The Sherman Antitrust Act: Plessy V. Ferguson

But sadly, Plessy lost. The case ended in 1890. Since then they made a new law and it is there saying that blacks and whites are “Separate but Equal” on the plaque. Since that Landmark was there, it wasn’t equal. It said that everyone were equal but segregated and that was not true.

On June 7th, 1892, Homer Plessy boarded a Louisiana train with a first class ticket. Plessy was one-eighth black, and was therefore an easily white-passing man. When he seated himself in the whites-only carriage of the train, he was soon forcibly removed and placed under arrest. The reason for his imprisonment was for ‘violating an act of the General Assembly of the State,’ as specified in the Supreme Court’s transcript of the Plessy v. Ferguson case. At the time, a law was in place in the state of Louisiana dictating that people of color and whites must sit in separate train carriages.

The case was looked into as a racial matter of discrimination for Plessy being an African American. Plessy was arrested for violating an 1890 Louisiana statute that provided for segregated “separate but equal” railroad accommodations. African American man mistreated, it is true a broke a state law, but the situation could have been treated more maturely, and professionally. Police and citizens should not have discriminate Homer Plessy for being an African American. Rejecting Plessy’s argument that his constitutional rights were violated, the Court ruled that a state law that “implies merely a legal distinction” between whites and blacks did not conflict with the 13th and14th Amendments.

In 1857 the Dred Scott case was pulled into the supreme court. Dred Scott was claiming that even though he was a slave, He had been in a free country long enough to be a free citizen for the United States. The Supreme court ruled that blacks, with ancestors that were imported to become slaves weren’t aren’t able to become free american citizens. Therefore they weren’t able to appeal to a jury or able to to sue in federal court.

Board of Education case a parent of a black child named Oliver Brown went to the government in concern that the 14th Amendment, made from the Plessy v. Ferguson case, stated that the race separation should be "Separate but equal". But Oliver Brown believed that this law was not being followed. The white public schools were much different than the black public schools. The white schools were much cleaner, nicer, had better education, more teachers, etc. But the black schools had nothing even close to those opportunities in their school.

Plessy v. Ferguson is a Supreme Court case that legalized segregation,”separate but equal”. The Supreme Court said that “separate but equal” did not violate the 14th Amendment. This all happened because an African American man sat in a whites only train car and refused to move. He sued and said that this violated his constitutional right. Case: In 1892 Homer Plessy took a seat in the “whites only” car of the train and refused to move.

One of the Supreme Court Cases that were held was Plessy V. Ferguson, which was argued on April 18, 1896 until May 18, 1896. This issue was over the law that trains, would have to provide separate accommodations to both black and white races equally. One man who was mostly Caucasian and partially African had the rights of a white citizen. For this reason, he bought a ticket for first class, however was not allowed to be seated within this area due to the judgment of a conductor. The man who is Plessy, refused what he was told to do and as a result was taken off to be imprisoned in jail.

The Jim Crow Laws Jim Crow Laws guaranteed that African Americans were treated as second class citizens without the freedom and liberties promised by our nation’s constitution. Many segregation laws, called The Jim Crow Laws, were already in place throughout the South before the Supreme Court’s Decision in Plessy v Ferguson. Growing up as a Native American was kind of rough on people, they were separated from others. They were only allowed to use certain water fountains, certain bathrooms plus they had to wait for the Americans to get done before they could walk into a grouchy store.

The Reconstruction time period was 1865 to 1877. During the period, the states that had seceded were readmitted as part of the Union. In my opinion, the Reconstruction time period was a failure. One reason it did not succeed is because of “Jim Crow” laws. These laws separated people in public by their color of skin, therefore disrupting equality.

Rosa Parks The Civil Right Movement was the African-American way of fighting for equality to the whites and it was supposed to be a nonviolent way to protest. Khan academy stated that “After the Civil War, during the period known as Reconstruction, the passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments established a legal foundation for the political equality of African Americans. Despite the abolition of slavery and legal gains for African Americans, racial segregation known as Jim Crow arose in the South”. Jim Crow law meant that African American could not be at the same place as the white people.

Throughout the history of America, blacks have continuously been perceived as inferior to whites. At first, due to the legality of slavery, blacks were not identified as people, but property. This was a regular practice until the passing of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments, which granted rights to black inhabitants of America. Hypothetically, these rights were to make newly freed slaves equal to their white cohabitants, but this wasn’t the case. Court cases, laws, and illicit practices, ensured that blacks would remain inferior to whites.

The Dred Scott V. Sanford case of 1857 declared that African Americans were not citizens of the United States and did not receive the same support from the Federal Government. During this time the Congress also lacked the power to ban slavery in all territories belonging to the United States. In 1850 Dred Scott and his family were declared free under the state court however, this did not last long. The Supreme Court of Missouri revoked the Scott’s family freedom which led him to take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court denied him citizenship of the U.S. even if he was a citizen of a free state.

The Gilded age was a period of time, from 1865-1901 after the Civil War, when the economy switched from agricultural to industrial. During this age two famous American cases each set premises for the future. Plessy vs. Ferguson was a case in 19th century America that challenged the 13th and 14th Amendments. Louisana just passed the Separate Car Act of 1890 which stated that trains had to provide separate but equal accommodations for passengers. Homer Plessy who was 1/8th black bought a ticket for the white only section on the train to challenge this act.

The Plessy vs Ferguson court case originated in 1892. On June 7, 1892, Homer Plessy was jailed for sitting in a white car of a Louisiana train. Despite his white complexion, Plessy was considered to be “octoroon” which meant that he was 7/8 white and 1/8 black. Plessy intentionally sat on the white car and announced himself a black. Plessy challenged the separate car act which required that all railroads operating in the state provide “equal but separate accommodations” for White and African-American passengers and prohibited passengers from entering accommodations other than those to which they had been assigned on the basis of their race.

The Supreme Court’s decision amalgamated with the Reconstruction-era differentiation between civil rights and social rights in the preceding court case of Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896. Conforming to Justice Henry Brown, the Fourteenth Amendment endorsed “absolute equality of the two races before the law, but, 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.” Congress could require the separation of the races as Brown communicated the reasoning of the laws not implying the inferiority towards either race. Plessy’s lawyer, Albion Tourgee, exhorted that the segregation regulations implied the white supremacy’s view of African American was seen as inferior.