The Dred Scott v. Sanford Supreme Court Case was argued in 1856 between enslaved African American man Dred Scott and frontiersman John F. A. Sanford. Dred Scott was a slave in Missouri, however, he lived in Illinois (a free state) and in the Louisiana Territory for ten years (1833-1843) until he returned. Illinois was a free state and the slavery was forbidden in the Louisiana Territory by the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Scott then filed suit against his master arguing that since he lived in free territory, he should be free and no longer be a slave. He won that case in lower court, but the Missouri Supreme Court decided against it. Scott filed again against his new master John F. A. Sanford in the Supreme Court, but lost because the majority stated that a “negro” or a descendant of a slave could not be an American citizen whether enslaved or free. This meant that he did not have the right to sue in federal court, so nothing could be done. The final decision (made in 1857) was to keep Dred Scott enslaved. …show more content…
Ferguson Supreme Court Case took place in 1896 regarding Louisiana’s Separate Car Act of 1890 that declared all rail companies carrying passengers in Louisiana to provide separate but equal accommodations for white and non-white passengers. There would be a 25 dollar fine or a penalty of twenty days in jail for riding in the wrong compartment. To fight the Act, group of black citizens collaborated with the East Louisiana Railroad Company, where a man who was one-eighth black, Homer Plessy, bought a first-class ticket for the white railroad car. Plessy was arrested for violating the Act and argued in court that it violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution, which was intended to enforce equality between races before the law. Plessy lost twice in the lower courts, so he took the case to the Supreme Court, who also decided that racial segregation is constitutional under the separate but equal doctrine. Plessy had lost all