In the late 1800’s, a series of racial policies went into effect known as the Jim Crow Laws. These laws enforced separate but equal treatment among African Americans and Whites. Established by the use of separate facilities such as, schools, hotels, restaurants, restrooms and transportation, many of us know and understand Jim Crow Laws by one word, “Segregation”. Jim Crow Laws were upheld by the government during the Plessy vs. Ferguson case and were cemented through acts of terror by the people who opposed. Although slavery had been abolished, African Americans were still stripped of their civil rights, which is intended to protect citizens from discrimination by the government and people. In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Jim Crow Laws and Segregation during the trial of Plessy vs. Ferguson. Homer Plessy, the plaintiff, was considered a free white man, despite having a distant relative from Africa. He challenged segregation when he purchased a …show more content…
Ferguson case forced African Americans to feel “less than” and inferior to white people. They were reminded on a daily basis that society truly did not value them and did not consider them equal. Although segregation became illegal many years ago, the effects of Plessy vs. Ferguson are still felt today. History is destined to repeat itself and there is no doubt that it is being repeated now more than ever. It is hard to put into words the impacts that the ruling had and continues to have on society. The simple answer would be to turn on the news and watch it unfold before your eyes. Whether it be through protests or random acts of violence, a percentage of people in this country have seemed to regress and channel the hatred and emotion that the people who considered Plessy vs. Ferguson a victory had. While we may not be forcing “non-white” people to use a separate bus or bathroom, a case can be made that they are not receiving the same level of treatment that white people
About a hundred years after the Civil War, almost all American lived under the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow Laws actually legalized segregation. These racially enforced rules dominated almost every aspect of life, not to mention directed the punishments for any infraction. The key reason for the Jim Crow Laws was to keep African Americans as close to their former status as slaves as was possible. The following paper will show you the trials and tribulations of African Americans from the beginning through to the 1940’s where segregation was at its peak.
“Jim Crow Laws were statutes and ordinances established between 1874 and 1975 to separate the white and black races in the American South. In theory, it was to create "separate but equal" treatment, but in practice Jim Crow Laws condemned black citizens to inferior treatment and facilities.” The Jim Crows Laws created tensions and disrespect towards blacks from whites. These laws separated blacks and whites from each other and shows how race determines how an individual is treated. The Jim Crow laws are laws that are targeted towards black people. These laws determine how an individual is treated by limiting their education, having specific places where blacks and whites could or could not go, and the punishments for the “crime”
In 1890 the Louisiana General Assembly passed legislation that decreed separate but equal “accommodations” for individuals including white, black, and mulatto’s. In the minds of blacks, this signaled a return to the Jim Crow laws of control and were not acceptable. The General Assembly deemed this law to be reasonable with the intentions of restoring peace and order to their state; noncompliance with this edict included hefty fines, imprisonment, or both.
In 1892 and in the 1950’s two cases were tried to the United States Supreme Court that would forever change black and white segregation in America. There’s amendments set in place so that America could grow from skin color based segregation, and states tried finding loopholes around these amendments. In case of Plessy vs Ferguson took place where the 14th Amendment was violated. Later in the 1950’s a case called Brown vs Board of Education was also violating the 14 Amendment. Both cases were taken to court and tried against the government for unjust violations of the 14th amendment.
The landmark case of Plessy v. Ferguson is a Constitutional case in which it had to be decided who the constitution meant when it said "all men are created equal." Brown v. The Board of Education is the reason for diversity in schools. These cases are very important to our constitution and to the people being governed by the constitution because it decided the fate of our nation and of our people. They show the degree of federalism and how much attention the government devoted to it. The amendments in the constitution do not apply to a simple race nor ethnicity. Throughout history laws have been made and destroyed at the cost of colored
The landmark case of Plessy v. Ferguson is a Constitutional case in which it had to be decided who the constitution meant when it said "all men are created equal." This case is very important to our constitution and to the people being governed by the constitution because it brought up issues that hadn't been discussed in the U.S before. This case shows the degree of federalism and how much the government paid attention to it. The amendments in the constitution do not apply to a simple race or ethnicity. Throughout history laws have been made and destroyed at the cost of colored people, in the Plessy v. Ferguson case it is shown that due to the thirteenth and fourteenth amendments all citizens have equal protection under the law. Plessy was denied his right, as well as other colored people because they belonged to different bathrooms, they belonged to different train cars and they belonged to different water fountains at this time in history, but Plessy'
Numerous grand triumphs had been won for blacks especially with the section of the thirteenth and fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution—"flexibility" was no longer only a fantasy after over 250 years of pitiless, sub-human treatment persisted under subjection arrived at an end when the 13th Amendment abrogated bondage. Furthermore, the fourteenth Amendment now promised them level with insurance and due process under the law. However the harm delivered by the Plessy versus Ferguson case which sanctioned the "different however equivalent" teaching, added fuel to an officially seething flame of isolation, exacerbating an awful circumstance just at this point guaranteeing and supporting the continuation of the racial domination and dark inadequacy
Plessy v. Ferguson This was a petition filed in the supreme court of Louisiana in 1896, by Homer Plessy, the plaintiff. He filed this petition against the Honorable John H. Ferguson, judge of The petitioner was a citizen of the United States and a descent meaning he had both white and African American ethnic backgrounds. Keep in mind that at this time Blacks were not considered equal to whites.
