Essays on Separate But Equal

The concept of “whiteness” is, of course, silly on its face. “Pinkness,” or perhaps, “very light tanness” would be more accurate. Nevertheless, the term is deeply embedded into cultural discourse. “White privilege” is the phrase of the day. “White Man’s Burden” was the public face of the reasoning for British imperialism. White men (no women need apply in those bygone days) not only “could” govern their poor, benighted “colored” brethren better than they could govern themselves, it was an affirmative duty to bring superior culture and civilization to the savages. In the history of the United States the ...

After the American Civil War of between 1861and 1865, the federal government abolished slavery in the United States through the endorsement of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Subsequently, before the law, persons of African descent were free from the yoke of bondage and concurrently, the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments declared black people as citizens of the United States and gave them the rights to vote respectively. In other words, racial divisions were no longer recognizable before the law and as a result, equality among blacks and whites was possible. The problem was that white supremacy was not a ...

Golub, Mark. "Plessy as "Passing": Judicial Responses to Ambiguously Raced Bodies in Plessy v. Ferguson." Law & Society Review, 39, no. 3 (2005): 563-600.

Synopsis

Homer Plessy’s decision to purchase a ticket as a white man, and to later confess that he is indeed black, was part of “a test case” conducted by the Creole community of New Orleans. As per the terms of the Louisiana Separate Car Act of 1890, Caucasians and persons of African descent were subject to traveling in different railway cars to serve the purposes of racial segregation. In the article, Golub quotes Plessy’ ...

Introduction

In the quest for justice, different rulings are usually made. Some rulings are received well and by the majority of the nation’s population while others are often controversial in nature. Most times, the controversial rulings are usually against the common religious and moral views of the public. This paper provides an opinion on some of the top controversial cases in the history of the United States of America.

No Duty to Rescue Rule

The no duty to rescue rule states that if one is not responsible for putting someone else (the victim) in danger, then the person has no obligation whatsoever to help ...

The right wing media has long held the position that white-on-black racism in the United States is “dead.” Certain facts are thought to prove this point. The fact that, in 2009, a black man assumed the office of President of the United States is proof that racism is over. Also, black students now have an easier time getting accepted to college than white students because of Affirmative Action, proving racism is no longer a problem (Weissmann, 2012). And anyway, racial discrimination is illegal now – the Civil Rights Act took care of that over fifty years ago. While it is ...

Plessey versus Ferguson was an important case in Louisiana in 1896 where the Supreme Court ruled that races should be separated on railroads in facilities that were ‘separate but equal’. This was just the sort of decision that the Southern states needed to implement a programme of institutionalized segregation which came with the blessing of the Supreme Court.

The case occurred on 7th June 1892 when Homer Plessey, a black man boarded the Louisiana State Railroad coach and was asked to sit at the back on account of his skin colour. After refusing to do so, he was arrested ...

- citizen - Political Culture - Political Equality - Popular Sovereignty - Social Contract Theory - Federalism - Unitary government - elastic clause - Supremacy Clause - concurrent powers - Dual Federalism - cooperative federalism - new federalism - public opinion - halo effect - Salient issues - Voter turnout - Free Exercise Clause - Freedom of Religion - The clear and present danger doctrine - Slander and libel - Privacy rights - eminent domain - ...

The ruling in this case was ground-breaking. It was made by the supreme court of the United States. It overturned previous rulings dating back to Plessy v Ferguson (1896). There was increased cases of segregation on racial grounds in most states of the United States before 1952. For instance, Virginia, West Virginia, and Kansas. Even though the African American and the Whites were provided with equal facilities by the law, the enjoyment of the facilities was under separate conditions. For instance, they used different buses and went to different schools. The victory of the case resulted in the abolishment ...

Is there a significant difference in the employment rate of African American in Higher Education in California after the implementation of Affirmative Action?

Chapter 1 – Introduction and background to the problem

This paper attempts to provide an analysis of Affirmative Action in minority employment, specifically in relation to African Americans in the California higher education system by comparing the period 10 years before and 10 years after the implementation of Affirmative Action in higher education in the State of California. The paper argues that affirmative Action led to changes in the State of California structure including higher education and employment rate as compared to the period during the ...

In the 100 years between the end of the Civil War and the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, African Americans continued to experience the violence and racism that they had endured as slaves. This racism was not only social and political separation, but also legal separation. The legal segregation was codified into law so that African Americans were denied equal access to service and opportunities such as housing, medical care, education, employment, transportation, and entertainment. Because this separation was established in state and local laws, any resistance by African Americans resulted in arrest and prosecution. However, ...

