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Plessy Vs Ferguson Essay

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The Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson is known for having established the precedent of “separate but equal.” The case originated in Louisiana and was specifically made to the separate passenger cars that were for the black and white races. The Supreme Court, in this case, upheld the right of Louisiana to separate the races and “this decision provided the legal foundation to justify many other actions by state and local governments to socially separate blacks and whites” (Zimmerman, 1997). It was not until the famous Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954 that the highest court in the land outlawed the principal of segregation and the concept of “separate but equal.” Homer Plessy was only one eighth African descent and appeared to be white. Despite his white features, he was arrested for sitting in a white car and refusing to leave the white railroad car. The case went first to the Criminal District Court of the Parish of Orleans in State of Louisiana v. Plessy in …show more content…

It even says it in the US constitution, "No state shall make of enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges of immunities of citizens of the US." And the arrest of Homer Plessy was enforcing a law which abridges the privileges of US citizens. All citizens constitutionally are completely equal before the law. The constitution does not tolerate classes among citizens; it does not tolerate the splitting of the people it’s meant to protect. The constitution was written to bring those separate classes together. The case “Plessy v. Ferguson” was a test of a Louisiana law’s constitutionality. It took 50 years to realize it, but the constitutionally and morally right way was to end segregation. This case was never about Plessy not being able to ride on a white only car on a train headed to Covington, Louisiana. It was about a group of black citizens trying to stop segregation from ever

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