Introduction
There were two important cases when it comes to African Americans and their struggle for equality in America. These two cases help establish the fact that African Americans are not second-class citizens. Although it is common knowledge that all men are free, in practice it was hard for many white people in the South to co-exist with blacks. Their dislike, as well as fear towards them, led the way for segregation and discrimination. The decision of the court in the two cases changed the course of American history. Plessy vs. Ferguson and Brown vs. Board of Education made a significant impact when it came to the civil rights movement. These two cases changed the lives not only of African Americans but every single person who considers the United States their home and their country.
Overview
African Americans are the descendants of African slaves who came to this country through the slave trade. European slave traders sold them like cattle in the slave market. From Africa, they came to America. It was the Southern States like Louisiana, Delaware, and Virginia that benefited from the slave trade. This is because their economy depended on slave labor. Without the slaves, the large farmland in the South would have been impossible or very difficult to farm and manage. Before the coming of the Industrial Age and the rapid development of technology, farming was done by hand. It was impossible to farm the South without manual labor.
Thus, for a very long time, slavery became a way of life in the South. Slaves began to adjust to their new homes and their population began to increase. The slave masters on the other hand learned to manage the slaves and they were never bothered by the fact that they are treating humans as if they were animals. The white men and women living in the South became used to the idea that they have servants who will serve them from sunrise up to sunset. Slaves are already a part of their lives and they would do everything so that they will continue to live in comfort and prosperity.
Not all Americans are in agreement with the South regarding slavery. When Lincoln became president it became clear that the Federal government will do everything in its power to reduce slavery in the United States. The areas in the South that were affected by the new administration’s policies decided to break away from the Union. This is the cause of the Civil War of 1861. The Southern States were defeated by the superior forces of the Federal government but the Southern States suffered from the effects of the war. Places like Louisiana, Virginia, South Carolina and Mississippi suffered economic problems and most of it is due to the fact that they no longer have Negro slaves to work on the farms.
Even before the victory of the Federal government and the Union army, there were already rumors that the slaves will take vengeance on their former masters. The white population in these Southern States became fearful of their lives and so after the Civil War they were forced to create groups like the Klu Klux Klan to protect them from the anger of former slaves. But this fear is not enough to explain what happened in the years after the end of the Civil War. The whites were not only fearful they were also very angry because they blame the blacks for all the bad things that happened to them after the war.
Yet there are also many who wanted the blacks to experience total freedom from slavery. Although the Fourteenth Amendment was a major victory in the fight for freedom, African Americans had to struggle for that freedom because it will not be given to them just like that. There were many problems encountered in the fight for freedom. The members of the white population in the South knew that the Federal government can only declare African Americans as free men but the government could not force them to like them. They can respect the law with regards to the idea that the blacks are free men but then they have the choice to be friends with them or not. Many white folks in the South decided that they can never associate with former slaves. The whites refuse them entry into their restaurants, and other public places.
Their fear and anger led them to create laws that would separate the whites and blacks. They will not allow the newly freed slaves to have the same opportunity and to experience the same privileges. These laws are popularly known as Jim Crow laws. The result of these laws resulted in segregation and discrimination. The blacks were free but they are not considered equal with whites. African Americans and those who supported them tried to fight back. The Plessy vs. Ferguson case was the first important case that could have given the blacks the equality that they desired. But this attempt failed and at the same time gave the whites more legal power to discriminate and to segregate the blacks and whites. It was the Brown vs. Board of Education that finally gave the blacks the ability to argue that they must be treated not as second-class citizens. The details of these two cases will be discussed in the following.
Plessy and Ferguson
In the State of Louisiana, there were numerous laws that were passed to segregate African Americans from the rest of the white population. One of the best examples is the Separate Car Act. In the said law the members of the colored race will be forced to take a separate car if they choose to travel in this way. The cars in the train stations were segregated. The whites have their own cars and the blacks were assigned to other cars. During this time the NAACP was an organization that wanted equality between whites and blacks and this organization decided to fight the Separate Car Act. The NAACP wanted to go to the courts to show that it is unconstitutional to force African Americans to ride a different train car.
