Thesis
Brown v. Board of Education was a very big and very controversial supreme court case with the central debate questioning whether the act of segregating schools was really a constitutional act. Many segregationists debated that schools were "separate but
equal" which was used in another big and controversial court case, while the opposing activists argued that schools were in fact NOT "separate but equal" and that the African American citizens in fact had inferior learning conditions which
made them feel as if they were second class citizens, unequal, which violated the constitution. This journey will lead to many trials and tribulations in American politics and has paved a pathway for many other legislations passed to progress
our nation for the good of the people.
Context
Founding of the NAACP
"The sure guarantee of the peace and security of each race is the clear, distinct, unconditional recognition by our governments, National and State, of every right that inheres in civil freedom, and of the equality before the law of all citizens
of the United States without regard to race. State enactments, regulating the enjoyment of civil rights, upon the basis of race, and cunningly devised to defeat legitimate results of the war, under the pretence of recognizing equality
of rights, can have no other result than to render permanent peace impossible, and to keep alive a conflict of races, the continuance of which must do harm to all concerned"
- Justice John Marshall
The NAACP is a very big organization founded in the early 19th century on the day of former president lincolns birthday by a group of 60 interracial activits after a big riot occured due to the increase of lynchings. The NAACP's, an acronym meaning National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People, goals was to challenge legislators into pass legislation abolishing segregation and dismrimiation, influencing and educating the citizens of the country through their activism, and pressuring
the country to enforce the reconstruction amendments which are amendment thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen. One of the first successful supreme court cases appealed by the NAACP was Guinn v. United. In this case the supreme court, in a unanimous
vote, sided with the United States courts and stated that state legislators using the grandfather clause to discriminate against African American electorates was a violation of the fifth amendment therefore making the laws unconstitutional.
Plessy v. Ferguson
Man waits outside segregated transportation in Durham, Circa 1940
In 1890, Louisiana passed the separate car act which stated that all passengers in Louisiana railways were required to separate into different railway trains based upon race. Many activists were enraged by this law and the citizens committee even orchestrated
a plan to call attention to this law. Their plan was for Homer Plessy, a French creole man to buy a ticket in the whites only section of the train to build tension. Plessy was only 1/8 black but based on the one drop rule which stated that
even if you have one drop of blood that is "black" you will be considered as a black person. Plessy and the citizens committee challenged this law at the Louisiana courts, but Judge Ferguson stated that the state of Louisiana had the power
to make legislation on railways. Plessy appealed this case to the supreme court, but the courts sided with Ferguson in a 7-1 decision and stated that if separate facilities were equal, it was okay for these laws to be enforced. This court
case furthered the increase and reinforcements of Jim Crow Laws which were Laws that separated whites from colored people.
Jim crow laws
Most people have heard of Jim Crow Laws. What exactly are Jim Crow Laws? Jim Crow Laws are local and state laws that are meant to undermine the 14th amendment to the United States constitution where African Americans were promised equal protection by
the state regardless of racial identity. These laws persisted for nearly a century until it was gradually revoked and all traces of places practicing Jim Crow laws ceased in 1968.
