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How Did The Warren Supreme Court Influence The Civil Rights Movement

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The Civil Rights Movement is known as a 1950s-1970s era but has been ongoing throughout the history of the United States. The Movement started once the first African-American slaves rebelled against their owners. These crusades continue as all groups fight for equal rights. However, without one particular group, the Civil Rights Movement would be an unjust battle for American liberties. The Supreme Court is the most powerful entity in the Civil Rights Movement with the national authority of the Constitution, for the Court had the necessary power to spare and the state governments were overshadowed by the federal government. The Supreme Court enforces the Constitution and fights any segregationist organization to win the weaponless war on civil …show more content…

The Warren Supreme Court influenced the modern United States during the Civil Rights Movement by asserting their power to outlaw segregation. Throughout many cases, the Warren Court accomplished this by overturning classic American beliefs, securing basic rights, and enforcing the power of the United States Constitution over state governments.
First, the Warren Supreme Court influenced the modern United States by redefining the racial and social structure of the United States. In Brown v. Board of Education, the Warren Court overturned the belief that laws should separate United States citizens by race. The Court cited the psychological fact that segregation affects the human mind and “creates a sense of inferiority” (Brown v. Board of Education). In this case, the Supreme Court utilized pathos, returning to the Bill of Rights and later amendments to ensure that all Americans have …show more content…

After the revolutionary Brown v. Board of Education decision, the Warren Supreme Court fought for the integration of schools. After the Little Rock Nine plight, then-Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus closed all of the black-area schools “until a Supreme Court ruling forced them to reopen in 1959” (Brooks, King, and Osborne 40). During the plight for integrated school systems, the states of the Union were acting as the Divided States and autonomously passing laws. The Warren Court utilized their constitutional power to resurrect the true purpose of the United States and redefined the role of a state. Before the Little Rock Nine, Earl Warren and his Supreme Court did started their activism, backing the Montgomery Bus Boycotts in 1956 and affirming a lower court ruling that “any law requiring racially segregated seating on buses violated the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution” (“Montgomery Bus Boycott”). Here, the Court was the central activist in replacing the doctrine of segregation in public facilities and states autonomously passing unconstitutional laws. The Court was equally part of the crusade led by median civilians of the United States in influencing state legislatures and reinforcing federalism. The movement had legal help from the Supreme Court, creating an even more powerful effort to eliminate illegal segregation, thus influencing the modern

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Earl Warren was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court for most of the nineteen fifties and sixties. During the civil rights movement, we think of names such as Martin Luther King or Malcom X, but we forget about the judges that presided over the civil rights cases. Warren and his fellow justices were responsible for the Supreme Court victories that the civil rights movement had during this time. One of Warren’s earliest accomplishments, after just being appointed Chief Justice, was the ruling on Brown v. Board of Education where he was able to get a unanimous decision ruling that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Chief Justice Earl Warren and the Justices of the Supreme Court should be remembered for expanding the boundaries

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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.”

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During the early 1950s throughout the late 1960s the Warren Court era extensively influenced the perspective of American society and its constitutional laws. During this period the Warren Court also sought out to revolutionize perspectives on discrimination based on race and economic class, limitations of citizens within the United States, and expansion of rights due to criminal injustice. The approach of the Warren Court on these subjects stated above benefited the american society due to the outcomes of the Warren Court rulings in this era. Warren Court had an immense impact on US society for instance Brown V. Board of Education which the concluding ruling ended segregation in schools between minority groups and caucasians. This ruling had a tremendous affect on society as the minority groups in the United States felt as if they were on the brink of equality and closer to desegregation.

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o Despite much criticism, this decision ultimately benefited the justice system within America, promising everyone to a fair trial just like the constitution promised. • The Legacy of the Era o Over the course of the last ten years, the formation of the Great Society and actions of the Warren Court, the United States had become a much greater nation.  It was agreed upon that Johnson increased federal power more than any other president after World War II came to an end.  Unemployment rates were drastically dropping, but the government was starting to go a bit low on money to the amount it was using to help the American society.

