Even when this was challenged in the Plessy vs Ferguson Supreme Court case the separate but equal principle was found to be constitutional. Similarly the principle of separate but equal in education was also found to be constitutional in the Cummings vs Board of education Supreme Court case. According to the 15th amendment, all African Americans should have been able to vote. However due to high levels of illiteracy and poverty among African Americans this was not possible because of literacy tests and poll taxes, which excluded both African Americans and white people who were poor and illiterate. These voting restrictions were challenged in the Mississippi vs Williams Supreme Court case but it was maintained that the restrictions did not go against the 15th amendment and so they continued.
In 1896, the Court set forth its famous “separate but equal doctrine” which provided the facilities for blacks and whites were equal. But, this was not enough. African Americans were limited to their own separate facilities such as hotels, theaters, public restrooms, etc. They were barred from many hospitals, denied access to parks, beaches, and picnic areas. But, in 1875 the Civil Rights Act was passed prohibiting racial discrimination in public accommodations, forcing whites to share hotels, railroads, theaters, etc.
This was to stop the two races from mixing and to prevent the dilution of the African Americans into the white culture and their everyday lives. This however doesn’t mean that this was necessarily a time of disappointment for the African Americans. This is because they were used to this treatment and much worse, so this segregation would not have been anything new; thus meaning there was no disappointment other than the fact that there had been no improvement. The north also was extremely segregated, no better than the south. They weren’t allowed to live near white people in the cities so they lived in ghettos, completely segregated from the rest of the world.
Slavery was part of southern culture. This caused debate with the North and South and caused them to spit into two separate territories. Lastly, The Northerners hated the fugitive slave law, which was another important cause of the Civil War. The fugitive slave law stated that anyone being caught helping a slave will be fined and that citizens had to report any acts of someone helping a slave to freedom. The Northerners hated this law.
Thus, they were officially denied every opportunity for an education in the slave states, while in the free states they were largely excluded from the schools for whites and were given only that training deemed suitable for their inferior status. Indeed, in many places in the North their exclusion from educational opportunities was as complete as it was in the South.”(pg. 78,79) Clearly blacks were deeply encouraged to forgo any hopes of a education in America. The second point of inequality John speaks of is the one in the law. John states “Inequality in the administration of justice and the enforcement of the laws was apparent to any who cared to look.
This was achieved by passing local laws, which denied black Americans access to facilities used by white Americans. These laws were known as the ‘Jim Crow’ laws. For example, education, healthcare, transport, and public facilities more generally, were segregated. This included restaurants, cinemas, toilets, bus stations and drinking fountains. These laws denied black Americans the equal rights of white citizens which re-imposed white supremacy and meant they remained as second-class citizens.
Chief Justice Taney held a strong disposition towards blacks and wanted to do everything in his power to ensure that they didn’t become citizens under that Constitution. He thought of them as nothing, “Blacks, on the other hand, were not included and were not intended to be included, under the word “citizens” in the Constitution. (Bell 16) Chief Justice Taney considered blacks to be worse than the Indians, stating that even though the Indians were also a lesser individual than whites because they were free and worked together in small tribes which were governed by their own laws. He also viewed their governments as foreign and was very pleased at the fact that Indian governments had been taken over by the white race. He referred to it as if the white race was doing the Indians a favor by taking them over and naturalizing them so that they could become citizens in the United States.
First off the first slaves came from Africa in 1619 which was brought to Virginia. Slavery was system in America that made it legal for whites to buy and own blacks and use them for labor. Slavery was a state to state thing there were many slave owners and famous slave owners were the Framers also known as the founding fathers. Something interesting about the founding fathers were they were hypocrites because most of them were against slavery when they owned slaves, for example George Washington had many slaves but he was against slavery. Another thing to know is that that in the south slaves were considered as three fifths of a person.
This seems to be the case because employers are still discriminating against citizens and meeting “racial quotas”. “That race helps to determine an individual’s acceptance to a college is not affirmative action, it is discrimination in action”(Robinson). Race-neutral, gender-neutral, protection was the first version of Affirmative Action proposed by Lyndon B. Johnson. This version consisted of everyone having an equal opportunity in the work place as well as in all educational facilities, without a person’s race, sex or
Black Americans were discriminated against in many ways including socially through segregation, politically with vote registrations, economically with low income jobs and poverty and through prejudice; racism. Blacks were treated very harshly and unequally and many lived their lives in fear and misery. During 1954-1961, the Brown vs Board decision, the matter in Little Rock, Arkansas, Freedom Rides, Bus Boycotts, sit-ins, marches and demonstrations were steps that were taken in the Civil Rights Movement to end discrimination. Black Americans were discriminated against socially especially with segregation. They faced different issues related to segregation with one of the most important was the segregation to do with education.