...Plessey vs. Ferguson Plessey vs. Ferguson is another case that deals with segregation. In 1892 Homer Adolph Plessey was thirty-year old shoemaker from New Orleans, Louisiana. He was only 1/8 black and his whole family passed as White, but the State of Louisiana considered him Black. Plessey wanted help fighting the new Separate Car Act that separated Blacks from Whites in the railroad cars. You could serve 20 days in jail or even a $25 fine if you sat in the wrong railroad cart. Plessey purchased a first class ticket and sat in the “White’s Only” car and waited until someone said something to him. The conductor consulted Plessey and he refused to move to the “Colored” car which resulted in him being arrested immediately and released the next morning. Plessey received an attorney name Albion W. Tourgee and they went to trial a month later and Tourgee argued that Plessey civil right under the 13th and 14th amendment was violated. The case was later brought up in Supreme Court. This case relates much too today because in a way segregation still stands. There are some buildings, restaurants, stores, and even employment that segregates base on race. More so they aren’t out front but behind the cover up its present. Personally I’ve encountered incidents where I order food from a restaurant that only “Whites” eat in and the food itself was delicious but the amount of food that was given on the plate didn’t match up with the food that was given on the “White” man plate. I feel its...
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...the country’s money.. The business men or “robber barron’s”, as they came to be called, enjoyed a time period of lazzi fair economics and grew to be wealth very quickly but began using their wealth to buy offices in order to avoid laws that would help to create more equality. This new emerging group of mean was living extravagant flashy lifestyle all the while the poor got poorer and lived and worked in wretched conditions. They began to resent this new growing rich class of people. We see reformers rise and create Unions like the Knight of labor that begin working towards “equal pay for equal work.” . How does the “reasonability” standard articulated in the Plessey decision relate to Oliver Wendell Holmes’s dissent in the Court’s Lochner decision The reasonability standard of the Plessy vs. Ferguson, which came to be summed up un the words “separate but equal” is an example of the judicial activism that Wendall Holmes accused his fellow justices of using in his famous dissenting opnion in...
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...BROWN VS. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF TOPEKA The Brown vs. Board of Education ruling was a colossal influence on desegregation of schools and a landmark in the movement for equal opportunity between the blacks and whites that continues to this day. The Brown vs. Board of Education case was not the first of its kind. Ever since the early 1950s, there were five separate cases that were filed, dealing with the desegregation of schools. In all but one of these cases, the schools for whites were of better quality than the schools for the blacks. The African-Americans argued that this situation was unjust and unconstitutional1. Education has been long regarded as a valuable asset for all of America's adolescence. However, when this benefit is deprived of to a specific group, measures must be taken to defend its educational right. In the 1950's, a courageous group of activists launched a legal attack on segregation in schools. The one who headed this attack was NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall. We find that his legal strategies would contribute wholly to the closure of educational segregation. After the Civil War ended in 1865, Congress passed the 14th amendment that stated that all people born in the United States are considered citizens. The 14th amendment also proclaims that individual states cannot make any laws to take away a person's right to life, liberty, or property. Segregation laws made it permissible to keep races distant as long as each race had its own access...
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...Congress later enacted the Japanese American Evacuation Claims Act of 1948 to provide some compensation to Japanese Americans who had lost their homes or businesses during the unfair interment. The Japanese Americans received reparations of $20,000 to 60,000 survivors of the internment camps, but is 20,000 dollars really enough? These four case played another important role when the terrorist attacks occurred on 9/11, the court examined national security and the role of the military and government during war times. Word count: 328 2.This part of the assignment pertains to the following reading found in the Constitutional Law Stories text: The Story of Plessy v. Ferguson: The Death and Resurrection of Racial Formalism (pp. 187-230) Complete ONE of these tasks: (2a; 2b; 2c) 2b). The case of Plessy vs. Ferguson not only affected African Americans immediately following the Civil War, but it also affects African Americans in today’s world. The decision made in Plessy upheld equal treatment as the principle that defines equal protection in its entirety. More importantly, Plessy revised and updated the conception of race in ways that cohered with and sustained the racial status quo. In today’s world race is still a topic discussed by many Americans. Many whites believe that we are the dominate and majority race in American society and thus we believe that we should have all the benefits of being a first class citizen. We demote other races so they are below us and a minority in...
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...Interracial Couples and Their Struggles LaKeisha Straka-Conway JUAD/SOCI 3320 [pic] The United States has observed an amount of social and cultural desegregation between races, specifically Blacks and Caucasians. Despite decades of desegregation, cultural and social differences still exists. These differences are present in the institution of marriage. Americans have and are slowly evolving away from segregation. In the past forty years a multitude of changes have transformed schools, jobs, voting booths, neighborhoods, hotels, restaurants and even the wedding altar, facilitating tolerance for racial diversity ( Norman 108 ). Since the 1960's, when the housing discrimination was outlawed, many Blacks moved into mainly Caucasian neighborhoods. The steadily growing areas in the west and south-west are least segregated, because these areas never had the entrenched Black and Caucasian sections of town (Randolph 154). Even more visible signs of desegregation can be seen in the areas of education. A study done by the University of Michigan shows that integration on campuses occurs on a regular basis. The racial lines are crossed routinely; about 50% of Blacks and 15% of Caucasians reportedly study together. Eating patterns also share the same similarities. At a social level there has been a steady convergence of opinion on a variety of racial issues. Since 1972, surveys have asked whether the respondent would favor a law making inter-racial...
