Race

During the year 1890, the state of Louisiana passed a law called “the separate car act” which stated that blacks and whites use separate railroad cars. Two years later, Homer Plessy, a man who was one-eighth African American, bought a ticket to sit in the white’s only car in New Orleans. During the train ride he was asked to move to the black’s only car. When he refused he was immediately arrested and taken off the train. In his lawsuit the district and state courts, it fell upon deaf ears and Plessy had to pay a 25$ fine. Plessy and his lawyer stammered on and decided to take it to the United States Supreme Court. Plessy’s lawyer argued that “the separate car act” violate the Plessy’s 13th and 14th amendment rights. The judge disagreed, which created the “doctrine” of separate but equal. This case essentially told the South that segregation was legal (p2 Williams). These laws, called Jim Crow laws, meant that African Americans would be discriminated against anywhere they went in the United States. The laws ensured that “separate but equal” facilities could be made available to blacks and whites. Businesses could be deemed white only or black only depending on the discretion of the owner, further deepening the void between the South. Most of the black only facilities however, were far substandard than that of their white counterparts. This created an even bigger rift between the two races at the time. Blacks were becoming more and more unsettled with this decision. This is when and uprising began which would change American forever. It took more than fifty years for another court case to come along and finally overturn the unjust Jim Crow Laws.

The landmark case of Brown vs the Board of Education of Topeka is one that changed the course of American society and the civil rights movement forever. Plaintiffs for this case alleged that African American children were being denied the right to attend schools that were attended by whites, thus...