Citizenship Vs Civil Rights

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Citizenship vs. civil rights In 1776 Congress declared the independence of the American colonies from Britain. The American Revolution was fought over a constitutional power that Britain held over the colonies and whether their government had the right to do it. Americans fought for freedom from a tyrant government and created the Articles of Confederation to limit the power bestowed by any government (Benedict, 2006). In Philadelphia 1787 a convention was held to frame a new constitution and to improve the Articles of Confederation, which was ratified over the objections of localists in 1788, then finished off with the Bill of Rights in 1791. This was the framework of an American government that still presides today. Over the years there…show more content…
The case, Brown vs. The Board of Education after making its way through the lower courts, was heard by the Supreme Court in 1953. Plaintiffs argued that public school segregation violated the equal protection clause of the fourteenth Amendment in that the segregation of public schools was in no way conducive to the equality that was supposedly guaranteed to accompany the “separate but equal” principal established under Plessey v. Ferguson (Brown & Valk, 2004). John W. Davis, the lead defense attorney in Brown, argued that not only had segregation been put in place maintaining equal standards for blacks and whites, but also that segregation was an entrenched practice that was best for wellbeing of both blacks and whites (Brown & Valk, 2004). The Court unanimously sided with the plaintiff. Instead, the decision to strike down the statute of “separate but equal” set forth by Plessey v. Ferguson, was largely supported by psychological reasoning. With this decision America was affected by the breaking down of civil liberties by integrating blacks with whites. Allowing black school children to get the same education as white children was a huge step forward. Although it would take several years before these children would actually be treated as…show more content…
An obvious constitutional effect was that it was a re-enforcement of the practice of interpreting the Constitution in a modern context. The Court had mandated for Plessey to be disregarded because it decided Plessey was not relevant as a statute in 1953. Although this idea of modern interpretation was by no means revolutionary, it was incredibly significant within the context of Brown because it was a case of such magnitude and its prominence could easily be called upon for years of modern judicial interpretation. Bolling v. Sharpe is one of the several school desegregation suits that paralleled Brown v. The Board of Education. The case involved school segregation in Washington D.C., and although the final decision for the case was lumped in with Brown II, its decision did have one major significance on the effects of Brown. In the Bolling decision, it was held that segregation was unconstitutional under the Due Process clause of the Fifth Amendment. This decision affected Brown comparing the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the Due Process clause By declaring segregation a violation of Due Process in Bolling, the Court effectively stated that segregation could by no means be considered a proper and justified governmental action. Further, by then declaring school segregation unconstitutional

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