Plessy And Brown Essay Research Paper Postbellum

Plessy And Brown Essay, Research Paper

Postbellum Blues for Blacks Colored people, mainly blacks, have traveled a long and winding road to gain civil equality with whites. That road has been filled with bumps, ditches, hills, potholes, and all forms of harsh weather, but just as the song says, “[They] shall carry on.” Many white people consider themselves to be the master race, which causes the suffering of other races.The first fight that blacks had to endure was overcoming slavery. Slavery began during the colonization period of America, and lasted for over two hundred years. Many political figures throughout America’s history fought for freedom for all blacks, but slavery ended only through war. The Civil War was initially fought for states’ rights, however during its course, the abolishment of slavery became another of Lincoln’s goals. The Civil War and the resulting Amendments resulted in major victories for Negro people. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery completely, following up on Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation; the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed full civil rights to U.S. citizens no matter what race they may be; and the Fifteenth Amendment granted full voting rights to all citizens of the U.S. These Amendments failed to protect black citizens from the discrimination that many white supremacists had against Negroes from 1968 until 1954. After being freed from their masters bonds, many blacks were still persecuted by southerners, who continued to believe in white supremacy. The southerners used both legal and illegal methods to restrict the freedom and liberty of black folk. The Klu Klux Klan represents the white supremacists at their worst, killing black people and destroying their property. The first of the legal methods was the Black Codes, imposed upon Negroes so that many could be forced onto labor ranches for trifle matters. After the Black Codes, Southerners produced the Jim Crow laws, which provided a base for segregation. When these restrictive and limiting laws were banned, the Supreme Court upheld the southern view that segregation did not violate any of the related Constitutional Amendments. English derives segregation from the Latin root, grex, which means flock; thus to segregate means to separate from the flock. Religious groups and immigrants were among those who chose to separate themselves from others in order to clearly define their identities and cultures. Such examples are Little Italy in Chicago and New York and Chinatown in San Francisco. In more recent times, the first half of the twentieth century, segregation has been imposed upon people based on racial differences. The major start for segregation began in 1896 with the case known as Plessy v. Ferguson. Homer Plessy, a shoemaker, was of mixed decent, having seven-eighths white blood and one-eighth black; the African blood was not discernable in him upon sight. Plessy was also a citizen of the United States and a resident of Louisiana. On Tuesday, June 7, 1892, he purchased a first class ticket on the East Louisiana Railway from New Orleans to Covington. He took a seat among the area designated for white folks. Shortly after the train began its trip, the conductor asked Plessy if he was black, and Plessy replied with an affirmative. The conductor then told Plessy, under penalty of ejection and imprisonment, to move to a coach designated for non-whites. He refused and was taken off the train and arrested by a New Orleans police officer. The state district court charged and convicted Plessy with violating the statute of Louisiana, acts of 1890, which permitted segregation on a state level as long as the separated facilities were equal. Plessy filed a petition to the Supreme Court, challenging the constitutionality of the law; “Plessy had declined and refused to admit that he was in any sense of in any proportion a colored man” (Plessy v. Ferguson).Justice Brown delivered the opinion of the court. “This case turns upon the constitutionality of an act of the General Assembly of the State of Louisiana passed in 1890, providing for separate railway carriages for white and colored races” (Plessy v. Ferguson). The Supreme Court adhered to the rules set forth by the statue of Louisiana, and found Plessy guilty for using the coach for the race to which he did not belong. According to the Court’s decision, segregation did not “[conflict] with [either] the Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution, abolishing slavery, [or] the Fourteenth Amendment, which prohibits certain restrictive legislation on the part of the States” (Plessy v. Ferguson). Their reasoning being that “The Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed black individuals “equality” but did not guarantee identity or community with white society” (Smithsonian, Medley). In the decade leading up to 1896, seven Justices had been replaced-”mostly by men who shared the increasingly prevalent belief that Reconstruction had largely failed and that blacks must fend for themselves. The only holdovers from Reconstruction times were from John Marshall Harlan” (Smithsonian, Medley). Plessy’s attorney Albion Tourgee estimated that one Justices would lean on Plessy’s side, three would be uncertain, and five frankly opposed. So Plessy didn’t have much hope going into the case, and even with the backing of the Comite, lost the case.

After Plessy, one by one the civil rights gains of the Reconstruction vanished along with the separate but equal doctrine of t