How it Affects Us Now
Plessy vs. Ferguson
- Because of this decision, schools and public facilities are not legally segregated anymore
- Also got rid of the doctrine "seperate but equal"
- One of the important parts of the Civil Rights Movement
Brown vs. Board of Education
Their Defense
- Plessy's lawyer argued that the new law violated the 13th and 14th Amendment
Effects of Brown Vs. Board
- Public schools had to desegregate
- Applied to other public facilities as well
- Justice Earl Warren said, " Segregation of white and colored children has a detrimental effect on colored children."
- Got rid of the doctrine of "seperate but equal"
The Judge's Verdict
- The judges ruled the new laws as Constitutional
- Justice Henry Brown said,"A statute which merely implies merely a legal distinction between white and colored races----has no tendency to destroy the legal equality of the two races...."
- The only Justice who saw the mistakes of this decision was Justice John Harlan
The Verdict of the Trial
- On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that racial segregation in public schools violated the 14th Amendment of the Constitution( no state may deny equal protection of its laws to any person within its jurisdiction)
- This court ruling effectively got rid of the previous ruling by the Plessy vs. Ferguson case
- In other words, legalized segregation was not allowed now
Plessy Vs. Ferguson
Effects of the Trial
Brown Vs. Board of Education
- On June 7, 1892 Homer Plessy protested the new seperate car laws in Louisiana by sitting in the all white car
- Homer was 7/8 white
- After telling the conductor that he was 1/8 black, Plessy was arrested and spent a night in jail
- His case managed to make it all the way to the Supreme Court
- Basically set up the "precedent" that seperate facilities for blacks and whites were constitutional as long as they were "equal".
- This quickly spread over to many aspects of life such as restaurants, theaters, restrooms and public schools.
- Often these public facilities for blacks would be inferior to white
- Reversed an earlier decision made by the historic Plessy vs. Ferguson case's ruling
- Stated that segregation in public facilities were not allowed
- This case came about between 1930-1950
- Involved a girl named Linda Brown who had to travel great distances to reach her school while the white children went to school a few blocks away