Plessy+v.+Ferguson

Plessy v. Ferguson

The final verdict was delivered on May 18, 1896.

Biographical backround of Fuller: **what is Fuller's first name???** Born on February 11, 1833, in Augusta Maine. He was the eighth Chief Justice of Supreme court. He graduated from Bowdoin College and then went to Harvard Law school. He left Harvard without graduating in 1855 after 6 months. His father was a well known lawyer. People said that he closely resembled Mark Twain. In 1893, he turned down an offer from President Grover Cleveland to serve as Secretary of State; it was the third time he turned down a governmnent job offer from President Cleveland. Fuller also served on the Arbitration Commision in Paris in 1899 to resolve a boundary dispute between the United Kingdom and Venezuela. On April 30, 1888, President Cleveland nominated Fuller for the Chief Justice position when Morrison Waite died in 1888. **Where did the headings go for the rest of this wiki?** Although there are no specific documents or amendments relevent to the case, the idea of "Seperate but Equal" was made famous from it. "Seperate but Equal" means that African Americans and Whites can be legally separated as long as equal services are provided. The problem is equal services were not provided. The White sections were usually bigger and better than the African American sections. "Separate but Equal" basically means that separation of races is legal under the Constitution. ** 14th Amendment?? Due process and equal protection under the law?? **

On June 7, 1892, Homer Plessy was jailed for sitting in the "White" car of the East Louisiana Railroad. He was 1/8th African and 7/8th's Caucasian. Although Plessy looked white, under Louisiana law, he was considered black. Plessy was jailed for violating the Seperate Car Act, which legalized the seperation of races in trains. The whole thing was a set up by the Committee of Citizens. They were a New Orleans political group of African Americans that wanted to challenge the Saperate Car Act. Plessy purposely sat in the White section, waited for the conductor, and then identified himself as being black. When he refused to move, he was arrested. They took the case to the Louisiana Supreme Court, were Ferguson's ruling was upheld. The Committee took the case all the way to the Supreme Court. __Plessy's lawyer claimed that the Seperate Car act violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments__. **This belongs above!** The final virdict was delivered May 18, 1896.

Seven of the eight Supreme Court Justices ruled in favor of the defendent, John Howard Ferguson. He was the one that passed the Seperate Car Act. The reasoning was that the 13th Amendment only applies to slavery, and the 14th Amendment only applies to the political/civil equalityof Whites. Seperation of races is legal as long as equal services are provided.

The members of the court were Henry B. Brown, Stephen J. Field, Melville W. Fuller, Horace Gray, Rufus W. Peckham, George Shiras, Jr., Edward Douglas White, and John Marshall Harlan. John Marshall Harlan was dissenting and the rest were for the Court. John Harlan felt that the Constitution is color blind and not everybody is equal. **Explain this rationale.**

Our personal opinion on this case is that the phrase "Seperate but Equal" is wrong, because the blacks and whites were seperated, but it was far from equal. The Whites got all the good stuff while the Blacks were left with next to nothing. The phrase is wrong and doesn't do what it's supposed to do.

If the case had gone the other way, Blacks an Whites would have been forced to be together. This would have caused alot more racism and violence. **Could it have also made people have to deal w/ one another? Maybe leading to some tolerance at a future date?**

**who is this?**

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4.5/7 - Biblio -- format this properly using [|www.eastybib.com] 23/28 Content -- seems sparse on explanation. Needs more elaboration. 4/5 Organization -- where did the headings go???

31.5/40 Total