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Jim Crow Law: The Plessy Vs. Ferguson Case

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Plessy vs. Ferguson was a case that attempted to prove that the Jim Crow lawintervened with the fourteenth amendment in May 18, 1896. To give you a brief description about the Fourteenth Amendment, The Fourteenth Amendment was ratified on July 9, 1868 in the US Constitution. The Fourteenth Amendment broad goal was to ensure that the Civil Rights Act passed in 1866 would remain valid ensuring that "all persons born in the United States..." people that are born in the United States of America are given citizenship. Also, born citizenship provides "full and equal benefit of all laws."

In 1890, the Separate Car Act Law was passed in Louisiana. The law required separate accommodations for blacks and whites on railroads, including separate …show more content…

Homer Plessy did not consider himself black, because he was born an octoroon. In others eyes, Homer Plessy was tinted with black in his blood. This is all the more reason why the Jim Crow law or Separate Car Act Law contradicted the fourteenth Amendment. No one can truly be separated and equal. If the Jim Crow law was plausible, then it will make no sense to arrest Homer Plessy. It was said that after Homer was escorted off the train, the committee hired a private detective with arrest powers to detain Plessy, to ensure he was charged for violating the Separate Car Act. Meaning that they do not want blacks to gain vocals, so they hired a private detective to make sure this situation will never occur …show more content…

Like many, if you did not do the research, your question would be whose ""Brown" and what happened to he/she?" Actually Brown is not a person, The case that came to be known as Brown v. Board of Education was actually the name given to five separate cases that were heard by the U.S. Supreme Court concerning the issue of segregation in public schools. These cases were Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of Education of Prince Edward County (VA.), Boiling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel. Despite that each case are different, the main concern in each case was the constitutionality of state-sponsored segregation in public schools.

After the case was reheard in 1953, Chief Justice Warren was capable to bring all of the Justices to agree to support a unanimous decision declaring segregation in public schools unconstitutional. On May 14, 1954, he delivered the opinion of the Court, "We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal ' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal...". Those words opened up a chapter to a new beginning for many African Americans and White Americans as

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Homer Plessy was seven-eighths white and one-eighth black and agreed to test the constitution parts of the Separate Car Law. In 1892, Homer Plessy was arrested because he bought a ticket for a trip and sat down in an empty seat in a white-only train car. Hon. John H. Ferguson of the U.S. District Court dismissed Homer’s claims that his arrest was unconstitutional.

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In 1890, the state of Louisiana passed a law (the Separate Car Act) that required separate accommodations for blacks and whites on railroads, including separate railway cars.[2] Concerned, a group of prominent black, creole, and white New Orleans residents formed the Comité des Citoyens (Committee of Citizens) dedicated to repeal the law or fight its effect.[3] They persuaded Homer Plessy, a man of mixed race, to participate in an orchestrated test case. Plessy was born a free man and was an "octoroon" (of seven-eighths European descent and one-eighth African descent). However, under Louisiana law, he was classified as black, and thus required to sit in the "colored" car.[4]

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To understand the question, focusing on the court cases of Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education, we must first understand each court case on its own. Plessy v. Ferguson resulted in the year 1896. The case involved the 1890s Louisiana law that basically stated that there were separate railway carriages that were specifically labeled for blacks only and whites only. Plessy v. Ferguson involved Homer Plessy, who was seven-eighths white and one-eighth black and appeared to look like a white man. Plessy took an open seat in a white only railway car.

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Plessy v. Ferguson Case The Plessy v. Ferguson case is often looked at as one of the most well-known cases to make it to the U.S. Supreme Court. This case took place in 1896 and received much attention from both the black and white press, and was mainly accountable for the spread of segregation in the United States. In 1890, Louisiana passed a law that required blacks and whites to be separated on railroad cars.

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In 1890 “Louisiana enacted a law that required separate railway cars for blacks and whites.” (Oyez). Blacks didn’t agree with this as they believed it went against the reconstruction amendments. For example as stated in the 15th amendment “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state.” (United States, Congress, House).

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In the past most people believed it was fine to have segregation. One case that clearly demonstrates this view point was “Plessy vs. Ferguson Court Case.” in this cases, a 1/8 black man named Homer Plessy sat in a segregated seat for “Whites” in a train car. He was then arrested for interfering with the Louisiana law. This case went all

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We all know that this law did not truly provide “same accommodations.” Plessy was a biracial male who was majority white and only 1/3 black who was arrested due to the “separate but equal law” in Louisiana after he sat in the white section of the train. He was allowed to buy a ticket, but wasn’t allowed to sit there. He tried to appeal the charges, but was found guilty three times because it was said that the “separate but equal” was constitutional. The 14th amendment did not come in to play in regards to the “separate but equal” phenomenon because it was said that the SBE law did not violate the amendment because people still had equal rights, just in separate facilities and ways.

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The Supreme Court case, Brown vs. Board of Education 349 U.S 294, dealt with the segregation of black children into “separate but equal schools.” The Brown vs. Board of Education was not the first case that dealt with the separating of the whites and blacks in schools. This case was actually made up of five separate cases heard in the United States Supreme court concerning the issue of segregation in public schools. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Briggs v. Elliot, Davis v. Board of Education of Prince Edward County (VA.), Boiling v. Sharpe, and Gebhart v. Ethel were the five cases that made up the Brown case. Thurgood, Marshall, and the National Association for the Advance of Colored People (NCAAP) handled these cases.

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Can separate really be equal? The landmark cases Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education show two sides of an argument that changes the way many people see things today. The Plessy v. Ferguson case set the precedent that segregation was legal when Homer Plessy was convicted for sitting in the white compartment of a train. The Brown v. Board of Education case tore down this precedent when it started the desegregation of schools after two girls had a dangerous walk to their all blacks school everyday. These two cases changed court precedents greatly, one setting a precedent, and the other tearing it down.

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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

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This case went to the Supreme Court, where Plessy lost and the doctrine “separate but equal” was adopted (Document 10). This disproved the 14th Amendment, which states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws” (Document 2). This amendment grants citizenship and equal protection of innate rights and protection under the court of law, in simple terms. Plessy was denied fair trial due to the fact that he was of African descent.

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