...In American history, there are many opinions of the supreme court that get a dissenting opinion. A dissenting opinion is an opinion that goes against the majority opinion of the court. One example of a dissenting opinion in the Supreme Court is the opinion of Justice John Marshall Harlan in the court case Plessy v. Ferguson. “In the state of Louisiana in 1890, an act of the General Assembly states that there are separate railway carriages for the white and colored races” (“Google”), this meant that African American people had to ride separately from caucasian people. However, On June 7, 1892, a man named Homer Plessy went against this act and was arrested for sitting in an all white railcar in Louisiana. Plessy argued in court that his rights had been violated under the Fourth, 13th, and 14th amendments, which promised him equal treatment as a...
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...1. What are the important and relevant faces of the case? 2. What issues is the court addressing? What is the legal problem? 3. What law is the court applying? 4. What is the court’s decision, analysis, and rationale? For this week, you need to find a case that deals with Due Process, the Equal Protection Clause or Delegation. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) What are the important and relevant faces of the case? The Case is based upon The Equal Protection Clause, in which, this case occurred one hundred and nineteen years ago, but it was very interesting as to see what has changed during the century. In 1890, Louisiana State passed laws prohibited races to sit together on railroads; something in common with segregation in the south in the 1950’s and buses. Trains were required to have seating for different races and were divided by curtains or some form of barricade to prevent the races from sitting beside one another. Homer Adolph Plessy, a Louisiana businessman, who lived a society of whites and blacks, happen to have a black grandparent, in which Louisiana law defined him as an “octaroon”, one eight of black heritage. Plessy did not consider himself black, but Louisiana did and therefore made him sit in the segregated area for blacks. Plessy did not agree and challenged the Jim Crow laws by breaking the law intentionally and sitting in an area of the train that Louisiana law said he was prohibited to sit in, in which case caused him to be arrested and charged with...
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...CRJS400 - 1402B - 01 Individual Project: Unit 3 Human Rights Analysis Human Rights Analysis The case of Plessy vs. Ferguson established the separate but equal doctrine that was prevalent throughout life in the South for over fifty years. The case involved a man by the name of Homer Adolph Plessy, who was a colored shoemaker from New Orleans, Louisiana. He was only 1/8 black and 7/8 white, but under Louisiana law he was considered black. It also involved a white Judge by the name of John Howard Ferguson. In 1892 Plessy was asked by the Citizens Committee which was a political group made up of African Americans and Creoles to help them challenge the Separate Car Act, which by Louisiana law separated blacks and whites in railroad cars. If a black was caught sitting in the white section of the cars, they could get either 20 days in jail or a $25 fine. He agreed to help the Committee. On June 7, 1892, Plessy purchased a first-class ticket at the Press Street Station in New Orleans to go to Covington, Louisiana. The railroad didn’t support the Separate Car Law, because of the expense and trouble involved with it. They chose this station for that reason and the station was in on the test as well. He sat in the white only section and waited for the conductor. When the conductor arrived he told him that he was only 1/8 black and that he refused to move to the colored car of the train. A hired detective told Plessy he was violating the law but he still refused. Since he would...
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...Throughout history humans have been forced to face the daunting, frightening fact that we do not know who we are or where we are going. It has always been the authorities – the political, the religious, and the education authorities – that have attempted to comfort us by administering order, rules, and regulations; in effect they have successfully transferred their view of reality into our minds. It is important to question the decisions and ideas of authority, to support this argument one can look into specific historical figures and events. Galileo, Fleming, and the Supreme Court case Brown v Board of Education all exemplify the importance of questioning authority. The famous scientific figure Galileo reflects the importance of questioning authority. In 1616, Galileo was forbidden from holding or defending his belief that the Earth revolved around the sun. The Catholic Church, who believed that the Earth was the immovable center of the universe, deemed his belief heretical. After reading Galileo’s published work, scientists were agog at the possibilities brought on by his ideas. In 1633, the Roman Catholic Church forced Galileo to stand trial for his ideas. He had to publically denounce all of his ideas, and then he was convicted of heresy and sentenced to life imprisonment. The rest of his life was spent under house arrest, until his death in 1642. If the conviction of Galileo were never further questioned, science would have suffered an unbearable loss. The questioning...
