HARLAN’S DISSENT IN PLESSY V. FERGUSON SUPREME COURT DECISION
Satoshi Yokoyama
History 21
September 27, 2017
The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is commonly regarded as a major victory against racism that further advanced democracy in America. Adopted on July 9, 1868, it attempted to transform the oppressive culture of the Confederacy by granting citizenship rights to all people born or naturalized in the United States and affording equal protection under the law to all U.S. citizens. Nonetheless, in spite of aiming to put an end to discrimination against African-Americans and other minority groups, this important amendment did not entirely succeed in eradicating racism during the Reconstruction era.
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In fact, Harlan emphasizes that a legislative body should not take race into account when considering the rights of citizens. The statute of Louisiana, however, does perpetuate race-based discrimination even as it pretends to grant equal rights to both white and African-American citizens, thereby contradicting the Thirteenth and Fourteenth …show more content…
Harlan thus courageously argues that the “separate but equal” doctrine not only violates the fundamental principles of democracy, namely equality and freedom, but also contravenes the U.S.
The 13th Amendment says “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.” (Doc C) Although many years later African Americans still were not being treated like people, abolishing slavery was a big step to the stop of harsh treatment toward African Americans. The citizenship, and the right to vote are granted to African Americans by the 14, and 15 Amendments. The passing of these Amendments insured that the African Americans are people.
The genre of “Saving the Right to Organize” would be an article. This would be a secondary source because it is an article, and it refines the primary source. The topic of this source would be that it focuses on the 13th Amendment replacing the Wagner Act on labor movements in the U.S. Percentage of U.S. workers who were unionized in 1953. A good thesis from this source would be Mark Dudzic’s words, “Articulating [worker] right[s] solely as an
The significance that the 14th amendment had was so imperative because, not only did it make sure fellow African-Americans were granted citizenship they also had to be treated as equals. This allowed them to have equal civil rights and equal legal rights. It is almost as though they no longer treated the African-Americans as slaves and workers but more like people. “It stated that all persons born or naturalized in the United States are granted citizenship”.(14th amendment SECTION 1) This also allowed everyone as a whole to have equal opportunities. The 14th amendment was proposed on June 13th 1865 and it wad passed on July 9th 1868. There were 38 states that ratified the 14th amendment.
Following the beginning of the Civil War while Abraham Lincoln was positioned president, a strategy to preserve the Union during the Civil War allowed Blacks to fight besides whites. Thou President Abraham Lincoln always despised slavery; he knew that most of the world did not find the act of humane imprisonments abhorrent. Abating his own personal feelings and morals concerning slavery, Abraham Lincoln did not decide to push forward the abolishment of slavery at that time. As the war progressed and thousands of slaves joined the northern armies in battle in mid-1862, Abraham Lincoln was convinced that the abolition of slavery was now a sound military strategy. (__) As the war continued to use slaves in battle and successfully having won the Union Victory at the Battle of Antietam in Maryland, President Abraham Lincoln announced the
The amendment I choose from the United States Constitution is the Thirteenth Amendment. I picked this amendment, because it was created and added to the Constitution at a really difficult and troubling time in the United States of America. At this time in America there was a very high tension between the North and the South that caused a great rift in this country. The South did not like the view of North on slavery and decided on separating from part of the nation that did not agree with them. The war that boiled over and started was the Civil War.
The use of storytelling in the DuVernay's documentary is used to illustrate the legacies of slavery and the 13th amendment. In the documentary, from Nixon's time as president to the present, the war on drugs has become more serious. While Nixon was president he believed that the black population was a menace to society. Thus, Nixon created a system that targeted black people without expressing the underlying motivations and inspiration of an unjust criminal system. Instead of a war on black people, Nixon suggested a war on drugs. While Regan was president , the war on drugs was consecrated. Throughout time, 'this war on drugs' became more insidious and was born and reborn while the years and presidents passed. To this
African Americans were freed in rebel states in 1863, and after the civil war the thirteenth amendment was made in all U.S. As a result, the masses of southern blacks were now facing the difficulty of northern black people who were facing free people surrounded by many hostile white people.
Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, and the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution were historical milestones in which the ever controversial topic of racial equality was first challenged. In theory, these two movements laid the groundwork for a racially equal United States of America. A country in which every member, regardless of skin color, or race were to be treated equally under the eyes of the law and to one day be treated as equals within all realms of society. As historic and powerful as these movements were, they did
The 14th Amendment was introduced in 1866 and ratified in 1868 by Congress and two-thirds of the state. It attacked national court cases such as Dred Scott and state cases such as People v. Hall in California. This amendment provided citizenship rights to former slaves born in the U.S., guaranteeing no state can deny an individual of their privileges without the due process of law. It also guaranteed each individual the equal protection of laws.
In December of 1865, Congress passed the 13th amendment abolishing slavery in the United States. By July of 1868, the 14th amendment was passed to grant citizenship to anyone, regardless of race, born in the United States and prohibiting states from depriving any person of his life, liberty, or property without due process of law, or rejecting to any person, within their jurisdiction, the equal protection of the laws (Jim Crow Stories). Immediately following the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln and Republicans were trying to give equal rights to African Americans and set rules that would allow the Southern states back into the Union. At the same time, the Radical Republicans were working to minimize African Americans’ rights; this era is known as
Throughout America’s history the franchise has been withheld from different groups. This has been possible due to weakly written laws that do not provide adequate protections. In 1965 PL 89-110 was passed, this law, commonly known as the Voting Rights Act of 1965, finally provided real protections for minorities living in southern states. In recent years the language of the law was modified within the Supreme Court to take away the law’s primary power. In the following mock Congressional testimony we will go back to 1848, 13 years before the American Civil War, and provide evidence of why a law like PL 89-110 is necessary and commendable.
“The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it cannot forget what the soldiers did here” are the words esteemed President Lincoln spoke years ago on the field of the deadliest battle in our country’s history. Today, students across the country pull out copies of his monumental words and travel long distances to view the Gettysburg memorial, in order to fully remember the soldiers who fought on that day. But it was more than the soldier’s courage that makes them recalled by generations of people. It was the vision they strived for. Now, the 13th Amendment stands in place of these fallen soldiers, a concrete representation of the ideals many fought for. The 13th Amendment honored the courageous soldiers, who gave “their
Slavery is alive in the United States of America; it’s just morphed to fit itself into modern times. Every time I see the text of the 13th Amendment, I wonder if that little caveat was intentional or just really naïve.
Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment not knowing how it would affect all the other minorities. Minorities were still treated with disrespect and incivility from the white
Constitution. This amendment was to help African Americans with citizens rights and equal representation. The U.S Constitution stated that the 14th amendment said “all person born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.” The 14th amendment provided African Americans that was born in the United States equal citizenship with other natives in the U.S. It also limited the power of states that they could not take away the rights of the citizens of the United States.