Preview

Plessy Vs. Ferguson Case

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
294 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Plessy Vs. Ferguson Case
Due to the Plessy vs. Ferguson case, many places in the United States were segregated including the schools. By the 1950s, civil rights’ activists came together to challenge racial segregation legally and politically. Oliver Brown, an African American, wanted to put his daughter, Linda, into a white school because it was much closer than her all black school. He and twelve other parents tried to put their children in the school, but were denied by the principal. In 1951, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) helped Brown and the other parents file a lawsuit against the school. Segregation was supposed to be “separate but equal”, but Brown’s lawyers argued the Kansas schools were not equal. On the other hand,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    To understand the question focusing on the court cases of Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education, we must first understand each court case on its own. Plessy v. Ferguson resulted in the year 1896. The case involved the 1890s Louisiana law that basically stated that there were separated railway carriages that were specifically labeled for blacks only and whites only. Plessy v. Ferguson involved Homer Plessy who was seven-eighths white and one-eighth black and appeared to look like a white man. Plessy took an open seat on a white only railway car. He was soon arrested for violating the 1890 law. When Plessy was convicted of violating the 1890 law during his trial, he soon filed a petition against the judge, John H. Ferguson. Ferguson…

    • 193 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Before the supreme court case Plessy v Ferguson was put into action African Americans and caucasians had separate everything, due to racial discrimination. Plessy v Ferguson began whenever a man named Homer Plessy was arrested for sitting in a “white only” car. After going to court multiple times with this case, the supreme court set the doctrine Plessy v Ferguson in place. The doctrine stated that it was constitutional to have separate facilities for both caucasians and African Americans as long as the facilities were “equal”.…

    • 317 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Louisiana placed a law giving separate railway cars for blacks and whites. In 1892, Homer Plessy- 7/8 Caucasian, sat in a "whites only" car of a Louisiana train, and refused to move to the car for blacks and was then arrested. The Court had to decide whether the Louisiana law was unconstitutional under the 14th amendment. The Court ruled that the state law was within its constitutional boundaries. The majority of this case supported the state-imposed racial segregation. The Court based their final decision on the separate but equal doctrine and agreed that the state had separate facilities for blacks and whites, which were equal. Brown stated that the 14th amendment was imposed to provide complete equality of races before the law. In…

    • 3484 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 1890, the State of Louisiana passed Act 111 that required separate accommodations for African Americans and Whites on railroads, including separate railway cars, though it specified that the accommodations must be kept "equal".…

    • 589 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Introduction- The population of a black male was 14.6% in 1964 and the white male population with a high school diploma was was 27.6%.It all started with the civil rights movement which was a movement so blacks can have the same privileges as whites. It was wrong that they had to separate people because of there color back then. Body Paragraph 1-The fist case is Dred Scott vs Sanford which was a judgement for the slave named Dred Scott and his wife Harriet sued for their freedom in a St. Louis citycourt.…

    • 738 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Plessy V. Ferguson- Topics 1. An Eventful Ride 2. Free Colored People 3.…

    • 1907 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Those many protests of the 1950s led to a larger civil rights movement a decade later. The Brown case was brought about by Oliver Brown, who argued that his daughter was forced to walk across a dangerous railroad each day rather than going to school close by, which was restricted to whites only. This was the time to attack the unfair doctrine of “separate but equal.” Segregation was said to be “inherently unequal since it stigmatized” one group of people as incapable to associate with the other group (Foner, Edition 4, Page 962). Black children received life-long damage because their self-esteem was undermined by segregation. After going back and forth arguing about this case, a decision was made that “separate but equal” no longer has a place…

    • 190 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In 1953, the first black student enrolled, as an undergraduate, at Louisiana State University. And in sixty-four years, several different races have had the opportunity to enroll and earn degrees from Louisiana State University, including myself. However, this was not always the case. There was a point in time where blacks and whites could not attend the same school, or even use the same facilities. The court decision that made separate facilities legal, was Plessy v Ferguson. It allowed for separate areas for blacks and whites, which forced blacks to create their facilities, like Historically Black Colleges and University. Later, in 1954, Plessy v Ferguson would be overturned, which allows all races to coexist in the same facilities today. I plan to explain…

