Plessy v. Ferguson

1
Plessy v. Ferguson
25
PENALTY
Louisiana Separate Car Act (1890) "equal but
separate accommodations
20 days in jail
Homer Plessy 30, shoemaker 7/8white 1/8black
colored car
1892
Judge John Howard Ferguson
"unconstitutional on trains that traveled through
several states."
Ferguson found Plessy guilty of refusing to leave
the white car.
2
In 1896, the Supreme Court of the United States
found Homer Plessy guilty once again. Justice
Henry Brown, the speaker for the eight-person
majority, wrote "That the Separate Car Act
does not conflict with the Thirteenth Amendment,
which abolished slavery...is too clear for
argument...A statute which implies merely a legal
distinction between the white and colored races
has no tendency to destroy the legal equality of
the two races...The object of the Fourteenth
Amendment was undoubtedly to enforce the
absolute equality of the two races before the
law, but in the nature of things it could not
have been intended to abolish distinctions based
upon color, or to enforce social, as
distinguished from political equality, or a
commingling of the two races upon terms
unsatisfactory to either."
3
"Our constitution is colorblind, and neither
knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In
respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal
before the law. The humblest is the peer of the
most powerful. . .The arbitrary separation of
citizens on the basis of race, while they are on
a public highway, is a badge of servitude wholly
inconsistent with the civil freedom and the
equality before the law established by the
Constitution. It cannot be justified upon any
legal grounds."
John Marshall Harlan (1833-1911)
4
Brown v. Board of Education
the doctrine of separate but equal has no
place. Chief Justice Earl Warren, 1954
A black third-grader Linda Brown, 1951, Topeka,
Kansas
5
On May 17, 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren read
the decision of the unanimous Court "We come
then to the question presented Does segregation
of children in public schools solely on the basis
of race, even though the physical facilities and
other "tangible" factors may be equal, deprive
the children of the minority group of equal
educational opportunities? We believe that it
does...We conclude that in the field of public
education the doctrine of 'separate but equal'
has no place. Separate educational facilities are
inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the
plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom
the actions have been brought are, by reason of
the segregation complained of, deprived of the
equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the
Fourteenth Amendment.