Compare And Contrast Plessy Vs Ferguson

Near the end of the Reconstruction Era, laws and amendments were passed to give African American’s rights. The Civil Rights Act of 1875 was passed to forbid racial discrimination in public areas. However, Congress ended up repealing the law saying that it was unconstitutional. As a result, more laws dealing with segregation were passed. Plessy v. Ferguson was an important landmark court case because it paved way for African American civil rights movements that challenged the laws under “separate but equal.” In the 1890s, Louisiana passed the Separate Car Act where there had to be different railway cars for white and African Americans. At the time the “separate but equal” doctrine was used to make the racial segregation laws constitutional. Homer Adolph Plessy who was seven-eighths white and one-eighth African Americans, was considered to be African American under Louisiana laws. In 1892, Plessy sat in the railway car for whites only and when asked to move to the railway car for Africans Americans, he refused. When he refused, he was forcibly removed from the car and imprisoned.

In the majority opinion, Justice Brown stated that The Separate Car Act did not violate the Thirteenth Amendment because it did not reestablish slavery. Also, Justice Brown said that it did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment either because such equality only extended in politics and did not intend for the races to be equal in society. In the dissenting opinion, Justice Harlan said that the Separate Car Act did violate the Thirteenth Amendment because it implied the inferiority of African Americans. It violated the Fourteenth Amendment too because it interfered with their freedom and liberty. Harlan stated that the Separate Car Act “enacted for the purpose of humiliating, citizens of the United States of a particular