Plessy Vs. Ferguson

The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified on July 9, 1868. It granted citizenship to all persons, born or naturalized in the United States. It forbids states from denying any person "life, liberty, or property, without due process of the law" or to "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." An example of Supreme Court Case involving the Fourteenth Amendment is Plessy v. Ferguson. Homer Adolph Plessy was a successful Louisiana businessman. He lived in Baton Rouge. He was comfortable in both racial groups as he had one African-American grandparent. He did not consider himself African-American but Louisiana law considered him as "octaroon". This meant one-eighth African-American.

The state of Louisiana argued that each state has the right to make rules to protect public safety. Louisiana claimed it was its public will to have segregated facilities. They claimed the separate facilities were equal and satisfied the Fourteenth Amendment and white citizens. Justice Henry B. Brown of Michigan delivered the court decision. It was a 7 to 1 decision that stated Louisiana law did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment. He stated that the Fourteenth Amendment was not intended to give African-Americans social equality but only political and civil equality with white people. Brown wrote that "legislation is powerless to eradicate racial instincts or to abolish distinctions based upon physical differences, and attempt to do so can only result in accentuating the difficulties of the present situation. " The court stated that segregation was legal and constitutional as long as "facilities were equal". Segregation remained after that for nearly sixty years. An example for my life would be that some high school students wore certain shorts to school. The school had a policy of the length of the shorts. Students were pulled out of classes and sent