Reflect on the doctrine on Unit 3 Lesson 5 Slide 3. Who did this impact? What did this provide a justification for? Continue on Slide 4 to identify what case reversed this decision. Answer should be 5-7 sentences in length.
Slide 3:
After Reconstruction, the Southern states passed a number of laws aimed at reducing the rights of African Americans and keeping them separated from white people. These laws came to be called Jim Crow laws. (Jim Crow was a clownish and demeaning African American character who was popular at the time.) In 1890, Louisiana passed the Separate Car Act, a law that required railroads to provide “equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races” and made it illegal for anyone to sit in a place that was reserved for members of the other race.
A group of black Louisianans formed the Citizens' Committee to Test the Constitutionality of the Separate Car Act. A 30-year-old shoemaker named Homer Plessy agreed to be arrested. He looked white but was legally classified as black.
On June 7, 1892, Plessy bought a train ticket and sat in the car reserved for whites. He then told the conductor that he was black. The conductor told him to move to the “colored” car, but Plessy refused. As he was required to do by the law, the conductor called the police and had Plessy arrested.
Plessy was brought up in front of Judge John Ferguson. In an earlier case, Ferguson had ruled that the Separate Car Act was unconstitutional if it was applied to interstate train travel. Plessy contended that the law was unconstitutional even when applied to travel within Louisiana. Ferguson ruled that it was constitutional, and sentenced Plessy to pay a fine or go to jail. Plessy petitioned Ferguson to overturn his decision based on the unconstitutionality of the law.
The Case
Plessy argued that the Separate Car Act violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. The Thirteenth Amendment banned slavery, while the Fourteenth Amendment recognized all citizens of the United States as equal.
Thirteenth Amendment
Section 1
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, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Fourteenth Amendment
Section 1
All persons 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 [reduce; lessen] the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Plessy described segregation as a “badge” of slavery or servitude, violating the Thirteenth Amendment. He also said it abridged the privileges of African American citizens and deprived them of liberty, both in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Ruling
By a 7–1 majority (one justice did not participate), the Supreme Court ruled that the Separate Car Act did not violate the Thirteenth Amendment because it did not reestablish slavery, and segregation does not serve as a badge of slavery. Justice Henry Brown’s majority opinion relied on a Supreme Court decision from 1883 to conclude that acts of discrimination by an individual or business do not impose a badge of slavery or servitude. That earlier ruling said a segregation law might violate the Fourteenth Amendment but did not violate the Thirteenth.
However, Brown continued, the Louisiana law did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment, either. He admitted the law created and promoted social inequality but said that social equality was not protected by the Constitution. The Fourteenth Amendment only protects legal equality, and as long as the accommodations and facilities for blacks and whites are equal, neither group is being discriminated against.
Slide 4:
Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
Background
The 1896, the Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson established that segregated facilities were permissible if the accommodations for blacks and whites were equal. In the 1930s, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) began a long-term campaign to get the Plessy decision overturned.
The NAACP decided to aim its attacks at segregated education. It won a series of cases in Maryland, Missouri, and Texas involving black students who were not allowed to enroll in whites-only law schools. In each case, law schools for African Americans were either nonexistent or inferior to the white schools. The courts ruled that, because the facilities were not equal, they could not remain separate.
Under Kansas law at the time, cities were permitted, but not required, to maintain separate schools for different races. The city of Topeka had segregated elementary schools, although the junior high and high schools were integrated.
Linda Brown was an African American third-grader in Topeka. Every morning, she and her little sister had to walk through a dangerous railroad yard in order to get to the bus that took her to the “colored” school. Her mother tried to enroll her in a different school much closer to home, but was not allowed to because that school was for whites only.
Brown’s father sued the board of education, arguing that its policy violated Linda’s rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. A federal court found that segregation was harmful to black children, but because of Plessy v. Ferguson, the court said it could not order schools to be integrated. NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Case
The Court combined four other school segregation cases from different parts of the country with Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas and gave that name to the combined cases.
Thurgood Marshall conceded that white and black elementary schools in Topeka were substantially equal—they had similar buildings, buses, teachers, etc. Yet, even if the facilities were equal, he said, the segregation made them unequal. He supported the argument with studies showing that African American students in segregated schools had lower self-esteem and performed more poorly than African American students in integrated schools.
