Legal Opinion of Overturning Plessy v Ferguson Sentence By: Estephanos Bekele Homer Plessy was an innocent man living in the state of Louisiana. He was a Creole, meaning that he was 7/8th white and only 1/8th black. Nevertheless, in the eyes of the law, he was considered African American. The SAA was the Separate Accommodations Act, created in 1890, for the state of Louisiana, was meant to force the blacks to sit in the back of trains, while whites were allowed to sit in the front of vehicles (Wikipedia Contributors). This helped start discrimination, and the notion that although the blacks were separate, they were still considered equal. 2 years after the act was passed, on June 7th, 1892, Plessy bought a ticket for a train in New Orleans, …show more content…
Slavery was the foundation of segregation. Blacks were being separated from the whites during the times of slavery, mostly because of Bacon’s rebellion. Bacon’s rebellion united both races, poor whites and poor blacks to fight back against the Native Americans, and eventually try to dethrone the corrupted government (Berlin). After Bacon died, the rebellion had ended, and the government feared that another rebellion could begin by unifying the poor whites and blacks. Thus, the government gave more rights to the whites, and put the poor blacks into an even lower class (Berlin). As a result, slavery started. Bacon’s rebellion was what caused the government to give more rights to white people than to colored people. The effects of the rebellion were still felt in 1892 because again, black people were being discriminated against, and thought of as a part of a different group. This relates to the Plessy case by how Plessy was convicted because of his race, and the reason this notion of race became such an important idea was because of Bacon’s rebellion and …show more content…
However, blacks were not getting to sit where they wanted to. They were punished just because they were trying to be viewed as equals and trying to get the same opportunities as white men. In this case, Plessy was trying to fight for the rights of blacks and to make a stand, so that blacks would be able to be viewed as equal. They were continuously reminded of slavery because they were always put on a lower level than whites, even during the Reconstruction Era, which means they were still being divided and stashed into a lower class, which was exactly what was happening during slavery. Blacks were not allowed to pursue happiness when they were constantly tethered and reminded of slavery and that they were told that they were
The predictions made by Justice Harlan were accurate, as he thoroughly predicted on what the ruling entailed. The ruling allowed for the ignorance of the amendments that protect the rights of colored citizens and allowed them to stay as citizens. In the Plessy v. Ferguson case, the ruling ended up impacting the country in the way he described with aggressions being stimulated. Colored people lost many of their rights that were granted upon the passing of the 14th and 15th amendments, and they were faced with violence and prejudice. A rift between the colored and white was created with colored being labeled as being inferior to whites.
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.
The judge for this case was John Howard Ferguson. He found Plessy guilty for refusing to leave the white car. Plessy then appealed to the Supreme Court. They to found him guilty. The Plessy decision set that “separate” facilities for blacks were constitutional as long as they were “equal”.
Some of his and Justice John Harlan's arguments, laid the groundwork for future actions against an oppressive government. Oliver Brown used many of the same arguments as Homer Plessy, such as stating that separate but equal doctrine was unconstitutional because it violated the plaintiffs 13th and 14th amendment rights. While these arguments were before unsuccessful in Plessy v. Ferguson, they were later successfully backed up by the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education, overruling the earlier set precedent. After the separate but equal precedent was over ruled, separate but equal school facilities were forced to be integrated. Long before this groundbreaking ruling, Justice John Harlan thought that the U.S. constitution should be “color-blind”, and his dreams were one step closer, though he was not there to see it.
Ferguson case. Firstly, Ferguson had previously ruled the Louisiana Railway Car Act, this act declared that Louisiana railroad companies had to provide separate but equal train carts for white and black passengers. Also, Ferguson presided over the case of Homer Plessy v. The State of Louisiana. Later, Ferguson then found Plessy guilty of not leaving the white train car and declared that the Separate Car Act was in this case constitutional. Finally, 50 years after everything occurred relatives Plessy and Ferguson united to create a foundation that provides civil rights education, preservation, and
Annabelle Wintson Bower History 8A March 12, 2018 Title Although the slavery was abolished in 1865, the rights given to African Americans were not nearly equal to those of white Americans. After slavery was abolished, inequality in American society ran high, and many laws were put in place to restrict the rights and abilities of African Americans. Some laws include the Jim Crow Laws (1870 to 1950s) and the Supreme Court Ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) that ruled that there could be “separate but equal” facilities and services for people of color and white Americans.
