They ruled that no state had the power to pass a law that went against the 14th amendment of the United States Constitution. The Civil war played a major role as well in segregation as we all well know. In ruling on a Louisiana Law it was a requirement that facilities for whites and African Americans on trains. In a Supreme Court case it was upheld for separate but equal rights. But in 1896 the decision the Court gave permission to segregated services.
In the historical court case of Plessy v. Ferguson of 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that Louisiana’s segregation law mandating separate but equal accommodations for both black and whites on intrastate railroads was constitutional. This decision was the legal basis for other state and local governments to continue to legally separate blacks and whites socially until it was overturned by Brown v. Board of education in 1954. Homer Plessy, a shoemaker and native of New Orleans, who was recruited by the Citizens’ Committee of New Orleans to violate the Louisiana’s 1890 Separate Car law that segregated its passengers by race. In 1892, Mr. Plessy, whose skin color and physical features of a white male purchased a first class train ticket to ride in the “white-only” car, when the conductor asked him what was his race, he revealed that he was 7/8 white which meant he was considered a black man and was arrested when he refused to sit in the “black-only” car. Mr. Tourgee, attorney for Mr. Plessy, argued that his Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments had been violated.
Tiffany Robinson Writing Assignment 5 African American History The May 1896 Plessy V. Ferguson case is one of the landmark rulings in the history of American Jurisprudence. It was the culminating legal action of the post-Reconstruction period in American race relations, and made a firm statement that the Federal Government was not in the business of protecting African American. It opened the door to the era of virtual apartheid in the United States that lasted until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s. The Supreme Court decision legitimized legal segregation in the nation. It provided that there could be separate public facilities, like schools and movie theaters as long as the facilities were near equal in equality.
For example, consider how Native Americans, African Americans, or Japanese-Americans may feel about the flag. The United States government evacuated countless Native American communities and relocated them to small, overcrowded reservations. The United States government also promoted the mass slaughter of the animals that the Native Americans typically hunted and consumed, effectively starving most populations. The United States also unashamedly took part in the slave trade, forcing millions of Africans to come to the United States and become slaves. Even after slavery ended, most citizens and leaders in the country believed that African Americans were inferior and made laws specifically to repress African American rights.
The racial integration of Little Rock, Arkansas high schools, from 1957 to 1972, was caused by a multitude of factors and consequently affected the nation locally, nationally and internationally: The idea of racial segregation goes back to the American Civil War and Plessey vs Fergusson case, the national move for desegregation came as a result of the Brown vs Board of Education, Topeka, Kansas court case, and the State Governor’s unwillingness to abide by the Supreme Court’s decision of said case resulted in the event being the catastrophe that it was. As a result of this, President Eisenhower had to intervene and posted the 101st airborne division to guard the black children attending. In response the Arkansas State Governor, Orval Faubus, closed all of Little Rock’s high schools in a bid to escape integration. Despite this stubbornness, Little Rock was fully integrated by 1972. The American Civil War, and the ‘Restoration’ period (1966-1977) that followed saw many of the Southern State’s de jure segregation repealed, however as quickly as they had disappeared, they began to re-emerge after the North’s troops were sent home.
Jim Crow Law was used to keep blacks separate from whites. “Connection between segregation and white fears of black aggression and social equality; demands of the white South for black subordination, which was expressed through intimidation and outright terror.”(Litwack, Leon F.) Whites had their own facilities and blacks had their own facilities. African American homes, schools, and dining places were in terrible condition. African Americans were forced to live in terrible places. Most places were infested with rats and bugs etc.
Brown v. Board of Education In the case Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that it was unconstitutional to have schools for black and white students separately. This decision overturned the previous one of Plessy v. Ferguson which allowed state-sponsored segregation. On May 17, 1954, the unanimous decision stated that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal”. For more than 60 years the US had been filled with racial segregation. The case of Plessy v. Ferguson just endorsed this even more.
When the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas heard their case, the NAACP argued that segregated schools gave the message to black children that they weren’t equal, and naturally inadequate. The board the segregated schools prepared them for their life under future segregation, and that segregation was not necessarily harmful to blacks, saying that they can succeed under those circumstances. After agreeing with Brown the segregated schools were damaging to blacks, but taking into account that no Supreme Court ruling had overturned the Plessy versus Ferguson case, they decided to rule in favor of the Board. Brown overrode the decision of the District of Kansas and went to the Supreme Court. They combined their cases with many others in various states.
The Brown vs. Board of Education case took place in the 1950’s and developed from several court cases involving school segregation. The U.S. Supreme Court declared it was unconstitutional to have separate schools based on race. This case was ranked one of the most important Supreme Court decisions of the 20th century. The Brown case served as a catalyst for the modern civil rights movement and forming the legal means of challenging segregation in all areas of society. The case of Brown v. Board of Education was a huge turning point for African Americans to becoming accepted into white society at the time.
The Ku Klux Klan Imagine living in a society in which friends, family and neighbors are murdered simply because of the color of their skin. What did they do wrong? They existed. This is the life of an African-American living in the southern United States throughout much of America’s history. The formation of the Ku Klux Klan was one of the major contributing factors to the long bloody struggle that was racism in America.