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...America stands at a historical crossroad, a point where the nation must navigate through many complexities and social issues. Many points in our past have the government made decisions that went against the nation’s own constitution, breaking its foundational principles. The US fought with the aftermath of the Civil War and the complexities of reconstructing itself. There was one instance in the late 1890s that changed the legal system. One of the more notable court cases was Plessy v. Ferguson. This case made its decision on May 18, 1896. In the case, the court was confronted with the constitutionality of Louisiana's “separate but equal” laws. Laws which mandated racial segregation within the public facilities, such as train cars. Homer Plessy was a Louisiana resident, an American with African descent. He purposely violated the law by refusing to leave the “White Only” train cars. He was then arrested and charged with violating the separate car act, Plessy challenged the law by advocating for a constitutional check on these acts. Arguing that the “separate but equal” laws were in direct violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth...
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...In this paper, I’ll be discussing different topics that revolve around the 1865-1900 time period. I will discuss two major historical turning points during this period. I will discuss the impact of the two major historical turning points on America’s society, economy, politics, and culture. I’ll discuss some possible ways the Reconstruction period may have turned out differently if President Lincoln hadn’t been assassinated. I’ll explain how industrialization and urbanization affected the average working American during this time. Last, I’ll touch on how the federal and/or state governments handed down decisions or passed laws during this period that served to discriminate against non-white citizens and immigrants. The assassination of President Lincoln was a large historical turning point during this time period. After Lincoln’s assassination, Andrew Johnson took office. President Johnson was a Democratic Unionist who was originally from the South. Many considered him an insecure man looking for approval from the South’s planter aristocracy (Shultz, 2012, p. 278). Due to this, Johnson and the Radical Republicans who held a lot of power in Congress were constantly at odds. During the Radical Republicans reign, they were able to pass several laws which often overrode the Presidents veto. If President Lincoln hadn’t been assassinated, the Reconstruction may have turned out differently. Many believe that Lincoln would have done more to help the economy of the southern states...
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...The case of Plessy vs. Ferguson established the separate but equal doctrine that was prevalent throughout life in the South for over fifty years. The case involved a man by the name of Homer Adolph Plessy, who was a colored shoemaker from New Orleans, Louisiana. He was only 1/8 black and 7/8 white, but under Louisiana law he was considered black. It also involved a white Judge by the name of John Howard Ferguson. In 1892 Plessy was asked by the Citizens Committee which was a political group made up of African Americans and Creoles to help them challenge the Separate Car Act, which by Louisiana law separated blacks and whites in railroad cars. If a black was caught sitting in the white section of the cars, they could get either 20 days in jail or a $25 fine. He agreed to help the Committee. On June 7, 1892, Plessy purchased a first-class ticket at the Press Street Station in New Orleans to go to Covington, Louisiana. The railroad didn’t support the Separate Car Law, because of the expense and trouble involved with it. They chose this station for that reason and the station was in on the test as well. He sat in the white only section and waited for the conductor. When the conductor arrived he told him that he was only 1/8 black and that he refused to move to the colored car of the train. A hired detective told Plessy he was violating the law but he still refused. Since he would not move to the colored car he was arrested and jailed overnight and released on bond the next...
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...Shawn Ray EDU-210 October 3rd, 2015 Tara Armstead Movers and Shakers in Education From 470 to 399 B.C. Socrates lived a life of questions. Every day he questioned people and engaged them in philosophical conversation. This earned him both many student followers and many enemies who eventually had him condemned to death. "To all the philosophers that came after him, Socrates not only left the example of his life but also a new sort of inquiry (that is, social inquiry) and a new way of pursuing that inquiry, namely through the use of the Socratic method of question and answer." (Satris, 2015). Many different schools arose after Socrates death and claimed that they followed his examples, which is one reason why Socrates remains a giant in philosophy today. The Socratic Method can be used by those who are less wise than Socrates ever was himself, thus it could be said that Socrates had a mission that proved successful on the direction of philosophy which has had an effect that can never be undone. This ultimately has an effect on how philosophy is taught and how philosophers think in our present day lives and educational careers. The common school movement began to take place in the 1830's where a more state sponsored compulsory education for the masses set the foundation for what eventually becomes the educational system we have now in our everyday lives. There were schools for the poor, pauper...
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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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...org/wiki/Booker_T._Washington Malcom X- Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little and later also known as el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, was an African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist.- https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=malcolm+x Civil Rights Act Of 1964- The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Pub.L. 88–352, 78 Stat. 241, enacted July 2, 1964) is a landmark piece of civil rights legislation in the United States that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964 Brown Vs Board Of Education- Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483, was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional.- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_v._Board_of_Education Plessy Vs Ferguson- Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537, was a landmark United States Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of state laws requiring racial segregation in public facilities under...
