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Ruby Bridges Supreme Court Cases

875 Words4 Pages

Ronion Brown

Professor Ferrara

ENG 102

20 April 2018

The Foundation of Ruby Bridges

The Supreme Court decision in 1896 of Plessy v. Ferguson strengthened the constitutionality of segregation laws in the United States. The law did not change for over fifty years until the Supreme Court finally recognized the inequality inherent in "separate but equal" legislation in 1954 with the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case. Homer Plessy was African American man who boarded a car for white Americans only of East Louisiana Railway Train. Plessy was arrested after informing the driver that he was an African American because his skin tone allowed him to be mistaken as white American. Plessy challenged the Separate Car Act, passed in 1890 …show more content…

Board of Education was a series of judicial decisions overturning segregation laws which separate white and African Americans. It reversed the 1896 decision in Plessy vs. Ferguson case. Establishing the "separate but equal' doctrine that found racial segregation to be …show more content…

Ruby Bridges was the only African American first grader who entered William Frantz Elementary School, which the New Orleans school district was ordered by a federal judge to begin complying with the desegregation ruling after various legal challenges. Four marshals were instructed to escort Ruby and her mother to school to avoid any deviant behavior used toward them. They were encountered with shouting of racial slurs and threats from the parents whose children attended the school because they did not agree with the integration of New Orleans schools. Ruby could not participate in recess with the other students or eat in the cafeteria because it was too dangerous. The crowds continued to surround the school every morning to assault and harass her. She was very brave for a six year old girl who was faced with racial adversity and people started to noticed her bravery as the years passed. Many people have memorialized and examined her experience in 1960. For instance, John Steinbeck wrote of her courage in Travels with Charley and Norman Rockwell immortalized that first day of school in his famous painting "The Problem We All Live With." Ruby recognition continued to increase throughout the country and made the news headlines for becoming one of the indelible images of the civil rights era and the battle for school desegregation. Her family had to remain brave and strong during the time because they

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