Plessey Vs. Ferguson Case: Racial Segregation In The United States

History 150 01
April 09, 2011 Brown vs. Board From 1877 up to the middle of the 1960s there was organized racial segregation in the United States. This was achieved because it was thought that blacks were believed to be inferior to whites. This organized segregation was done by a series of changes to the law in the south known as the Jim Crow laws. The first time that the United States government made a ruling whether or not these laws were actually legitimate under the US constitution was with the Plessey v Ferguson case. They were upheld granting states the ability to institute segregation. Sixty Years later these same laws affected the Brown v Board of Education case and they were considered unconstitutional. The Plessey vs.
Board in Topeka Kansas there were racial tensions in southern schools across the south. In 1951, Oliver Brown’s daughter Linda had to walk a mile just to get to the bus stop to take her to her to an all black school. There was no reason for Linda to have to walk all that way when there was an elementary school right in her neighborhood. Brown was outraged when he tried to enroll her in the neighborhood school and was not able to because it was against the law to integrate blacks and whites. Brown took things in his own hands and decided to take on a lawsuit. Brown got thirteen other parents together and fought against the law. His actions set the stage for the on-coming civil rights movement. Thurgood Marshall was hired to control the
Not everyone was happy about the new integration laws. Seventeen states required racial segregation of public schools. Although, Topeka Kansas was now integrated, segregation was pushed on the other local districts in the area. Little Rock was thought to be a liberal town. Most of the town was integrated. The public library, public parks and even the buses were integrated. In 1955 the Little Rock school board made a plan to try to integrate the public schools. The plan was called “The Blossom Plan” In 1957 The Blossom plan was in effect, nine students from Horace Mann High School enrolled in Little Rock Central High. The first day of school they were not even allowed to enter the school. The mob was so vicious and angry. The students were spat on, called derogatory names, threaten and one student even had acid thrown in her eyes. At the time Orval Faubus was the governor of Arkansas and was totally against the integration. For the first two weeks he sent the National Guard to stand outside the school doors to prevent them from coming in. During that time the nine stayed home and studied together. President Eisenhower physically came to governor Faubus house to force him to integrate the