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...Mckenzie Rodriguez 3 - 04 - 16 Period 1 Racism in the south “If I did not want others to violate my life, how could I voluntarily violate it myself?” (Wright 253). This statement is from the book Black Boy by Richard Wright. Richard Wright is both the author of the book and the main character in the story. The historical decisions Jim Crow Laws, Pace vs. Alabama, and Plessy vs. Ferguson impacted Richard Wright throughout his life in the book. First of all, The Jim Crow Laws had a tremendous impact on Richard Wright in the book. By making blacks obey these laws in the South, they were treated as less than by white people. For example, Richard could not speak his mind because he was expected to act a certain perfect way around white people. Richard was almost always let go from a job because he did not behave a certain way. One time a white man told him “Why don't you laugh and smile like the other niggers? I don't like your looks nigger, now get!” (Wright 182). To add on, as Richard grew a little older he had received death threats from white men when he would forget to comply to the Jim Crow Laws in the moment of a conversation. Richard is considered lucky when these white men let him go easy after hitting him with a empty glass whiskey bottle. One tells him “Nigger, you sure ought to be glad it was us you talked to that way. You're a lucky bastard, cause if you'd said that to some other white man, you might've been a dead nigger now” (Wright 181). These horrific...
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...laws-minorities Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) Adolph Plessy who is ⅞ white, was arrested when he refused to sit in the “blacks only” railroad car. He said this violated his 14th amendment. Verdict: 7-1 decision for Ferguson, majority by Henry B. Brown. The court ruled that if the cars are separate yet equal then the louisiana law does not violate the 14th amendment. Brown v. board of education of Topeka, I (1954) African children were denied admittance into certain public schools that were segregated. The parents argued that denying them admittance was violating their 14th amendment. Verdict: unanimous decision for Brown , majority by Earl Warren. They said that separate but equal educational facilities was obviously unequal...
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...five cases that the NAACP picked out to help fight for segregation in schools to come to an end. The case was fought first against the Topeka,Kansas school board with the sole purpose of ending segregation in the local schools. It was represented by Oliver Brown,a parent of one of the black students not allowed into white schools,who argued to the school board “Topeka’s racial segregation violated the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause because the city’s black and white schools were not equal to each other and never could be.” Oliver Brown thought he had brought a strong case to the Topeka, Kansas school board, but they dismissed his claim by saying “Segregated public schools are substantially equal enough to be constitutional under the Plessy doctrine.” Instead of giving up after this,however, Brown appealed to the Supreme Court. Brown knew if he was going to go to the Supreme court with this case he was going to need a good plaintiff ,so he found who he thought would be the best man for the job,Thurgood Marshall. Even though the case against the Board of Education is known as the Brown versus Board of Education case it was actually five cases combined into one represented by Thurgood Marshall. The Supreme Court case started on December 9, 1952 and it lasted all the way until May 17, 1954. During this period there were a total of two arguments or hearings on December 9,1952 and on December 7, 1953. After hearing all of the arguments from both sides the Supreme Court came...
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...An incident in 1892 involving an African American man Homer Plessy refused to sit in a Jim Crow car breaking a Louisiana law. In 1890 the law was put into play providing for “equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races” on its railroads. Plessy brought before Judge John H. Ferguson of criminal court for New Orleans, who upheld the law. The law later challenged by the Supreme Court on the grounds that it conflicted within the thirteenth and fourteenth amendment. The court later said that the law did not conflict with the Thirteenth amendment. The Court avoided discussion of the protection granted by the clause in the Fourteenth Amendment that forbids the states to make laws depriving citizens of their “privileges or...
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...In 1896, Homer Plessy was asked to participate in a test case orchestrated by Comite des Citoyens (Committee of Citizens), which included him trying to sit in the white-only car of a train. At this time, African Americans, or anyone considered black, were by law supposed to sit in the “colored” car. When he was asked and refused to leave the car, a hired detective arrested him. When Plessy was first tried by the State of Louisiana, his attorneys argued that he was denied his 13th and 14th Amendment rights. Judge John Ferguson ruled that the railroad companies had a right to decide while they were operated within Louisiana borders. Eventually his case made it to the Supreme Court where, in a 7 to 1 vote, it was decided that “separate but equal” was constitutional. However, in 1954, the ruling from Plessy v. Ferguson was overturned by the Court’s findings in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, KS. The case was brought against the Topeka Board of Education by parents. When the case eventually made its way to the Supreme Court, Justice Earl Warren announced the unanimous ruling against the “separate but equal” principle. The Supreme Court ruled that separating children because of race was unconstitutional. This overturning of the standard set by the Plessy v. Ferguson symbolized the end of racial...
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