Monday, November 16, 2009
Court Cases
Research Day in the library. Research groups exploring Plessy -vs- Fergusun and Brown -vs- the Board of Education should provide information here. At the end of the hour, make sure to post summarized information about what you found, and include links in case your classmates would like more information. Don't forget to cite your sources -- MLA format!
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There are two notable court cases during this time: The Plessy vs. Ferguson and the Brown vs. The Board of Education.
The Plessy vs. Ferguson case started when the Louisiana railroads started segregating black people and white people on trains. Plessy did not like this decision so he decided to bring it to court. This case would inflate until it eventually reached the Supreme Court in 1896. The Supreme Court eventually reached the conclusion that segregation is a matter of "state mandate" and not "a matter of private prejudice" and would be allowed so long as facilities were "seperate but equal".
This legislation would eventually be overturned in 1954 with Brown v. Board of Education. Linda Brown's parents sued the Topeka School System because she was not allowed to attend school with her white classmates in a school only several blocks from her house, but rather, a school for blacks across Topeka, Kansas, which was not equal. The Federal District Court and other lower courts argued that these facilities were separate, but equal as the 14th amendment demanded, but Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP argued that the segregation in itself was not equal. The Supreme Court eventually ruled that segregation was to be ended in all schools.
More on Thurgood Marshall, Brown V. Board of Education, and the NAACP can be found in http://www.pbs.org/jefferson/enlight/brown.htm Further information regarding Plessy vs. Ferguson can be found at http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/acs/1890s/plessy/plessy.html
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