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In Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court ruled that the racial segregation of public schools was unconstitutional, overruling the principle of separate but equal facilities that were established in Plessy v. Ferguson. The efforts of the civil rights movement also led to the eventual passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as discussed in Document 5. The Civil Rights Act was largely successful in the United States as it allowed equal access for African Americans to public facilities and prohibited the discrimination of African Americans and other minority groups. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was later passed which prohibited the racial discrimination in voting and picked up on the failed enforcement of the 15th Amendment. This shows how the persistent efforts of activists throughout the country allowed for the continued advancement of African American civil rights in the nation even though earlier reform efforts did not fully succeed.

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The Civil Rights Movement, which was at its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, was a time period in which African Americans fought to secure equal opportunities and access for basic rights and privileges in the US, nationally and locally. Some ways they attempted this was through negotiations, nonviolent protests and petitions (Civil Rights Movement: An Overview). People also tried to take legal course of action and one prominent figure in this aspect of the Civil Rights Movement was Thurgood Marshall. He was the first African American associate justice in the US Supreme Court and was the legal counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, NAACP. He did not conform to the formalities of law and was driven by his strong

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The case argued for equality and

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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.

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Thurgood Marshall played a part in the change through his rulings on the Supreme Court and by helping defend others like on the decisive Supreme Court case “Brown v. The Board of Education”. As Marshall stated once "The position of the Negro today in America is the tragic but inevitable consequence of centuries of unequal treatment . . . In light of the sorry history of discrimination and its devastating impact on the lives of Negroes, bringing the Negro into the mainstream of American life should be a state interest of the highest order. To fail to do so is to ensure that America will forever remain a divided society" (“The man who turned racism into history THE LAW’If white supremacy has subsided in the United States, it’s largely due to Thurgood Marshall of the Supreme Court.”, par 10). African Americans were mistreated, viewed as lower class, and were not equal in the eyes of the people or the law.

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After the success with Brown v. Board of Education the segregation battle continued with public transportation. Despite segregated seating on public buses, bus drivers in Montgomery forced African Americans out of their seats for white individuals. If they did not obey the bus driver had the legal right to arrest their orders. Brown v. Board of Education opened doors to challenge the issue of segregation in many other areas as well, such as public transportation. Even though the U.S District Court ruled segregation on public buses as unconstitutional, the city of Montgomery decided to appeal the courts decision to the U.S Supreme Court and continued with public bus segregation.

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The reformation of civil rights and societal norms during the mid-twentieth century was a monumental moment in American history. From racial desegregation, to women breaking away from a male dominate society; they all have contributed to the liberalism and diversity of present day America.

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The ruling thus lent high judicial support to racial and ethnic discrimination and led to wider spread of the segregation between Whites and Blacks in the Southern United States. The great oppressive consequence from this was discrimination against African American minority from the socio-political opportunity to share the same facilities with the mainstream Whites, which in most of the cases the separate facilities for African Americans were inferior to those for Whites in actuality. The doctrine of “separate but equal” hence encourages two-tiered pluralism in U.S. as it privileged the non-Hispanic Whites over other racial and ethnic minority

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Shortly after the case citizens of Topeka began to see social change within the community, “it opened an era of civil rights, protests and legislation of accomplishment” (Goodman). Not every citizen believed that schools should not be separate, and those who did believe that the schools should be separate originate in the South. Results from the case did not happen immediately, the ruling began having an effect a few years after the case. A decade after the case it was seen that the number of colored students in white schools increased, “two-thirds of black students were in virtually all-black schools, after the case ended that number went down to one-third” (Goodman). School districts were open and allowing colored students to enroll in their school.

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The Civil Rights Movement played a large role in the Supreme court ruling of Brown v. Board of Education. Although the Catholic Church was not subject to this court ruling they still went along with the decision to desegregate the parochial schools (McKenzie). The Catholic Church believes that segregation is morally wrong and that our Lord would want us to live in an integrated community (McKenzie). The Civil Rights Movement and the court cases involved with it led to a more open and accepting community.

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