Not a Privilege for Every Citizen

After World War II the United States witnessed a period of unparalleled prosperity in its history. Having concentrated their energies and resources in the production of armaments, factories began concentrating in the production of a wide array of consumer goods: TV sets, dishwashers, cars, record players, and tape recorders. For the first time, many ordinary Americans could afford to buy these products. The United States was the world’s largest industrial power and the richest nation in the world. It was the time of the “affluent society.”1 The G.I. Bill gave an unprecedented number of Americans the opportunity to acquire ...

(Insert Instructor) (Insert Course) (Insert Date)

Finding basis in the positions taken by the northern and southern states, the aftermath of the American Civil War of between 1961 and 1965 had conflicting impacts on the two regions. The anti-slavery northern states had won the war and emancipation of all slaves was imposed on all of the United States of America. As the South had been pro-slavery, the loss of free labor for their cotton plantations was a hard blow therefore warranting the hostile treatment of blacks by their white counterparts in the south. In a bid to exert a form ...

Is there a significant difference in the employment rate of African American in Higher Education in California after the implementation of Affirmative Action?

Chapter 1 – Introduction and background to the problem

This paper attempts to provide an analysis of Affirmative Action in minority employment, specifically in relation to African Americans in the California Higher Education system by comparing the period 10 years before and 10 years after the implementation of Affirmative Action in Higher education in the State of California. The paper argues that affirmative Action led to changes in the State of California structure including Higher Education and employment rate as compared to the period before the ...

(CANADIAN LAW, STATE AND CONSTITUTION)

Introduction

It is common for a trend to emerge in the process through which a country’s judiciary takes a given field of law and for how the law based approach evolves in a gradual manner over a given time period. In most cases different judicial eras often emerges in a delineated way, reflecting some changes in the human rights, even in the nation’s highest level court. In promotion of human rights, the pattern emerging in Canada is popularly defined as fast moving and a highly accelerating roller like coaster ride. At some occasion, the Canadian judicial system led by the ...

Introduction:

In principle the theory of nullification is the deeming of a federal law by a state as unconstitutional. This situation occurred when the Southern states regarded the banning of slavery which was a federal statute as something which went against their culture and way of life, thus being unconstitutional. There were several exponents who spoke avidly and vividly against the banning of slavery and these included John C Calhoun, the senator from South Carolina as well as Jefferson Davis of Mississippi and George Pendleton from Ohio who repeatedly threatened secession from the Union during the period immediately preceding the Civil War which ...

1647 General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony All towns with at least 50 families should have an elementary school and all towns with 100 families should have a Latin school. The justification was so that children could learn to read their Bibles and learn about the Calvinistic Protestant faith. Boys were expected to be prepared to attend college and their school attendance was compulsory if they lived in a town with more than 100 families . 1779 Jefferson’s Proposal Thomas Jefferson proposes a system of education that would involve two tiers of education: laborers and learned. There would ...

The decision that the Supreme Court made on May 17, 1954 is considered one of the most one of the most awe-inspiring and impressive decisions that the Supreme Court has ever rendered. The decision also marked a turning point in race relations that have taken place throughout the history of the United States. On one side were those who were in support of a social system on the basis of racial inferiority, and on the other side were those in support of a society that struggles to recognize the archetype of equal opportunity. Since our society is so complex and diverse, it ...

Brown versus Board of Education

The Supreme Court has judged many landmark cases in its over 200 years history but the one which springs to mind and which perhaps is the most far reaching is the famous 1954 case and decision Brown vs Board of Education where it ruled that segregation in schooling was unconstitutional. This decision obviously gave way to a wave of protests across the South where blacks began clamouring for their rights and the whole Civil Rights movement took fire. It is indeed a landmark case as initially it appeared pretty straightforward and nondescript but the end result was to have a cataclysmic effect ...

In the article “Don’t Mourn Brown v. Board of Education,” Juan Williams argues that the court case that ended the doctrine of separate but equal educational facilities in the United States failed to achieve its primary purpose of providing equal educational opportunity for all children, regardless of race, and that the time for its enforcement is past. While Williams notes correctly that segregation still exists in American schools, thus supporting his contention that the purpose of the court ruling was not achieved, in other ways the case accomplished many worthy goals albeit more as a by-product of the court ...

