Plessy v Ferguson vs. Brown v Board of Education of Topeka Kansas

Plessy vs. Ferguson vs. Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas
Marvin Ridge High School
Keywords: Constitution, amendments, 14th amendment, 13th amendment, segregation, Plessy vs. Ferguson, Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas, Supreme Court, Jim Crow laws In our country’s history, the Supreme Court has overridden its past decisions only ten times. The most important of these overturned decisions are the rulings the Supreme Court made in the Plessy vs. Ferguson case and the Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas. These are arguably the two most important court cases in our nation’s history. Plessy vs. Ferguson and Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas had almost exact opposite consequences. While the Plessy vs. Ferguson case established the doctrine of “separate but equal” and allowed for acts such as the Jim Crow laws to pass, Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas not only abolished the doctrine of “separate but equal”, but it also played a major role in ending segregation by strengthening the civil rights movement. Homer Plessy, a Louisiana resident, was light colored, but he had a black great-grandfather, which by law, made him black. Plessy lived in Louisiana. In Louisiana, there was a legislation in place that required every railway to have different railcars, one for whites, and one for colored races. Plessy sat in the white car. When a white passenger boarded the train, Plessy was told to give up his seat. When he refused, a detective put him in jail. Plessy pleaded innocent, but was convicted. Plessy and his lawyer appealed to the federal district courts. The district court upheld the decision of the lower courts. Plessy then appealed to the Supreme Court. Linda Brown had to walk six blocks every day to ride her bus, which would take her 1 mile away to a segregated black school. Her white friends, however, went to a “white” school only about seven blocks away. Linda Brown’s father, Oliver Brown,

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