The Issue of Racism as Brought out in the Famous Case The Plessy v. Ferguson

Racism is a long time issue which has been existing for more than a century. Cases have been taken to the courts in order to bring justice to the society against racism. Separate but equal is a legislature that was being put into the constitution in 1792. It disrupted the society due to how it(law) was interpreted by the people. Although the American law for equal rights has been written in the constitution since 1792, most people even the authoritative ones(i.e.; judges) never put it in practice. The cry for equal justice for minority groups is so extensive especially in the south where the KKK(Ku Klux Klans) are more in existence. Some of the legal issues about these outcries are the 1896 Plessy Vs. Ferguson and the 1954 Brown vs. the Board of Education cases.

The Plessy vs. Ferguson case was a very crucial argument which argued the separate but equal issue in the State of Louisiana. Even though Plessy, a 30-year old shoemaker was mix of seven-eighths white and one-eighths black he was still considered black and punished for entering the wrong car by being jailed. When taken the case to the State court, Plessy argued that the 14th Amendment has been violated which states that: No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive... But the Louisiana Statute overturned his case stating that the state has its rights to regulate railway companies that operate only in its state and Plessy was found guilty. Plessy was a normal human being who was taken his rights away from him just for the cause of his race. The Louisiana Statute overlooked Plessy's petition regarding justice against segregation which deteriorates the social equality of the society.

The Courts deprived the liberty of the plaintiff's equal protection of the laws regardless of the 14th Amendment in Constitution. Even when taken to the Supreme Court of the country, they still found Plessy guilty and overturned the case. After 55 years of the case, Thurgoode Marshalla black lawyer from Baltimore, Maryland took the case for a re-affimation. Following the decision of the Supreme Court regarding the Plessy's case in 1896, many Negroes from different states decided to fight for equal rights as they all deserved. The Brown vs. Board of Education was one of the most significant cases brought before the courts which formerly cannot legislate social equality. The case turned to be similar to the altercation about the 14th Amendment which so arguably had an impact on the society. The argument was about a colored fifth grader in Topeka, Kansas, Linda Brown who was denied an admission into a white elementary school.

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The people(black Americans) wanted desegregation and not segregation especially in public schools which did not value their freedoms as citizens of United States. When the case and some other similar cases from other states were taken to the high court in Kansas in 1951 by Thurgood Marshall and his colleagues, the courts indentured it. Until taken to the Supreme Court which the decisions did not come out that easy, the fourteenth amendment was brought into question. For almost two years the case was argued and re-affirmed. Though the Board of Education may have supplied equal physical facilities to both public schools (white and Negroes). It diminishes the equal treatment of the minority groups, an example of this is the textbooks issues which when compared 68 colored students had no books to 20 white students. And also the case that there was no coloured High School in the South. The cases were similar in respects that the minorities had to come out with the complaints of their oppressions. Their(minorities) liberties have been deprived from them under the protection of laws.

Although the legal arguments share common cases about segregation, but Plessy's case was one in which was indentured regardless of whom he poses to be. While Brown's complaints were out to pursue equality in educational system and to reduce the inferiority complex going through the minds of innocent souls on how they are being treated. Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP crew argued that even though the law has abolished slavery for a guaranteed freedom, they(coloreds) were still segregated from the whites. The end of the segregated years marked the beginning of a new era for equality among all races. Thurgood Marshall and the members of the NAACP fought to their very strength to bring justice in both cases and to see that segregation is purely abolished. These legal arguments were some of the greater social decisions and most ideological significance in the American history that the Supreme Court has ever made.

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