ipl-logo

Compare And Contrast Plessy Vs Ferguson And Brown Vs Board Of Education

871 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Brown vs. board of education case answers

The Road to Ending Institutional Racism in America The road to end institutional racism in America was rocky, to say the least. It was filled with many setbacks, and triumphant victories that would shape the course of American history. Two court cases in particular, Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education, played a significant role in challenging Americas “separate but equal” doctrine. The ruling and precedent first set by Plessy v. Ferguson, was then challenged by Brown v. Board of Education, resulting in them relating to each other based on a changed precedent. The first time separate but equal laws were scrutinized was in 1892. On the afternoon of June 7th, 1892, Homer Plessy, a shoemaker from Louisiana, …show more content…

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. Both court cases, Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education, showed the power that ordinary people with a dream can hold over an unjust society. First Plessy v. Ferguson challenged Americas separate but equal doctrine but failed to do so successfully, prompting the case Brown v. Board of education which successfully overruled the previous precedent, relating the two cases to one another. The eventual success of the people involved in the cases opened the door for substantial changes in American

Show More
Related

Korematsu Vs. USpreme Court Case Study

123 Words | 1 Pages

Korematsu vs. US: The supreme court case of Korematsu vs. US was during ww2 and shortly after the attacks on pearl harbor. The supreme court decision was 6-3 in Korematsu 's favor, the impact showed that it was a violation oft he 14th amendment which said that everyone had equal protection under law. Plessy vs. Ferguson: The supreme court case of Plessy vs. Ferguson was the case that made segregation legal, the phrase during that time was "Separate but equal.

Read More

How Did Homer Plessy Use To Improve American Life

666 Words | 3 Pages

Homer Plessy, angered because of segregation laws in the 1890’s, specifically opposed the Separate Car Act. This allowed for a “whites only” car in trains. As a civil rights activist, Homer believed that the rights granted to him by the 13th and 14th amendments were being violated. Although mostly white, Plessy fought for equality for everyone. The passing of new segregation laws in the South spurred Plessy into action.

Read More

Case Of Plessy Vs. Ferguson And Brown V. Board Of Education

769 Words | 4 Pages

The law doesn't care what your skin looks like. They law is there to be a fair way to help and guide people and in the situation Harlan believes they interpreted the law wrong. While Harlan believed that the law doesn't care what color you are another justice who voted against Plessy , Henry Brown believe that no laws were violated. He believed that racial differences didn't violate anything in the Constitution as long as both of the places were “separate but equal”. The phrase separate but equal keeps coming up, but back then when people still thought whites were superior were things really equal?

Read More

The Supreme Court Decision Of 1954 In The Case Of Hernandez V. Texas

721 Words | 3 Pages

The Supreme Court’s decision of 1954 in the case of Hernandez v. Texas was the start of a breakthrough for Mexican Americans in the United States. The case was brought to existence after Pete Hernandez was accused of murder in Jackson County, a small town called Edna, Texas. The special thing about this case that makes it significant was the jury that were including in this trial. It was said that a Mexican American hadn’t served on a jury in the county of Jackson in 25 years. With the help of a Mexican American lawyer, Gustavo Garcia, the case was brought to the highest court level and was beheld as a Violation of the constitution.

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

The Plessy Vs. Ferguson Case

716 Words | 3 Pages

The “Plessy V. Ferguson” case is a very important case in U.S. history and U.S. civil rights, as it legalized segregation for decades. Homer Plessy appeared to a white man living a Louisiana, but he was ⅛ black, which was considered black in Louisiana. When Plessy tried to board a “whites only” railroad car in protest of Louisiana's “Separate Car Act” that legally separated train cars, he was arrested when he refused to move to colored car on the train. Once the case went through both district and state courts, it moved up to the U.S. Supreme Court where Plessy and his attorney argued that the law ostracized the colored people from the white, which would be unconstitutional. This was known as the “Plessy V. Ferguson” case.