Racial segregation is a dark and painful past of the American people. It has been landmarked by various criminal and legal cases such as the Plessy versus Ferguson court case. In this particular issue, Plessy did not follow the vehicle segregation and was punished by law. This is a landmark case which hinges on the issues of separate but equal doctrine along with de facto and de jure segregation, and the overall discrepancy in the criminal justice system. In actual terms, there is an evident conflict and diversity in the US criminal justice. It reflects the inequality in the general ...

Introduction

Kelly (n.d.) wrote that this U.S. Supreme Court case in 1896 followed on from earlier cases in the Louisiana courts in 1892, which were the consequences of Homer Plessy (a light-skinned African American) seating himself in a Louisiana train railroad car designated as “whites only”, then refusing to leave, for which he was arrested. That landmark Supreme Court case verdict had a huge impact on African Americans, as described in the following paragraphs.

The Case and its Impacts

The Majlessi Law Firm’s article (n.d.) entitled “Historic Trial – Plessy V. Ferguson” states that Plessy’s attempt to travel on an East Louisiana train in a “whites-only” car – for ...

Entry of African-Americans into the United States of America was mainly through the slave trade organizations. The main purpose of slave trade was to provide much needed cheap labor for the white-owned and run plantations concentrated in the South. The enduring onsideration of African-Americans as second class citizens can be attributed to those origins and hence their treatment as property of the slave owners (Danns, 2009, p.303). It was this practice that saw the entrenchment of segregation, discrimination and isolation of the African-American from the greater American society. African-Americans have had to work hard and tirelessly to bring about ...

Introduction

This paper researches the history of the causal problems that led to U.S. government policy resulting in the No Child Left Behind Act. It explains how the topic became a public policy problem, who placed it on the policy agenda and when, what the Act does and how it works, the institutions that have acted according to its requirements so far, and the current situation as of 2012.

Background and Legislative History

According to a U.S. Department of Education document “A Guide to Education and No Child Left Behind” (2004) the origins of the Act and the principles on which it is based can be ...

Booker T. Washington was willing to accommodate to social and political inequality for blacks in favor of a policy of gradualism and improvement through education and economic status, while W.E.B. DuBois insisted on full civil, political and economic equality for blacks. As Washington informed the white audience at the Atlanta Exposition in 1895, blacks should be willing to forgo opposition to segregation or demands for civil rights and voting rights in favor of education, training and advancement in the commercial world. His own Tuskegee Institute was the model for his version of industrial and agricultural training for blacks, and despite ...

The State of Workers' Welfare in the Early 20th Century

On March 25, 1911, a fire started at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York City, and proved to be one of the most deadly and destructive industrial disasters to occur in the city to date. Nearly 150 people died of fire, smoke inhalation, or jumping out of the buildings, creating a substantial and horrifying loss of life that shed light on a number of labor abuses that were happening in early 20th century America (p. 638). Much of this was focused on newly arriving immigrants who were not being taken care of properly; the publishing of the book The Jungle by ...

Research a U.S. Supreme Court decision that has been important in shaping the interpretation of the Constitution. Write a paper that examines the facts of the case, discusses applicable law and precedents cited, and evaluates how the decision affected the legal interpretation of the Constitution. A list of suitable Supreme Court cases is provided in the Course Materials section of this guide. If you would like to choose a different case, you can seek permission from the instructor to research an unlisted case. You are to utilize only credible sources of information, such as The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of ...

Plessy to Brown: A Transformation in American Values

In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the Court applied a narrow interpretation of the 14th Amendment to rule that racial segregation in public facilities did not violate the equal protection of rights under the doctrine of “separate but equal,” meaning that segregation was legal as long as the facilities offered were equal. The court held that the 14th Amendment was drafted to protect the equality of the two races under the law, not to elevate the social standing of an inferior race; although it also went on to assert that segregation laws were not meant to imply the inferiority of blacks. ...

Approximately 100 years after Union troops settled the issue of slavery, a second Civil War played out in America’s courts and on the streets of the America South. In Mississippi, as in Alabama, Georgia and other states where the Civil Rights movement played out, the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown vs. the Board of Education and the ensuing battle over school integration inflamed white folks, who adopted every available tactic to maintain the doctrine of “separate but equal.” Black folks responded with incredible courage, implementing strategies that would eventually turn the tide in the battle for civil ...