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Essay on segregation of america schools
History of racism in America
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Essay on segregation of america schools
History of racism in America
Racial inequality in america
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Brown v. Board of Education was a Supreme Court Case held in Topeka, Kansas, May 17th, 1954 declaring segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. It did end segregation in schools but problems followed shortly after including struggles with the Civil Rights laws, voting rights and bussing. The 15th amendment “grants all men the right to vote and shall not be denied on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude”. This was especially towards African American males in the South. Many Southern states tried to prevent them from voting by requiring that all male African Americans to pay a poll tax and take a literacy test which is a test of one’s ability to read and write.
The 14th Amendment is the right for those born on American soil to automatically become a citizen. Although there are some who wish to see a revision to the 14th Amendment, citizenship should continue to be based on birth as Chaves states in “The Case for Birthright Citizenship”. The 14th Amendment is seen as outdated by some Americans. The 14th Amendment was created for free slaves.
As was previously stated, the Fourteenth Amendment helps protect individual citizens. The amandment clearly reads “...nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws”. This means every last citizen, no matter who they are or where they come from, receives equal protection under the law. One example of this is the case of Mapp v. Ohio, which was over the Fourth Amendment, aka. unlawful search and seizure.
Following the abolishment of slavery, the next logical step would be to provide rights for those slaves. That’s merely what the 14th amendment attempted to do, provide civil rights for African Americans. Like other amendments white supremacists and others didn’t want to see this bill passed. Although it made it into law, it was only the beginning of very long struggle. To attempt to make blacks equal to whites would raise even more political and social issues.
The purpose of the 14th amendment is to provide citizenship to people born in the United State and allow people to become citizens. This helped freed slaves acquire citizenships under the 14th amendment giving them the rights and freedom in the United States. According to America 's library,
The fourteenth amendment protects the little people. The people who are slipping through the cracks, the ones that have fallen by the wayside of the majority. Recently, this has meant rulings in favor of same-sex marriage. Historically, it has granted women the right to an abortion and given African Americans the right to go to the same schools as their fellow Americans. In each case, an oppressed or otherwise infringed group from the overreaches of the state, the society at large.
The Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution was acquired on July 9th, 1868, as one of the three Reconstruction Amendments. The amendment discussed equal protection of the laws and citizenship rights. This new amendment was created in response to problems with former slaves that were freed after the American Civil War. The amendment puts a limit on the actions of all local and state officials. During the time of its creation, it did two major things, it made it to where all people born in the united states were citizens and it made it to where everyone is equally protected under the law.
Some people may think that the 14th amendment does a poor job of protecting people’s rights. In document five it explains how on September 11, 2001,with the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, it has caused video surveillance in the United States to increase. For example the U.S has programs that use facial recognition that help match photographs of criminals faces to the criminal. Another program that we use helps prevent suicide bombers from attacking. Some people may think that prevention of terrible events reoccuring or occurring is a good thing, but using security systems everywhere may be a violation of their rights and privacy.
The 13th amendment enforces the ban on slavery. The 14th amendment gave Congress authority to enforce the amendment’s prohibition on a state’s denial of equal protection of the laws. Also established the citizenship birthright meaning anyone born in the United States is automatically a citizen. There is also no denying the person in the United States life, liberty, or property without due process. The 15th amendment gave Congress authority to enforce the amendment’s ban on discrimination by race,
The 14th amendment is split into five sections. Section one is the most important of them all and it states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” (The Constitution 2014). However it was put to test in the south early on.
As noted in Document 1, the 14th Amendment explicitly affirmed: “…All persons born or naturalized in the United State, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws…” The 14th Amendment ------------ (lead into the 15th amendment) 15th Amendment: The Fifteenth Amendment granted all male citizens, regardless of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude” the right to vote.
Decades ago, children of various races could not go to school together in many locations of the United States. School districts could segregate students, legally, into different schools according to the color of their skin. The law said these separate schools had to be equal. Many schools for children that possessed color were of lesser quality than the schools for white students. To have separate schools for the black and white children became a basic rule in southern society.
The segregation of schools based on a students skin color was in place until 1954. On May 17th of that year, during the Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education, it was declared that separate public schools for black and white students was unconstitutional. However, before this, the segregation of schools was a common practice throughout the country. In the 1950s there were many differences in the way that black public schools and white public schools were treated with very few similarities. The differences between the black and white schools encouraged racism which made the amount of discrimination against blacks even greater.
Post Civil War, African Americans started to gain rights to gain rights, and soon gain rights equal to whites. While there were some people/things standing in their way (KKK, Black Codes), in the end they got what they needed; Equality. Many acts and laws were passed to aid the new rights now held by African Americans, as well as the numerous people willing to help. New Amendments were added to give African Americans rights after the war, all giving them some equal rights to whites. The first of the three added was the Thirteenth Amendment, it gave African Americans freedom from slave owners, and stated that no one could be kept as a slave in the U.S..
This was a landmark case in America. In 1954 the Supreme Court decided that “state laws making public schools separate for black and white students unconstitutional” (Mandell & Schram, pg. 482). This case over turned a prior case known as “Plessy v. Ferguson that allowed state-sponsored segregation in public schools” (McBride, 2006). This was acknowledged as one of the “greatest supreme court decision of the 20th century” (McBride, 2006). The court “unanimously voted that that racial segregation of children in public schools not only violated the equal protection clause but also the 14th amendment” (McBride, 2006).