document