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...Gender Identity Among African Americans Danny Tarantino University of Phoenix The African American Experience SOC/338 Tara Lake May 20, 2013 In 1619, when the first African slaves arrived in the New World, their race's hardships in the new continent began. One can say that early American history is as much the story of African Americans as it is of the Whites. Only their story is about slavery and oppression and lives lived under the control of others. Centuries and many generations later, their story is written while the shadow of oppression has never left them. One would most likely see this perspective from the stories written and shared by the Black males. But this experience was shared by the Black women as well and their actions, their perspectives, and choices helped shape what would be a liberating movement in a fight for Civil Rights and equality. In the fight for Civil Rights - they were pushing for reforms on two fronts: Civil Rights for being African-American and equal rights for women. They inhibited two minority platforms - that of women and that of being African-American. They fought for it however and as a result, African American women today enjoy freedoms and opportunities that those before them did not. One of the key figures in the African American women’s movement was Mary McLeod Bethune. Something of a Matriarch, she possessed a dynamic and even aggressive personality. Not particularly well...
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...The threat of Communism created an air of paranoia in the United States during the early 1950’s. Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin was the man who exploited those fears. CBS reporter Edward R. Murrow and his producer Fred W. Friendly decided to take a stand by challenging McCarthy. They chose to expose him for the fear monger he was. Even though their actions took a great personal toll on both men, they stood by their beliefs. In turn, they helped bring down one of the most controversial senators in American history. This important story in American history and politics is shown in the film, “Good Night and Good Luck.” It is directed by George Clooney, written by George Clooney and Grant Heslov, and stars David Strathairn, George Clooney and Patricia Clarkson. As mentioned before, "Good Night, And Good Luck" takes place during the early days of broadcast journalism in 1950's. It chronicles the real-life conflict between television newsman Edward R. Murrow and Senator Joseph McCarthy and the Permanent Sub-committee on Investigations. With a need to report the facts and enlighten the public, Murrow, and his dedicated staff - headed by his producer Fred Friendly and Joe Wershba in the CBS newsroom – rebel to corporate and sponsorship pressures to examine the lies and fear mongering tactics carried out by McCarthy during his communist 'witch-hunts.’ McCarthy claimed that there were over two hundred card carriers in America. An awfully public argument develops when the Senator...
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...Jack Johnson Boxing is a sport of contradictions: it is as artistic as it is primal and sophisticated as it is raw. The boxer’s must physically possess balletic footwork and brute force, while being emotionally equipped with both high-minded strategy and primordial blood thirst. Most importantly, however, the boxer exists within the ring in solitude. It is in boxing, above all sports, where the individual proves his worth. In early 20th century America, there were two undisputed truths about boxing: the Heavyweight Champion was the most prestigious title in sports, and a white man would hold it. Although slavery no long existed de jure, blacks were in no way free and by no means were they equal. Jack Johnson, a son of slaves, emerged from obscurity in the Jim Crow South to become the first black man to hold the most prestigious title in American sports. But, like the sport of boxing, Jack Johnson was a contradiction himself: although seen as a champion of the black race and enemy of whites, Jack Johnson himself was decidedly race-neutral. His hesitation to join the black community in complete solidarity made him an extremely complicated figure: he was feared by the white community and disliked by his own race. Underpinning this dynamic was his insistence on marrying white women, which made him a traitor in the eyes of the black community and a menace to the natural order of things. Jack Johnson was unique because of his unflagging individualism and his capacity...
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...It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back: The War on Drugs, Mass Incarceration, and a Call to Action for America's Black Youth By Carl L. Young An Alternative Plan Paper Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science In Sociology: Corrections Minnesota State University, Mankato Mankato, Minnesota Spring 2013 Final Draft 4/20/2013 1 This Alternative Plan Paper has been examined and approved by the following members of the Examining Committee. _____________________ Dr. Leah Rogne, Advisor _____________________ Dr. William Wagner _____________________ Dr. Penny Jo Rosenthal _____________________ Dr. Nadarajan Sethuraju ________________ Date 2 Abstract This alternative plan paper examines the circumstances that have evolved as a result of the Reagan Administration’s War on Drugs and the increase of mass incarceration of the Black community. In the last thirty years, the federal government of the United States of America has engaged in campaign known as the “War on Drugs,” which has involved a variety of policies to stop the production, distribution and sale of illegal narcotics. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent in a war that has targeted the most vulnerable in our society, impacting its youth for generations to come. This alternative plan paper addresses the impact of the War on Drugs and the criminal justice policies that have impacted the life chances of Black youth nationwide and calls for a new social movement...
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