Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • Free Essays • My Term Papers • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Government & Politics plessy plessy Compare Landmark Cases Plessy vs. Ferguson and Brown vs. Board of Education Homer Adolph Plessy, an African American civil rights activist from New Orleans, wanted to challenge a Jim Crow law in Louisiana. The Louisiana state legislature passed the law requiring “all railway companies carrying passengers in their coaches in this state, shall provide equal but separate accommodations for the white, and colored, races” in 1890. Just a few years before blacks were allowed to ride with whites except in first class. Plessy was arrested for being in an all white passenger car of the East Louisiana Railway. The first judge that Plessy saw was John J Ferguson of the Criminal district Court of New Orleans. Ferguson said that the law did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment. In 1896, the Supreme Court heard Plessys case. Mr. Justice Brown represented the courts opinion. Brown stated that “If the civil and political rights of both races be equal one cannot be inferior to the other civilly or politically. If one race be inferior to the other socially, the Constitution of the United States cannot put them upon the same plane.” Justice John Marshall Harlan, a former slave owner, represented Plessy. Harlan said that “Our Constitution is color blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. The law regards man as man, and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved.” The Supreme Court upheld Fergusons decision, and established the separate-but-equal standard. This standard made discrimination legal as long as the facilities provided for both races were equal. It would be more than half a century before this decision would be overturned in the Brown vs. Board of Education case. Oliver Brown was a rail road worker in Topeka Kansas, when he tried to enroll his daughter, Linda, in the third grade at the Sumner School. The Sumner School was just four blocks from where the Browns lived, but it was for white children only and they were African American. Linda was forced to go the Monroe School, which was a mile from her home. Brown sued the local school board because they refused to accept Linda at the Sumner School. The NAACP assisted Brown, and they found themselves in the Supreme Court. Browns lawyer was Thurgood Marshall, who would become the first African American appointed to the Supreme Court. Mr. Chief Justice Warren, on behalf of a unanimous Court, said, “We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of “separate but equal” has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiff and others similarly situated…are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.” The courts ruling of this case was a very courageous thing. Many people wanted segregated school to be legal. President Dwight Eisenhower put pressure on Warren to keep make segregation constitutional. After the court ruled against segregation, they had to decide how to get rid of the nations segregated school systems. In Brown vs. Board of Education II, the court agreed that schools should desegregate with “all deliberate speed” Dynamics of Democracy Second Edition, Squire, Lindsay, Covington, and Smith Bibliography: Word Count: 551
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