    • 1184 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Plessy vs. Ferguson

    • 352 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The case of Plessy vs. Ferguson started when a 30-year-old colored shoemaker named Homer Plessy was put in jail for sitting in the white car of the East Louisiana Railroad on June 7, 1892. Even though Plessy was only one-eighths black and seven-eighths white, he was considered black by Louisiana law. Plessy didn't like this idea, and so he went to court and argued in the case of Homer Adolph Plessy v. The State of Lousiana that the Separate Car Act, which forced segregation of train cars, violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. The Thirteenth Amendment was made in order to abolish slavery, while the object of the Fourteenth Amendment was to enforce the absolute equality of the two races before the law. The name of "Ferguson" was given to the case because the judge at the trial was named John Howard Ferguson.…

    • 352 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Plessy vs. Ferguson

    • 1227 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The case of Plessy vs. Ferguson started when a colored man named Homer Plessy was put in jail for refusing to move from the white car of the East Louisiana Railroad on June 7, 1892. Even though Plessy only one eighth black and seven eighth white, he was considered black by Louisiana law. Plessy didn't like the fact that he was considered black, he went to court to argued in the case of Homer Adolph Plessy vs. The State of Lousiana. The Separate Car Act, which forced segregation of train cars, violated the 13th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution.…

    • 1227 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Over time the Bill of Rights was amended to meet the needs of an evolving nation. These include the 13th Amendment which outlawed slavery, the 14th Amendment guaranteed equal protection for African Americans,the 15th Amendment which gave African Americans the right to vote, and the 19th amendment which gave women the right to vote. The Civil Rights Movement was a defining moment in history because it denounced the unequal treatment of humans based on race. During the 1950’s, the United States operated under an apartheid like system that legalized white supremacy. It set forth series of protests and cases that improved conditions and often made segregation illegal. The Plessy vs. Ferguson case came about when Homer Plessy, an African American,…

    • 373 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Board of Education of Topeka which reversed the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896. This changed America in that “separate but equal” was no longer a law. The NAACP or The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, called for a reconsideration of the Plessy v. Ferguson case and won. The case “raised a variety of legal issues on appeal, the most common one was that separate school systems for blacks and whites were inherently unequal, and thus violate the "equal protection clause" of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution” (United States Courts, 1). The case had decided that the main problem with the previous case was that the education systems for public schools were completely unfair. The white schools were given and used twice as much money to fund the schools compared to the “separate but equal” black schools. The completely changed the civil rights movement. Also the whole law was just completely unfair and not “separate but equal” because nothing was equal. This made everyone, at least by law, equal to each other. Not that everyone immediately followed this law once it became true but, this was a huge step in making everyone equal once again. Many forms of resistance appeared during and after these cases. In the later 1960’s and 70’s the Black Power Movement started to commence and get big to set forth the motion of this law. They did this by starting in the media and trying to get…

    • 1025 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Education is valuable to everyone. It is frowned upon if a young child does not finish secondary school or continue their studies further. During 1954, in Topeka, Kansas, the Supreme Court came to a critical decision that students would no longer have to be separated in school depending on race. This first dated back to a case entitled, Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, which first allowed students to be separated by race.…

    • 1009 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The country then started the “Separate but equal” act that was adopted by every state which mandated that segregation of whites and African Americans. The Plessy v. Ferguson court case created and enforced this law. All schools must be segregated, the schools must only teach one race. The school was only allowed to be separated as long as they remained equal. A dual system of education was established in each state. However, there was insufficient money to fund two schooling systems for each race. States struggled for years to fund this dual system and the schools were…

    • 902 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    student in the Topeka, Kansas school district. Every day she and her sister, Terry Lynn, had to…

    • 882 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays