TURMOIL DURING THE CIVIL RIGHTS ERA
Salma Nawar
History
Mr. Germaneri
May 12, 2015
Nawar 1 Assassinations in American history have had a great impact on the social system. Upheavals based on opinion within a society cause chaos and discourse. Assassinations have major consequences not just on the country in question, but on everyone. For example, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand led to the United States entering World War I. The United States didn’t want to enter the war; but this particular assassination forced America’s hand back and pulled us into war. Sometimes assassinations occur as a result of an event. Another example is in the case of Abraham Lincoln. He was assassinated because of the anger and
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Jim Crow Laws presented the African American man with unequal opportunities in housing, work, education and government. In the case of Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racially separate facilities, if equal, did not violate the Constitution. “Segregation,” the Court said,
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“was not discrimination.” This was an abundant abuse of power on the part of the Supreme Court in the mind of every African American at the time because segregation is discrimination. Malcolm X was assassinated on February 21, 1965 in New York City, NY. He was trying to give a speech to members of his Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights when his rival Black Muslims of the Nation of Islam shot him to death. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, TN. He was shot while standing on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel, where he and his associates were staying, by a sniper’s bullet to the neck. Both of these great mens deaths had a great impact on their followers which extended outwards to key parts of society in general. The impacts of these great African American leaders and activists continue on to this very day in maintaining racial equality among the people of the United States of America. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. had very different approaches to tackling the issue of racial equality in the American society. Malcolm X did not believe that a
Plessy v. Ferguson , a very important case of 1896 in which the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the legality of racial segregation. At the time of the ruling, segregation between blacks and whites already existed in most schools, restaurants, and other public facilities in the American South. In the Plessy decision, the Supreme Court ruled that such segregation did not violate the 14th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. This amendment provides equal protection of the law to all U.S. citizens, regardless of race. The court ruled in Plessy that racial segregation was legal as long as the separate facilities for blacks and whites were “equal.”
The Jim Crow Law was based on the idea of “Separate but Equal” which impacted the African American people and challenged the Supreme Court’s efforts to give true equality for all. The idea “Separate but Equal” arose after the abolishment of slavery and birth of the Fourteenth Amendment. This new Amendment gave every citizen equal rights no matter the race. However, because of the spread of white resistance, segregation was used to keep the two races separated physically, socially and culturally. But the Plessy v. Ferguson case caused ⅞ % to be the lowest amount of white in a person to be socially considered white. Segregation not only impacted the black, but also biracial people because of this percent standard. Separated facilities such as
Since Reconstruction, many aspects of American life were segregated. “ laws known as Jim Crow laws permitted and often required segregated bathrooms, drinking fountains, parks, restaurants, and other public spaces. The Supreme Court upheld this legal practice in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson.” While, a half century later, “On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education that segregated schools are ‘inherently unequal.’” And “In a related case known as Brown II the Court ordered schools to desegregate ‘with all deliberate speed.’” Southern resisted the decision of Brown II order.
One of the most historic cases in Supreme Court history is the Plessy v. Ferguson case of 1896. Plessy v. Ferguson was a trial that ruled segregation as legal, as long as separate, equal facilities were provided for both races. After the Reconstruction era had dispersed, the Jim Crow laws appeared. The Separate Car Act was one of the Jim Crow laws enacted upon by the Louisiana State Legislature. This law stated that blacks and whites
The Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson is known for having established the precedent of “separate but equal.” The case originated in Louisiana and was specifically made to the separate passenger cars that were for the black and white races. The Supreme Court, in this case, upheld the right of Louisiana to separate the races and “this decision provided the legal foundation to justify many other actions by state and local governments to socially separate blacks and whites” (Zimmerman, 1997). It was not until the famous Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954 that the highest court in the land outlawed the principal of segregation and the concept of “separate but equal.”
African Americans were never treated the same as other Americans. One day a black man who looked white named Homer Plessy got sick of sitting in a Jim Crow car so he decided to purchase a first class ticket in the white’s only section on the train. Plessy told the conductor that he was 1/8 black and he refused to move from the car. Removed from the train Plessy was in jail overnight and was released on a 500 dollar bond. Homer Plessy protested that his 13th and his 14th amendments rights were violated. This case became known as Plessy v. Ferguson. This case upheld the constitutionality of segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine.
After the abolishment of slavery with the 13th amendment, many African Americans expected to be free with the same rights given to white citizens; however, to suppress blacks from achieving equality similar to whites, the United States passed “separate but equal” laws through the Supreme Court case, Plessy v. Ferguson. This case ruled that it was constitutional for blacks and whites to be segregated as long as they are both provided the same services, disregarding their quality. “Separate but equal,” or, more specifically, Jim Crow laws, fostered racism within American society because it supported racial segregation, reinforced anti-black stereotypes, and fostered the belief that blacks were inferior to whites. David Pilgrim demonstrates the unfair treatment of African Americans during Jim Crow segregation as “Blacks who violated Jim Crow norms, for example, drinking from the white water fountain or trying to vote, risked their
In 1896, the court case of Plessy vs. Ferguson ruled that the states had the right to legally segregate public facilities. This court ruling fueled the fire of Southerners in regards to race relations, leading to the Jim Crow laws. These laws went as far as to say blacks could not cut a white person’s hair, drink from the same water fountain as a white person, and established a test for blacks to take prior to getting a ballot.
Throughout history, many people have risen above society to make a point. They have envisioned a new idea or an alteration to existing lifestyles. These individuals have left their legacy and influence on society. Sadly, many of these individuals have been cut short in their journey because of their ideas and influence. Assassinations are reoccurring events that take the lives of many prominent people, regardless of their positive or negative impact.
Ferguson – was a U.S. Supreme Court Case that was held on May 18, 1896. It supported the rights of states to pass laws that allowed for racial segregation in public and private organizations, such as schools, transportations, restrooms, and even restaurants. This court case causes many of the southern states to pass Jim Crows laws, which discriminated many American Africans as well as minorities. After the Plessy v. Ferguson case ended, the “Separate but equal” law remained in place until the Supreme Court overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson case with a decision that came from 1954 Brown v. Board of
In 1896 the United States Supreme Court ruled that it was constitutionally legal to segregate African Americans with their white counterparts. In the court case of Plessy v. Ferguson an African American man in Louisiana named Homer Plessy refused to follow the mandated Jim Crow laws which enforced that African Americans have to sit in a designated area when riding on a train. Plessy argued that his fourteenth amendment right was violated equal-protection clause, which “prohibits the states from denying “equal protection of the laws” to any person within their jurisdictions”(Duignan, 2016). However, when Plessy’s case moved to the Supreme Court they ruled“ the object of the Fourteenth Amendment was to create "absolute equality of the two races before the law," such equality extended only so far as political and civil rights (e.g., voting and serving on juries), not "social rights" (e.g., sitting in a railway car one chooses) (McBride, n.d. ). As a result, Plessy v. Ferguson
Political assassination is defined as the act of killing a political figure mainly for political reasons. In most cases, the motive behind political assassinations is beyond the person who is killed. Assassinations have been rampant across the globe for ages and these assassinations do cause lots of political instabilities in a country especially when key personalities such as heads of states are the victims. In this essay, we shall discuss some of the major assassinations which occurred in history. These personalities include John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, Julius Caesar and Robert F. Kennedy.
During the start of the African American civil rights movement, Africans Americans still were faced with Jim Crow laws which segregated them from whites. Under the Jim Crow laws African Americans had different schools, bathrooms, trains, buses and many other things that were separated from the white population. The case, Plessy v. Ferguson went through the U.S. Supreme Court and turned out to make a legal policy “separate but
Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X were very huge leading figures during the Civil Rights movement. Though they had many differences, they had some similarities. Both men’s fathers were preachers and both men were religious preachers themselves. Dr. King and Malcolm X were around the same age and they were both assassinated. Coincidentally, both men had the same number of children and eventually they had the same ideologies for the Civil Rights Movement. However, Dr. King and Malcolm X were different in ways such as Malcolm X wanted black supremacy and Dr. King wanted equality, Malcolm X saw violence as an option to achieve his goals if peace did not work and Dr. King believed in complete nonviolence, and Malcolm X
The Differing Methods And Aims Of Malcolm X And Martin Luther King The methods of Malcolm X and martin Luther King were very different but they shared the same basic aim, to improve the lives of black Americans. Possibly these differences in both aims and methods comes from the differences in the way they were raised, Malcolm X was born Marcus Little in Omah,