Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Separate but [Un]Equal

By Madeline O.

The Plessy v Ferguson Supreme Court decision in 1896 was an incredibly significant moment in American History. It not only set the precedent for legal racial segregation in the United States for over fifty years but also became a justifiable reason for discrimination and mistreatment of blacks.

The abolition of slavery after the Civil War in 1865 brought freedom to blacks across the United States. With this freedom also came a complex new dynamic of race relations. Many whites considered blacks an inferior race that lacked intelligence, skill and the ability to be contributing members of society. To ensure white supremacy, Southern states adopted Black Codes in 1865. These were a set of strict laws intended to maintain control over newly freed slaves on a social, political and civil level. They were incredibly restrictive and served the intention of keeping race dynamics as they were prior to the Civil War. In 1866 these were outlawed by federal officials.

Soon whites wanted other means to maintain racial superiority and southern legislatures began to “enact criminal statutes that invariably prescribed harsher penalties for blacks than for whites convicted of the same crime.” In 1892 Louisiana passed a Separate Car Act which implemented segregation in railway carriages. If one did not abide by this law they were fined $25 or placed in jail for twenty days.

On June 7, 1982 Homer Plessy refused to abide by the Louisiana law and instead sat in a white passenger car. He was a southern shoemaker who was actually 7/8ths white but still legally considered black. Plessy was imprisoned and his case eventually went to the Supreme Court in 1896.

His lawyers argued that segregation violated the recently passed 13th and 14th amendments which both abolished slavery and “prohibit[ed] certain restrictive legislation on the part of the states.” Judge John Marshall Harlan resided over the case and eventually upheld the Louisiana law. In response to Plessy’s arguments, he stated that the fourteenth amendment “could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social, as distinguished from political equality, or a commingling of the two races upon unsatisfactory terms to either” instead “if the two races are to meet upon terms of social equality, it must be the result of natural affinities, a mutual appreciation of each other’s merits and a voluntary consent of individuals.” Since there was such racial strife and tension Marshall felt segregation was the best solution. He ruled that as long as facilities were “equal” then separation of the races was considered legal.

The notion of “separate but equal” legally justified racial segregation and soon included restaurants, movie theatres, drinking fountains, schools and all areas of public life. An unfortunate aspect about this was that black spaces were nearly always inferior. The black schools were given little supplies and outdated books. Blacks were forced to sit at the back of public busses and trains which were usually hot and uncomfortable. This decision also had a profound impact on nation’s views of racial equality. Generations were socialized to believe that blacks did not deserve to live in the same conditions as whites. The legality of segregation gave people a reason to believe in racial inferiority and justify discrimination. The case was overturned a half century later in the Brown v Board of Education case (1954), yet it took the civil rights movement of the sixties, and years of fighting for equality to truly reverse the impact of the decision.



Works Cited:
1. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_plessy.html
2. http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/5-decision/challengers.html
3. http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/ifousa/facts/democrac/33.htm
4. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/may18.html
5. http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/exhibition/photos6.html

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Although your quotes are correct, who said them for the Supreme Court is incorrect. Justice Harlan opposed the majority decision and Justice Brown wrote the majority decision for the court.

The interesting thing about Harlan that many people of late have begun to discuss is not only was he from the South but his relationship with his half brother, a former slave on his father's plantation and very successful Black man. Some academics have argued that Harlan's relationship with his brother may have influenced his decision to go against the majority of the Supreme court.

10:25 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

An interesting thought I had was the outcome of separate but equal being that all separate things for blacks were not equal but instead inferior to those of the white reminds me in a way of our school system today. Today each school system is funded by its location and how much money the people within the town make and pay in taxes, so those with less money pay less and the schools are less funded. To me this sounds extremely unfair because although I know this is not going to happen it would be nice if ideally every child had similar opportunities for a good education. How ironic that our legal system simply just mirrors what people of the time thought and how they were happily willing to segregate the different classes of people like that was the best way to make our country more fair...

9:09 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Was the decision of the supreme court made without regard to the racial issue? When making their decision it seemed that the justices were not willing to make social decisions, they were trying to best interpret the law.

6:41 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think the second sentence in your first paragraph is quite powerful. You stated that "racial segregation in the United States...became a justifiable reason for discrimination and mistreatment of blacks."

I found this really interesting as I suppose I've always thought of the Plessy v Ferguson case as minute step in the right direction towards racial equality simply for the fact that it acknowleges equality even if it does not abide by it. The way you put it, I see that it's really just an excuse to continue poor treatment of blacks.

2:41 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is a great post of separate but equal. A lot of people read this in a historical context, however signs in modern day show that separate but unequal still exists.

There are many signs but none as apparent as the educational opportunities between both an inner city child, and one from a suburban setting. While both families pay taxes, one yields greater opportunities for success.

The curriculm for the inner city is barely standard, with out dated textbooks, deteriorating libraries, and overpopulated classrooms. These factor's deeply effect the child's ability for success and the progression of a community.

It goes without saying that we've made progress since plessy v. furgeson, but we tend to learn history's lesson, and then forget it. I think that's why history keeps repeating itself.

9:47 PM  

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