Plessy v Ferguson 1896 June 7, 1892 Homer Plessy boarded a Louisiana train and as a black man chose to sit in the whites-only car. This was not the first time a black person broke the law to try to change it nor would it be the last. It was a particularly memorable incident because the term “separate but equal” came about and there was a negative impact on the lives of black Americans for many decades. Plessy was arrested for violating the Separate Car Act of 1890 and with the help of the Comite` des Citoyens, he hoped to change the world for black citizens in the United States. Unfortunately, John Howard Ferguson, then, later the United States Supreme Court got in Plessy’s way.
he Reconstruction Era was the process of reunifying the country and reconstructing the South after the ruins the Civil War had left it in. This era was substantial in history because it encouraged to protect the rights of former slaves and African Americans as citizens of America. However, it was ineffective in settling the nation’s social, monetary, physical, and political dilemmas. The inadequacy of political focus, decline to bring about long-term racial integration, and authorizing the passing of black codes, voter qualifications, and other anti-progressive legislation to repeal the rights that blacks had gained, emphasizes the disappointment of what the focus of the Reconstruction Era was all about but the infrastructure it had established
With “freedom….the Negro was not only whipped and scourged; he was killed (75),” this was because with the little freedom that blacks had, the white man did not want to take a chance at anything. A black man’s punishment was far more horrible than a white man being punished for the same exact
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
In the 1800s, both African Americans and Mexican Americans faced similar treatments from whites. One of the main things that both groups had to face was racial discrimination mainly because they both were not viewed as racially equal by most whites. For example, the U.S. court validated legislations that institutionalized race separations between blacks and whites, such as the Jim Crow Laws. The Plessy v. Ferguson was a Supreme Court Case that gave states the right to pass laws allowing or required racial segregation in public and private institutions like schools and public transportation. The laws not only affected black people, but it also affected Mexicans.
Reconstruction era, which was followed by post-civil war, was meant to unite the states back together, reconstruct properties, and most importantly, abolish slavery in the South. Although the factors such as amendments legally freed former slaves, yet WRITE THESIS After the end of civil war in 1865, Reconstruction era, which was controlled by President Abraham Lincoln, appeared to quickly coalesce the Northern and Southern states. reconstruction amendments, which were approved between 1865 and 1870, played a huge role on giving legal rights to blacks and former slaves. 13th amendment constitutionally abolished slavery in 1865 and followed up by that, 14th and 15th amendment admitted equal citizenship, protection, and rights of suffrage despite the one’s race or skin color. Former slaves were no longer belongings of their owners.
In 1891, a group of concerned young black men of New Orleans immediately formed the “Citizens’ Committee to Test the Constitutionality of the Separate Car Law.” They raised money and engaged Albion W. Tourgée, a prominent Radical Republican author and politician, as their lawyer. The poeple involved in this case are the young concerned black men the us government and the states. On May 15, 1892, the Louisiana State Supreme Court decided in favor of the Pullman Company’s claim that the Separate Car Law was unconstitutional. The importance of this case is that In 1883, the Supreme Court finally ruled that the 14th Amendment did not give Congress authority to prevent discrimination by private individuals(Plessy v.
He was arrested. Plessy's lawyer argued that Louisiana did not have the right to label one citizen as White and another Black for the purposes of restricting their rights and privileges. In Plessy, the Supreme Court stated that so long as state governments provided legal process and legal freedoms for Blacks, equal to those of Whites, they could maintain separate institutions to facilitate these rights. The Court, by a 7-2 vote, upheld the Louisiana law, declaring that racial separation did not necessarily mean an abrogation of equality. In practice, Plessy represented the legitimization of two societies: one White, and advantaged; the other, Black, disadvantaged and despised.
The new laws that the government had set in place made lives for black people very difficult at the time. When this law was put in place, the differences between blacks and whites were very clear. Whites got preferential treatment, just for being white whereas blacks had to struggle with daily