Plessy Vs. Ferguson Case And The Black V. Board Of Education

The Plessy vs. Ferguson case and the Black vs. Board of Education are cases that were brought to the Supreme Court in order to stop the 'separation but equal' law. Colored people had the same rights as the whites but were never actually treated equally. These cases make people think about what African Americans had to deal with in the 1800s and 1900s and it shows how far America has come. The cases made the world a better place by raising awareness for colored people, the cases showed that the idea of 'separate but equal' conflicted with the 13th/14th Amendment and created precedents for later cases. Here are some reasons that the idea of "separate but equal" didn't represent what the Constitution stands for. In 1890, Louisiana passed the

Ferguson, the majority believed that the 13th Amendment was "too clear for argument" and the 14th Amendment stated “it could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social…equality.” The court then identified that the 14th Amendment was only concerned with legal equality rather than social equality, so putting different races in separate rail cars wasn't unconstitutional. It was a 7-1 vote therefore the dissenting opinion only consisted of one person, Justice John Marshall Harlan, he states “than state enactments which, in fact, proceed on the ground that colored citizens are so inferior and degraded that they cannot be allowed to sit in public coaches occupied by white citizens? That, as all will admit, is the real meaning of such legislation as was enacted in Louisiana." The Summary of the Decision in Brown vs. Education states “Departing from the Court’s earlier reasoning in Plessy, the justices here argued that separating children solely on the basis of race created a feeling of inferiority in the 'hearts and minds' of African American children.” This proves that people of all races should be able to associate with each other rather than being segregated due to that very same

Both cases were brought to the Supreme Court for the justices to decide whether or not segregation between the races were to occur for whatever situation was present. Plessy vs. Ferguson created a precedent for later cases, but Brown vs. Education wanted to see if they could change the minds of the justices by making their case more specific to education rather than railroad cars, trains, buses, and etc. The key precedent made by the justices in Plessy vs. Ferguson was that the 14th Amendment is only concerned with legal equality rather than social equality, so it's up to the justices in each case to decide what is constitutional in each situation. One question that makes a case unconstitutional is whether or not it was "reasonable and enacted in good faith for the promotion for the public good." They believed that keeping citizens separated made the community better by "the preservation of the public peace and good