It was a complex plan that required a volunteer to be charged with a crime. They chose Homer Plessy because he was half-white and half-black. In fact, he was more white than black and therefore he could easily pass as a white man. He boarded the train and everyone assumed that he was a white man going to the designated place given to him according to the Separate Car Act. When he was already in the train car reserved for white he told the authorities that he had Negro blood and therefore the State of Louisiana should consider him not white but black. Thus, he was ordered out of the “whites only” car but he refused.
Homer Plessy broke the law and he had to be charged and punished after a judge found him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. It has to be pointed out that Homer Plessy did not commit any minor violation of Louisiana State laws but he was in fact guilty of a major offense and his refusal to transfer to the train car reserved for the colored race made him a criminal in the eyes of the State. The authorities arrested him but he was out on bail only to await his arraignment. The NAACP moved in and filed a case in the courts and it will be known in American history as the Plessy vs. Ferguson case.
The lawyers of Homer Plessy built their case using the Fourteenth Amendment. This amendment was needed because the original U.S. Constitution did not recognize the Negro slaves as citizens of the U.S. The original U.S. constitution could not consider blacks as American citizens and therefore there is a need for the Fourteenth Amendment. This can be explained further through the following:
- the word citizen in the Constitution does not embrace one of the Negro race;
- a negro cannot become a citizen;
- the slave is not made free by residence in a free state;
- The Declaration of Independence does not include slaves as part of the people.
The Fourteenth Amendment is the amendment to the Constitution and it means that former slaves who are now freedmen are now considered citizens of the United States and therefore protected by law. Albion Tourgee, the lawyer of Plessy argued that the Fourteenth Amendment clearly stated the unconstitutionality of the Separate Car Act because African Americans are treated differently from other U.S. citizens. In other words, African Americans should have equal access and equal opportunities as whites. Whatever is available for whites should be made available for blacks.
The Supreme Court interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment in a different light. The Supreme Court justices said that the said amendment provided citizenship rights to African Americans and the terms and conditions that can be found in the Fourteenth Amendment are only applicable to the Federal government in general but not the State. In their interpretation as long as the Federal government will not ratify laws that will clearly discriminate against blacks then there should be no problem. In addition, the Supreme Court justices made it clear that the State is free to create laws that the State considered to be beneficial for that area.
Aside from the idea that Federal law is different from State law, there are other problems encountered by the lawyers of Homey Plessy. One example is the phrase that says “separate but equal.” This can be interpreted as saying that there are separate cars for blacks and whites but these two cars are not different in quality. The cars are similar it just so happen that the law assigns blacks to use a particular car and at the same time assigns the whites a car of their own. Even if the blacks were forced to board a separate car they were still able to travel and reach their destination in at the same time as the white folks. The Supreme Court concluded that there was nothing wrong with the Separate Car Act and that it was only the blacks who thought negatively about it.
The Supreme Court decided against Homer Plessy and his lawyers. The NAACP as well as its many supporters were unable to influence the Federal government to take a close look at the Fourteenth amendment and the segregation laws in the Southern States. Instead of helping the civil rights movement, Plessy vs. Ferguson gave the whites of Southern States a legal basis for their discrimination. After the case, the idea of “separate but equal” became the foundation of many segregation laws. This doctrine, “…soon extended to other areas of public life, such as public schools, restaurants, restrooms, community pools, and even water coolers.” For many decades African Americans had to endure discrimination in the South.
Brown and the Board of Education
The NAACP did not give up and tried to find ways to show the unconstitutionality of the segregation laws. They had another opportunity to when they supported the fight of Oliver Brown et al. against the Board of Education in Topeka, Kansas. Oliver Brown said that he tried to enroll her daughter, Linda Brown to the nearest elementary public school, a few blocks away from their home. But when he went to talk to school personnel at Monroe Elementary School in Topeka, Kansas he was told that he could not enroll her child because the public schools in the State were segregated. Those who belong to the “colored” race had to enroll their child in a public school that is for African Americans only. The only problem is that Linda Brown had to walk very far from her house to be able to board a bus that will take her to her school.
