Plessy v. Ferguson

Dissent Reasoning

- The 13th amendment struck down the institution of slavery as previously existing in the United States, but prevents the imposition of any burdens or disabilities that constitute badges of slavery or servitude. - The decision made will not only stimulate aggressions, the ones in which the majority refer to avoiding in its reasoning, on the admitted rights of colored citizens. It will encourage the belief that it is possible, by means of state enactment, to defeat the beneficent purposes of making African Americans citizens of the U.S. - Sixty millions of whites are in no danger from the presence here of eight millions of blacks. - What will arouse hate is the belief that colored citizens are so inferior and degraded that they cannot be allowed to sit in public coaches occupied by white citizens. That is the real meaning of the legislation. The sure gurantee of 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.

Plessy v. Ferguson Questions

1. Does the legislation violate the 13th amendment? 2. In conflict with the 14th amendment, is the statue a *reasonable* regulation?

Plessy v. Ferguson Votes

7-1

Plessy v. Ferguson Disposition

Affirmed 1. no 2. yes

What was the importance of school in the fight for equal protections of African Americans?

It was no accident that the attention came to be focused on the constitutionality of segregation in education, since the socializing function of the schools was the linchpin of racial oppression in society. It groomed the white students for leadership and the black students to "stay in their place".

Plessy v. Ferguson Judge

Justice Brown

Dissent Author

Justice Harlan

Plessy v. Ferguson Facts

Louisiana legislature in 1890 under law it is a criminal offense for anyone to insist on occupying a seat reserved for passengers of another race. Plessy who was 1/8 African American and 7/8 white, refused to relinquish his seat assigned to a white passenger. Based on having a missed racial background, he petitioned the state Supreme Court to enjoin the trial judge John Ferguson, from continuing the proceedings. The court rejected his petition, whereupon Plessy brought the case to the Supreme Court under writ of error, arguing the legislation violated the 13th and 14th amendment.

Plessy v. Ferguson Reasoning Question 1

Slavery implies involuntary servitude, a state of bondage; the ownership of mankind as chattel. A statute which implies merely a legal distinction between the white and the colored races has no tendency to destroy the legal equality of the two races.

How did sociology play into the decision of this case?

The sociological rationale was racial antagonisms were rooted in immutable human instincts and could not be legislated away-while the Brown Court tended to accept the prevalent twentieth-century sociological view that racial prejudice is caused by environmental factors.

What did the courts do instead of try to overrule Plessy v. Ferguson?

What began to be asked was how equal separate facilities were. Increasingly the Court was driven to scrutinize the material equality of disparate facilities until it finally acknowledged in Sweatt v. Painter, a case involving professional education, that preparation for an occupation depended not merely on equal facilities, but also on the priceless intangibles such as experiences that were open only to white students-experiences that could only gained through interaction with, not isolation from, others. Education that denied the opportunity for such interaction could not be equal, no matter how good the material indices.

How did separate but equal benefit rich whites and their true power?

White supremacy was the glue that held together the divide between the rich whites and poor whites. If white elites could make blacks the enemy of the poor whites instead of them, they could keep their power.

Plessy v. Ferguson Reasoning Question 2

reasonableness, it is at liberty to act with reference to the established usages, customs, and traditions of the people, and with a view of to the promotion of their comfort, and the preservation of the public peace and good order. - The fallacy of the plaintiff's argument is in the assumption that the enforced separation of the two races stamps the colored race with a badge of inferiority. - The argument also assumes that social prejudices may be overcome by legislation, and that equal rights cannot be secured to the negro except by the enforced commingling of the two races. - Legislation is powerless to eradicate racial instincts, or to abolish distinctions based upon physical differences, and the attempt to do so can only result in accentuating the difficulties of the present situation.