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Separate Car Act Research Paper

1131 Words5 Pages

According to famous Enlightenment thinker John Locke, the role of the government is to protect the natural and basic rights of its people in order to maintain peace throughout the country. America’s Founding Fathers constructed the Constitution in order to do so. Nevertheless, their descendents have not been completely successful at following these guidelines. In The Louisiana’s Separate Car Act passed in 1892 required whites and blacks to sit on separate railroads. This act enforced ‘separate but equal’ accommodations. While the act was a means of the government to maintain peace, many may argue that the act did not follow the guidelines of the Bill of Rights. Because of the act was passed under a biased Louisiana government, it directly violated the 13th and 14th amendment, and promoted racial segregation, the act was indeed unconstitutional. In order to promote racial segregation, the biased Louisiana government passed The Separate Car Act which violated both the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments when they had no right; therefore, that law was indeed unconstitutional.
The Separate Car Act promoted racial segregation between whites and blacks. The Civil Rights Act of 1875 guaranteed that “All persons shall be entitled to full and equal enjoyment of the accommodations...and public conveyances on …show more content…

According to the Thirteenth Amendment, involuntary servitude is prohibited except as a punishment for a crime. Many who argue in favor of the Separate Car Act believe that forcing Homer Plessy to sit in a black railroad car is not involuntary servitude; he was simply told to sit in his “designated” car. However, the law did in fact enforce involuntary servitude by prohibiting a man who is majority white to sit in the white railroad car. He was inaccurately judged against his will and because the Separate Car Act allowed this, it was indeed

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