Plessy Vs. Ferguson Case Analysis

“When it comes to racism, discrimination, corruption, public lies, dictatorships, and human rights, you have to take a stand as a reporter because I think our responsibility as journalist is to confront those who are abusing power” (Jorge Ramos). During the gilded age there was multiple cases where African Americans were looked down upon by caucasians. There were segregated schools, bathrooms, restaurants, and many other examples. A couple examples that will help show how the discrimination in the gilded era progressed into the progressive era and it set off a chain of events. The purpose of abolishing racial discrimination is so everyone gets treated the same. One example of discrimination during this time was the Jim Crow laws.

During the

This case involved Homer Plessy; he sat in an all whites chair in a train and refused to move when asked. He was arrested and trialed; he was later convicted by the district court of New Orleans because the courts said it was against the segregation laws. Plessy decided to appeal against this ruling saying he was denied equal protection under the laws set in place. Justice Henry Brown ruled that against Plessy saying “The object of the fourteenth amendment was… undoubtedly to enforce equality of the two races before the law, but… it could not have intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social, as distinguished from political equality, or commingling of the two races upon terms unsatisfactory to either. Laws permitting, and even requiring, their separation in places where they are liable to be brought into contact do not necessarily imply the inferiority of either race to the other” (textbook). This set in effect of a series of events that many years later helped to abolish segregation laws. The association for the advancement of colored people fought through the courts saying the laws were unconstitutional. Several years later, The was the case of Brown Vs the Board of Education. The courts had said the separate but equal was unconstitutional in public schools; but it however didn’t completely get rid of the separate but equal belief people had. Plessy may have lost his court case; but he helped start the battle to end segregation. This later helped to abolish segregation laws. These two events helped make the jim crow laws unconditional; in the sense even though they were thought of being equal but separate, all though they really were not