Oliver Brown and the other African American parents could not understand why their children had to walk long distances and then travel to a school located miles away from home if there is a public school near their homes. In this case, there was no specific law that prohibited Lind Brown to enter the all white school but the policy of the school came from the Plessy vs. Ferguson case. In other words, the leaders of the State of Kansas believed in the same idea that it is “separate but equal” that the schools are separate but equal. They were saying that the schools for blacks are similar to the white school near the homes of blacks but their children could not go there.
Those who supported segregation schools used the same arguments made in the Plessy vs. Ferguson case. They argue that the problem only existed in the minds of the black folks because the two public schools are of the same standards, the same curriculum and the same quality of teachers are teaching in both separate facilities. The Supreme Court did not see it that way. The Supreme Court of 1954 saw that separating blacks and whites are harmful to the black children because they were prevented from co-mingling with white children. This will give them the idea that they are inferior to the white children and can negatively affect them for life. So the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Oliver Brown and his children. Starting in 1954, all public schools were desegregated.
The Supreme Court
The failure of the NAACP and Plessy’s lawyers in the Plessy vs. Ferguson case created a problem for many African Americans, especially those who are living in the South. The ruling in the said case allowed Southern States to continue creating Jim Crow laws that were used to segregate and discriminate. Due to this case the white supremacists in the South and those who supported racism had law on their side. They can defeat every complaint and every protest coming form the African American community. They continue to use the idea of “separate but equal” and they succeeded every time.
The discrimination and segregation would have continued if not for Linda Brown and his father. The success of the Brown vs. Board of Education gave hope to many African Americans, that they can finally achieve equality. They were filled with hope that they can now enjoy what was promised to them long ago, even decades after the Fourteenth Amendment gave them the right to be U.S. citizens. These two cases are related to each other and it would be difficult to understand the importance of one case without studying the other. In the case of the Brown vs. Board of Education the doctrine of “separate but equal” was judged to be unconstitutional.
Conclusion
According to one historian, “The United States Supreme Court plays a special role in the United States’ system of government …the Supreme Court can overrule any law passed by Congress and state legislature and can set aside any policy adopted by the president if it determines that the law or policy breaks a rule of the U.S. Constitution.” The importance of the Supreme Court was seen in the discussion of the two cases. The Supreme Court was the judge deciding which party was correct in their interpretation of the law.
In the case Plessy vs. Ferguson the Supreme Court decided that there was really nothing wrong with the Separate Car Act and that the problem was only in the minds of African Americans, thinking that they were discriminated when in truth these segregation laws were for the good of the public and all the people in the South. The cars provided for the blacks were not of inferior quality to the cars provided for the whites. It can be said that the blacks were only inconvenienced in a minor way when they were asked to the “colored” section of the train.
The defeat in the Plessy vs. Ferguson case strengthened the idea that blacks and whites should not “co-mingle” with each other. It resulted in creating more laws that allowed for separate but equal accommodation for blacks and whites. This was the pattern for many decades to come after the Homer Plessy incident. But when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the African Americans in the Brown vs. Board of Education things began to change. The Supreme Court of 1954 declared that it is unconstitutional to force kids belonging to one race to study in a school far away if there is one near her home. As a result, schools were segregated but the desegregation process took some time before it became acceptable to many.
Bibliography
- Abernathy, Gleen & Barbara Perry. Civil Liberties Under the Constitution. 6th ed. South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 1993.
- Anderson, Wayne. Plessy v. Ferguson: Legalizing Segregation. New York: Rosen Publishing, 2004.
- Balkin, Jack M. What Brown v. Board of Education Should Have Said: The Nation’s Top Legal Experts Rewrite America’s Landmark Civil Rights Decision. New York: New York University Press, 2002.
- Bell, Derrick. Silent Covenants. New York: Oxford University Press. 2004.
- Chunchang, Gao. African Americans in the Reconstruction Era. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 2000.
- Curtis, Michael. No State Shall Abridge. Durnham, NC: Duke University Press, 2001.
- Elliot, Mark E. Color-Blind Justice. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
- Franklin, John Hope. Reconstruction After the Civil War. IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1994.
- Klarman, Michael. From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
- Markowitz, Michael. & Delores Jones-Brown. The System in Black and White: Exploring the Connection Between Race, Crime and Justice. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing, 2000.