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

Comparison Of Plessy Vs. Ferguson And Brown V. Board Of Education

1266 Words | 6 Pages

In the United States, equal rights have always been a social issue that minority groups have struggled with throughout time and are still fighting up to today. During the 19th and 20th century, there were documented cases of inequality among races and many of these disputes were brought to court. There were two cases, Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and Brown v. Board of Education (1955), that attempted to address the inequality among races. In this essay, I will be attempting to portray the shift in underlying legal principles that have switched from these two cases and suggest two theories, the weakening of legal rules and historical idealist account that could account for the change. Within four decades, the Supreme Court overturned their ruling of “separate but

Read More

Plessy Vs. Ferguson, Brown V Board Of Education, And Loving V. Virginia

717 Words | 3 Pages

To explain, Chief Justice Earl Warren believed separate educational facilities are inherently unequal, even more they were a violation of the 14th amendment and were therefore unconstitutional. This ruling marked the end of the "separate but equal" precedent set by the Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson and sparked the Civil Rights movement during the 1950s. The Brown v. Board case as a result effected the United States in regards to race relations in criminal justice, the political process, and the separation of church and state (Brown v. Board). Without doubt, even though segregation of schools was illegal it did not guarantee the end of segregation within

Read More

Pros And Cons Of Brown And Board Of Education

831 Words | 4 Pages

Though Plessy’s trial failed to justify the equal social treatment they deserved, the unfair decision of the Plessy could not diminish the blacks’ prospect of their equal status in the society. For instance, the trial of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 in which the class action of black parents filed against the Board of Education in Topeka, Kansas. Due to the doctrine of “separate but equal”, black children were not allowed to attend in any schools that reserved for white children, so many black children had to walk miles to their assigned school even though there were nearby schools that were closer to their houses. For instance, a third-grader girl, daughter of the plaintiff of the Brown’s case, had to walked six blocks to the bus stop, and then the bus had to ride one more mile to her segregated black school while she could not be allowed to go the white school which was just seven blocks away from her house. As a parent who worried and feared of any dangers that his daughter might face, Brown and other black families together filed against the Board to request the justice for their black children.

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

How Did The Three Supreme Court Cases Influence The Civil Rights Movement

555 Words | 3 Pages

Plessy vs Ferguson was a controversial case which came up with the phrase "separate but equal. " The case started when Louisiana tried to establish a law that would segregate blacks and white on trains like many states had done. However the black community in New Orleans did not like it however the state legislature approved the law even though there were blacks in the legislature. In 1892 a man named Homer Plessy sat in the white compartment of a train and was kicked off the train by the conductor. Later, lawyer named Albion Tourgee argued that the law was unconstitutional and took it to Supreme Court where the Supreme Court rejected it and ruled in the favor of the law.

Read More

Plessy Vs Ferguson Brown Vs Board Of Education

447 Words | 2 Pages

In the year of 1896, the court case Plessy v. Ferguson made a huge issue of racism; segregation. The court upheld a Louisiana state law requiring public places such as hotels, hospitals, and restaurants to separate people by skin color. Because, the Supreme Court made a decision in Plessy vs. Ferguson that decided it was constitutional as long as they were separate but equal. This made people believe that white people have a higher standard than colored, putting colored people second class due to segregation.

Read More

Civil Rights Movement: The Plessy Vs. Ferguson Case

808 Words | 4 Pages

This decision overruled the Plessy vs. Ferguson case which concluded that separatebut equal in the case of schools was constitutional. The Plessy vs. Ferguson case resulted in the Jim Crow laws which were a set of rules based on discrimination and segregation of AfricanAmericans in American society. The results of the trial and laws created an uproar in AfricanAmerican society pushing them to start a movement. After the success of the Brown vs. Board ofEducation case, the movement received a burst of hope in knowing that what they were doingwas obtainable. Another imperative event pertaining to the events of the Civil Rights Movement was theMontgomery Bus Boycotts.

Read More

An Analysis Of Plessy Vs. Ferguson Case And The Brown V. Board Of Education

806 Words | 4 Pages

In America, there was an inequality issue between African Americans and Caucasians. As a result, one change for African Americans includes Supreme Court rulings that addressed the issue of segregation. The other changes include public support with movements and political response by the President and Congress. When problems were arising in the South with African Americans, the action of the Supreme Court, advocates, and government were necessary in order to achieve civil rights and equality. The Supreme Court’s decision on the Plessy v. Ferguson case and the Brown v. Board of Education case affected American in different ways.

Read More

More about Compare And Contrast Plessy Vs Ferguson And Brown Vs Board Of Education

Open Document