Mr. McClung has asked me to summarize and state my opinions on this case.
On June 7, 1892, Homer Plessy boarded an all white railroad car. Plessy had white skin and was seven eighths white, but according to a statute put in act two years earlier, he was breaking the law for riding in a railroad car that wasn’t for his race. He was later arrested and jailed. He went to trial and argued that the railroad had denied him his rights as stated in the fourteenth amendment. The judge of the case disagreed, and said that in no way did the statute deny his rights. Plessy filed for a writ of prohibition, which basically means that he wanted his case to be reconsidered on a larger scale. The Supreme Court of Louisiana took the case, but had the same reaction. The court said that the statute didn’t make blacks inferior, instead the seperation was a matter of public policy. I personally think that the justices that worked the case abused their power. The statute said that only “pure blood” whites were allowed to ride on all white public transportation. So in that way, Plessy did “break the law,” but to say that he was not made inferior at all is a complete lie. That law in itself made anybody with black skin or ancestry inferior. Plessy was right to argue that the railroad denied his rights given by the fourteenth amendment. The fourteenth amendment says that no person that is born or neutralized in the U.S. can be denied their rights without due process of law, and that alone should’ve won that case, except the due process of law was corrupt. That is just an example of how biased the courts were towards blacks, especially in the south.
Jared C.
“To know one history is to know oneself,” said Frederick Douglas. Throughout history we have learned how African American struggle to compete in this world. Blacks and poor whites suffered roughly, especially blacks when they came up with the Jim Crow laws and grandfather clause which African American had their power striped away from them. We know that everything is done by power, and what is power, it is the core concept or capability that cause others to modify the behavior inform of what the power holder wants. Whites wanted everything that blacks had and they took it. Whites didn’t think African American should be equal to them. Although, they had United State Constitution which gave some type of enlightenment why African American should be treated equal to whites, but that still didn’t stop southern states from adopting segregation and discrimination against African American. 14th amendment (the right to citizenship), 15th amendment (given black men the right to vote), 19th amendment (which gave the women the right to vote), and 24th amendment (abolish poll taxes). Plessy vs. Ferguson did establish the separate but equal doctrine. Brown vs. Board of Education Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Marshall said segregation itself was the problem. The Brown vs. Board overturns the separate but equal that doctrine it made it unconstitutional. Many African Americans were encouraged, while others were skeptical. Efforts to enforce Brown decision, a number of governors expressed need to abide by the law. Plessy had every right to take legal action because of his constitutional rights was violated. Fear prevents people from tapping into their purpose in life. If it wasn’t for Plessy who put aside whatever fear he had going on inside his body, the integrated movement would have never been created.