The Plessy vs. Ferguson case and the Black vs. Board of Education are cases that were brought to the Supreme Court in order to stop the 'separation but equal' law due to the fact that colored people had the same rights as the whites but were never actually treated equally. Some people judge a person on their looks and color, and that makes people feel as if they should be ashamed of who they are but it's better to be true to who you are. These cases make people think about what African Americans had to deal with in the 1800s and 1900s and it's shows how far America has come. The cases made our world a better place by raising awareness for colored people, the cases showed that the idea of 'separate but equal' conflicted with the 14th Amendment which made it unconstitutional for children of color to attend different school facilities just because of the feeling that colored people are inferior. The Supreme Court may not have realized it at first but they eventually made the right decision, but here are some reasons that the idea of "separate but equal" didn't represent what the Constitution stands for. Segregation was and still is a problem in our world, some people just can't treat others equal, these are
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enacted that mandated racial segregation in all public facilities in southern states of the former confederacy. The blacks were said to be “separate but equal” and this separation led to conditions for the blacks that tended to be inferior to those provided for whites. Law-enforced segregation mainly applied to the southern United States whereas northern segregation had patterns of segregation in housing that was enforced by the covenants, bank lending practices, and job discrimination. For decades, this included discriminatory union practices for decades. The Jim Crow laws segregated public schools, public places, public transportation, restrooms, restaurants, and drinking fountains. Therefore, it did nothing to bring about social or economic equality.
There was no clarification on what race would be considered white or what would be considered black. During this incident, “Homer Plessy, who was seven-eighths white and one-eighth African American, purchased a rail ticket for travel within Louisiana and took a seat in a car reserved for white passengers. (The state Supreme Court had ruled earlier that the law could not be applied to interstate travel.) After refusing to move to a car for African Americans, he was arrested and charged with violating the Separate Car Act.”(Duignan 2017). Judge Ferguson ruled that the separation was fair and did not violate the fourteenth amendment. The state Supreme Court also backed up this decision. The case was brought to the Supreme Court and "The law was challenged in the Supreme Court on grounds that it conflicted with the 13th and 14th Amendments. By a 7-1 vote, the Court said that a state law that “implies merely a legal distinction” between the two races did not conflict with the 13th Amendment forbidding involuntary servitude, nor did it tend to reestablish such a condition." (History.com Staff 2009). This decision set the key precedent of Separate but Equal in the United States. Racial segregation kept growing.
The Plessy versus Ferguson case started with an incident where an African American passenger on a train, Homer Plessy, broke Louisiana law by refusing to sit in a Jim Crow car, a separate cart on the train where African Americans had to sit. This
The Jim Crow laws were everything but fair, and equal. Jim Crow is the name they used in the laws on separating the African Americans from the Caucasian men and women. These laws deprived African Americans from their civil rights because of the many things they were not allowed to experience due to these laws. Jim Crow laws oppressed the educational rights, voting rights, and social freedoms of American citizens, this essay will be discussing the oppression of these rights and freedoms.
Jim Crow Laws were laws in the U.S. which enforced racial segregation within the South between 1877 and the civil rights movement’s beginning during the 1950’s (“Jim Crow Law” Britannica). Jim Crow Laws restricted many things for Blacks, under the doctrine of “separate but equal,” to be considered constitutional. These laws existed to not only keep blacks away from the whites, but to humiliate them, let them know they were below people of the white race. “The segregation principle was extended to parks, cemeteries, theatres, and restaurants in an effort to prevent any contact between blacks and whites as equals.” Contact between races was kept to a minimum in most places, with blacks having rare contact with whites. Jim Crow Laws, though, were not only legislated by state and local governments. There were unspoken laws and codes also referred to as Jim Crow Laws. “Unwritten rules barred blacks from white jobs in New York and kept them out of white stores in Los Angeles. Humiliation was about the best treatment blacks who broke such rules could hope for.” (Constitutional Rights Foundation “A Brief History of Jim Crow”). Blacks were treated as
Throughout the years of the 1900’s, segregation in the United States was strictly enforced due to the specific laws held in place during this time. The Jim Crow laws, designed in 1877, highly obligated the segregation between blacks and whites. These laws were designed to create separate facilities for blacks and whites to use, all for the purpose of demonstrating that one race was inferior towards the other (Woodward). Unfortunately, these laws resulted in a negative impact on citizens and society, and later went on to affect different cultures such as Mexican-Americans in the state of California.