The lawyer for the Board of Education replied that none of the studies had been carried out in Topeka, so there was no evidence that segregation was detrimental to Topeka students. He further argued that, whether segregation was harmful or not, it was constitutionally supported by the decision in Plessy v. Ferguson.
The Ruling
After the Court heard the case in 1952, it was clear that a majority of the justices wanted to reverse Plessy v. Ferguson. However, the justices were not united in their interpretations of how to apply the law to the case. In the spring of 1953, the court recessed without rendering a verdict. Instead, it announced it would rehear some of the arguments the following December.
During the summer, Chief Justice Fred Vinson died. California Governor Earl Warren was named the new Chief Justice. After the December rehearing, Warren was able to convince all the justices to agree on the reasoning for overturning Plessy.
In the opinion, Warren conceded that the Fourteenth Amendment was not originally intended to prohibit school segregation. In the 1860s, public schools did not exist throughout the country, and many children received little or no education. However, Warren wrote, by the middle of the twentieth century, public education had become an essential part of each child’s personal, civic, and professional development. The court declared that, under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, segregated public schools are inherently unequal and therefore forbidden by the Constitution.
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
Homer Plessy believed a Louisiana law, the Separate Car Act, violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution, because it required white and black passengers to sit in different cars on a train.
The Supreme Court ruled 7–1 that the Separate Car Act did not violate the Thirteenth Amendment because segregation was not a “badge of slavery.” The court also ruled that, even though segregation created and promoted social inequality, the Fourteenth Amendment only protected legal inequality.
The ruling established the separate but equal doctrine, which supported Jim Crow laws around the country.
Linda Brown’s parents sued the board of education in Topeka, Kansas, claiming that segregated schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of Brown. The court said that segregated school facilities did violate the Fourteenth Amendment. Even if the schools were deemed equal to each other, the act of separation itself violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The ruling in this case reversed the decision in Plessy and led to future cases that outlawed segregation in other public facilities such as bus stations and restaurants.
The doctrine discussed in Unit 3 Lesson 5 Slide 3 is the Separate but Equal Doctrine established in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which allowed Jim Crow laws to flourish as long as the separate facilities for white and black individuals were supposedly equal. This impacted African American individuals who were subjected to highly unequal treatment, including exclusion from various public spaces and a lack of access to equal education and employment opportunities. The doctrine provided a justification for institutionalized racial segregation and discrimination. However, in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that segregated school facilities did violate the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause, reversing the decision in Plessy and setting a precedent for outlawing segregation in other public spaces. This ruling marked a significant milestone in the civil rights movement and helped to pave the way for greater equality and integration in American society.
Identify each of these as either a right or responsibility of being a citizen of the United States.
1. Pay Taxes
2. Getting a prompt, fair trial by jury
3. Run for elected office
4. Defend the country if the need should arise
5. Freedom to express yourself
6. Voting in elections for public officials
7. Serve on a jury when called upon
8. Practice a faith of your choosing
9.Support and defend the U.S. Constitution
1. Responsibility
2. Right
3. Right
4. Responsibility
5. Right
6. Right
7. Responsibility
8. Right
9. Responsibility
True or False: You do not have to take a Civics Exam to become a U.S. Citizen if you are married to a U.S. Citizen.
False. You still have to take a Civics Exam to become a U.S. Citizen, even if you are married to a U.S. Citizen.
True or False: The government cannot regulate the content of a peaceful protest.
True. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of speech, peaceful assembly, and freedom of the press. The government cannot regulate the content of a peaceful protest, as long as it remains peaceful and does not violate public safety or other laws.
True or False: Capitalism is the economic system in which the state owns the means of production.
False. Capitalism is the economic system in which private individuals or businesses own and operate the means of production for profit and competition determines prices and production. The economic system in which the state owns the means of production is socialism.
A state constitution states that it has been written to establish justice, maintain order, and perpetuate liberty. This closely aligns with which section of the U.S. Constitution?
A. the Preamble
B. the Bill of Rights
C. the articles on separations of powers
D. the article on the legislative branch