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Essay On 13th Amendment

Decent Essays

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. …show more content…

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.

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