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The Case Of Plessy Vs Ferguson

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Plessy v. Ferguson had upheld segregation of our society. This case was in Louisiana a southern state, which had enacted a Jim Crow law the Separate Car Act which made whites and blacks have to ride in separate trains. Mr. Plessy was a mixed race man who was mostly white and was arrested for sitting in the all white train and refusing to move. This happened in 1892 and Plessy was brought to Criminal Court in New Orleans, where Judge Ferguson had upheld the law. Plessy challenged this ruling and was brought to the supreme court of the United States. Plessy argued that this law was unconstitutional because this type of racial segregation was against the 14th and 13th amendment since it stigmatized blacks and made them inferior. The opinion of the court was given by Justice Brown and supported by all others except one judge dissenting. The decision was 7-1 supporting Ferguson the respondent. Justice Brown stated that the responsibility of the ‘colored’ race being inferior was their own, “...the underlying fallacy of the plaintiff’s argument to consist in the assumption that the enforced separation of the two races stamps the colored race with a badge of inferiority. If this is so, it is not by reason of anything found in the act, but solely because the …show more content…

Ferguson upheld the separate but equal clause. According to the judges the state was following the constitution. Plessy's grievance was rejected stating that this Louisiana state law was not in violation of the constitution because it was separate and equal. This was similar to other cases that upheld segregation such as Roberts v. City of Boston. The separate but equal doctrine still had power for many years after this and this was a precedent that was followed especially in the south. The conclusion of this was that racial segregation when done equally is not unlawful discrimination. The court had also cited other states which had used their 10th amendment police powers for similar separate but equal

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Case Brief - Plessy v. Ferguson Homer A. Plessy v. John H. Ferguson was a US Supreme Court case between Homer Plessy, the plaintiff, and John Ferguson, the defendant. The year this case took was place was 18961. This case almost entirely deals with the Louisiana Law passed six years prior that provided “equal but separate” railway carriages for white and colored races. The constitutionality of this law was brought into this case as Homer Plessy, who refused to sit in the colored only rail car, argued it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

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The Court declined his argument. The Court determined that the segregated schools were considerably equal enough under the Plessy doctrine. It wasn 't until the mid twentieth century when Brown v Board of Education came into play that Plessy’s argument was given the okay by the constitution. The Court tried to use Plessy v. Ferguson to deny the argument that Oliver Brown was giving during the Brown v. Board of Education case. Once the Courts decided that separating children by race could have an overall affect on the black children 's ability to learn.

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The year of 1965 the black community let out a collective victory cry. They had finally gotten the rights they fought hard for. They could at last vote, go to school and college, and got the working condition they deserve. They couldn 't have done it without Martin Luther King Jr., but there were a slew of cases that were tried and further assisted in opening the black community 's opportunity pool. They were well known cases, like the Plessy vs. Ferguson, Brown vs. Board of Education, and the Regents of the University vs. Bakke, all very influential cases in the fight for rights.

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