Plessy Vs. Ferguson And The Separate But Equal Laws

Plessy v. Ferguson and The Separate but Equal Laws

A pivotal moment of the history of the United States is the segregation of blacks. Although they were both provided with race-containing facilities, blacks were still not equal to whites. This is because of the Plessy v. Ferguson case and separate but equal laws. It came to the Supreme Court when it was said that the 13th and 14th Amendments were violated; the court enacted upon the separate but equal laws after the trial to isolate blacks from whites. The Plessy v. Ferguson trial and separate but equal laws was unfair towards black citizens due to the discriminatory social standards set against them.

The Plessy v. Ferguson trial displayed discrimination against blacks. The event that started

Ferguson trial was based off of inequitable situation that whites and blacks were not able to sit on the same train car. Additionally, the Supreme Court had a biased opinion due to the majority of whites. The members of the Supreme Court included, “David J. Brewer, Henry B. Brown, Stephen J. Field, Melville W. Fuller, Horace Gray, John Marshall Harlan, Rufus W. Peckham, George Shiras and Edward D. White” (Buchanan). The men listed above were all white; thus, the final decision to create separate but equal laws, segregating blacks from whites, was because of the preconceived viewpoints of the justices. The creation of the separate but equal laws indicated an aversion towards black rights. For instance, “the Court endorsed the ‘separate but equal’ doctrine, ignoring the fact that blacks had practically no power to make sure that their "separate" facilities were "equal" to those of whites” (Buchanan). These laws denoted the strong disliking of blacks, and it showed the unfairness of the separate but equal laws that segregated blacks from whites. Moreover, the discrimination against blacks was demonstrated throughout the Plessy v. Ferguson

A critical event in the book is when Atticus accepts to defend Tom Robinson, a black man, who is accused of raping Mayella Ewell; however, he is disfavored against by the town due to his race. In the book, Atticus says, “...The only thing we’ve got is a black man’s word against the Ewells’. The evidence boils down to you did--I-didn’t. The jury couldn’t possibly be expected to take Tom Robinson’s word against the Ewells’...” (Lee 117). This represents that no matter his argument, Tom Robinson was already determined to be convicted of rape because he was black. Additionally, the man Dolphus Raymond was seen as a disgrace to the residents of Maycomb since he has children with a black women. He said that he must pretend to drink alcohol out of a brown paper bag because, “...they could never, never understand that I live like I do because that’s the way I want to live” (Lee 286). As stated above, Dolphus Raymond has to pretend to be out of his right mind since people can not accept that he associates with blacks on a daily basis. The separate but equal laws were demonstrated in To Kill a Mockingbird through the segregation of white and black facilities. For example, when Calpurnia takes Jem and Scout to her church one of the women there asked, “I wants to know why bringin’ white chillun to a nigger church” (Lee