![]() If one race be inferior to the other socially, the Constitution of the United States cannot put them upon the same plane." "The object of the amendment was undoubtedly to enforce the 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 endorse social, as distinguished from political, equality. Ferguson, Justice Henry Billings Brown, writing the majority opinion, stated that: By a vote of 8-1, the Supreme Court ruled against Plessy. By 1896, his case had made it all the way to the United States Supreme Court. Constitution, decided to fight his arrest in court. Plessy, contending that the Louisiana law separating blacks from whites on trains violated the "equal protection clause" of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. In 1892, an African-American man named Homer Plessy refused to give up his seat to a white man on a train in New Orleans, as he was required to do by Louisiana state law. Although many people felt that these laws were unjust, it was not until the 1890s that they were directly challenged in court. These laws came to be known as Jim Crow laws. In other words, the laws of many states decreed that blacks and whites could not use the same public facilities, ride the same buses, attend the same schools, etc. In fact, many state legislatures enacted laws that led to the legally mandated segregation of the races. Moreover, the Fourteenth Amendment (1868) strengthened the legal rights of newly freed slaves by stating, among other things, that no state shall deprive anyone of either "due process of law" or of the "equal protection of the law." Finally, the Fifteenth Amendment (1870) further strengthened the legal rights of newly freed slaves by prohibiting states from denying anyone the right to vote due to race.ĭespite these Amendments, African Americans were often treated differently than whites in many parts of the country, especially in the South. In 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified and finally put an end to slavery.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |