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. This court case showed that even if Plessy was a part White because he was a part …show more content…
State of Louisiana. His lawyers argued that the East Louisiana Railroad had denied his rights given to him under his 13th and 14th Amendment. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery in all states and the 14th Amendment declared that all persons born or naturalized in the United States are American citizens including African Americans. He fought that according to these Amendments Plessy should be treated as an American citizen, the same as a White man, regardless of his 1/8th of being African American. The name of the Judge in his court case was Ferguson. He decided that the railroad had the right to implement their own laws and that those laws would need to be followed. The court case ended in that Plessy was convicted and had to pay a fine of $25.00. After being trialed he attempted a writ of prohibition but the Supreme Court sustained the verdict Judge Fergusen had decided on. The Supreme Court decided that the East Louisiana Railroad had not broken any laws by dividing the cars for Black and White men. They said each Railroad station had a right to make its own rules to protect their passengers and for the best results for the company. They also said that the 13th and 14th Amendments were not being violated by the rules the East Louisiana Railroad had at that
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).
The seven to one decision was in favor of the defendant, John H. Ferguson. The court did not agree with Tourgee’s argument about the thirteenth amendment. Also, the common opinion of the court was that the Louisiana law did not show that African-Americans were inferior. Justice Harlan, a former slave owner, disagreed with the common opinion of the court. He stated that the constitution is “color-blind and should not make such distinctions based on race, and that such distinctions did, indeed, imply the inferiority of one place to another.”
Speaking for the majority was Justice Henry Brown. He stated that “a statute which implies merely a legal distinction between the white and colored races -- has no tendency to destroy the legal equality of the two races.” (Wormser, n.d.). In addition, that the 14th amendment was to undoubtedly enforce the equality of the two races before the law, and that it could have not been intended to abolish distinctions base on color (Wormser, n.d.). This case law allowed for segregation as long as that everyone were treated
For example, a man who was the lone dissenter, Justice John Marshall Harlan argued that constitution is colorblind because in the Civil Right citizens are equal each other even they are black or white. Not only that, Harland did not agree that legislature could not distinguish the race between people which involve civil right, he said that the justices did not deserved to hold the law when they were senseless. Despite Plessy and his lawyers provided all the argument about his case that him did not violation the law, they still could not change whatever the court decided about the Separate Car Act. The court showed that the Louisiana can process the law Separate Car Act.
He said that the Separate Car Act did not conflict with the Thirteenth Amendment because it did not reestablish slavery or constitute a “badge” of slavery or servitude. His answer relied on the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Civil Rights Cases in 1883 which found that racial discrimination against African Americans in places of public amusement, public conveyances, and inns impose no badge of involuntary servitude or slavery, but at most infringes rights which are protected by the Fourteenth Amendment but pointed that the Act did not come into conflict with the Amendment (History.com Plessy v. Ferguson). Brown argued that the legal equality was adequately respected because it provided each race equal accommodations and because the racial segregation of passengers did not itself imply the inferiority of either race. In contrast, social equality in public conveyances and areas did not exist and could not be legally created (“Plessy v. Ferguson”). He said, “The object of the Fourteenth Amendment was undoubtedly to enforce the 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, or a commingling of the two races upon terms unsatisfactory to either” (“Landmark
Even though Plessy took his case to the Supreme Court, he is still guilty. Later, Brown vs. Board of Education court case ruled that with the segregated schools in Kansas, the 14th Amendment is unconstitutional. The 14th Amendment definitely impacted the the white and
Plessy’s arguments at the Supreme Court wouldn't change much, but he still believed that separate but equal was unconstitutional. Plessy stated that the actions against him violated his 14th amendment right. The 14th amendment makes known that anyone born or naturalized in the United States is a citizen. Being a citizen in the United States, means that you have the rights that everyone else has, and these
When Homer Adolph Plessy, who was one-eighth black, tested this law by taking a seat in the white-only section of a Louisiana Railway train, he was arrested. Plessy contended that the segregation law violated his rights under the Fourteenth Amendment (Newton, 2006). The case was appealed up to the U.S., Supreme Court in 1896. The Court ruled in a 7 – 1 vote upholding the Louisiana Statute, although associate justice John Marshall Harlan wrote a dissenting opinion. In his dissent, he wrote that “Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens…
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.
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
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.
Have you ever thought or heard about Plessy v. Ferguson or Brown v. Board of Education? Well these were two major Supreme Court cases that involved discrimination. Discrimination has been going on for a long time and still to this day. Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education are similar in cases because they both involve discrimination. The Plessy v. Ferguson began when there was an act know as The Separate Car Act.
Ferguson. Plessy was a mixed man who chose to sit in a white section when he was considered to be black. Later on Plessy took his argument to court and was guaranteed that it was now considered, "a crime for an individual to deny the full and equal enjoyment of any of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges of inns, public conveyances on land or water, theaters and other places of public". The end result of this case was the famous 'separate ' but equal saying and the popular whites and blacks only posters. This stuck around until the Brown v. Board of Education case (Plessy v. Ferguson).
The novel Passing of Nella Larsen held the historical and legal implications which can be seen through the judicial case of Homer Plessy who had one-eighth black and seven- eighths white. Plessy was forcibly jailed for sitting in the whites- only section on the railroad car in Louisiana. In 1896, at the Supreme Court, he argued that his black ancestry was insignificant and he was a white person by all definitions. The Supreme Court said that forcing Plessy to exclude from the whites section was against the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments about equal protection. However, Judge John Howard Ferguson affirmed that treating all people equally did not paralleled with eliminating social distinction based on colors.
The case Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court established a doctrine. " separate but equal. " This doctrine authorized segregation between the races. This occurred in 1892 incident in which an African American train passenger, Homer Plessy refused to sit in a Jim Crow car as a result breaking the Louisiana law.