Three Court Cases

Throughout our history, there have been many cases that have taken place about issues with slavery and segregation. The issues have improved over the years, however there are still many underlying problems that still take place. There are three cases that were filed by African Americans and have had an impact on Americans. These cases have also showed a growth development in equal rights in the United States, as well as the substantial change in how equal rights have affected social justice in the States. The three court cases are Dred Scott v. Sanford, Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education. The case Dred Scott v. Sanford, this case addressed the slavery and the fugitive slave clause. It was initially argued February 11th through

Board of Education, this case addressed the equal protection clause. This case was argued December 9th through the 11th, 1952. However it was reargued December 7th through the 9th, 1853. It was finally decided May 17th, 1954 (Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1), Oyez). This case began when Linda Brown a young African American student in the Topeka, Kansas school district tried to gain admission to the Sumner School. Her application was denied by the Board of Education of Topeka because of her race, the Sumner School was only for white children. During this time many public building were segregated due to race. Brown stated that segregation by race violated the clause of the Fourteenth Amendment (Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1), Oyez). The Fourteenth Amendment gave citizens the right that no state shall deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws (Background Summary & Questions

In conclusion, these court cases have many different views to be seen while deciding the ruling. In the Dred Scott v. Sanford case I think that the court had a point, but so did Scott. I feel that if Scott and his family entered a free state then automatically they should have been free, but they were not. If the court would have just said that they were free then it would have saved all the hassle of the court trials. In my opinion I feel that Scott and his family were free the minute they entered a free state. In the Plessy v. Ferguson case I think that both sides had very strong arguments, as stated in this paper. In my opinion, I agree with the judge, Plessy knew the consequences of sitting in the white area of the train car and still did it. Plessy’s argument was about the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. The train cars did not in any way have anything to do with slavery and everyone in the cars were being treated equally. The cars were split fairly between both races. Lastly, in the Brown v. Board of Education case I think that the Brown family had a strong case and information that was easily backed up. In my opinion, I don’t agree with the court 's ruling, I think that Linda Brown and her family should have won. If schools are turning away people merely because of their race, then there is no way that they schools will ever be made