The fight for rights included many Supreme Court cases, including: Plessy v. Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, KS, and Cooper v. Aaron. Each of these cases apply, in some way, to legal segregation in the United States. The Plessy v. Ferguson case took place in 1896; Homer Plessy was a man of mixed race who was denied transport on a car intended only for whites, despite paying for his ticket (“Plessy v. Ferguson” Web). The case pertained specifically to the Separate Car Act in Louisiana, which was upheld by the “separate but equal” doctrine”, and consequently, the court ruled in favor of the doctrine being constitutional (“Plessy v. Ferguson” Web). The court’s ruling proved a massive setback for civil rights supporters. Then, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka took place in 1955, leading to the Supreme Court overruling the verdict of Plessy v. Ferguson (“Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1)” Web). The Supreme Court was on the right path to correcting their prior rulings that violated the constitutional rights of African Americans, until the second part of the case left the speed at which states were to desegregate in the hands of local governments and the people ("Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka (2)" Web). However, even though the Supreme Court appeared to be …show more content…
The attitude can be seen in copious ways and places. In the text, Tyson says: “The force that drove the bullet through Henry Marrow’s brain…was white people’s deep, irrational fear of sex between black men and white women” (43). This fear was not only a portrayal of the hostility towards integration, but was merely a fraction of the prejudice shown towards African Americans at the time. One group responsible for holding much of said prejudice towards African Americans was the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan was especially prominent in the south and began as a form of resistance to the efforts to establish equality for blacks after the Civil War; The group commonly used fear tactics and methods of violence to spread their message (“Ku Klux Klan” Web). The Klan believed in white supremacy and served as a beacon: a group to draw in those with the same beliefs and unite against the fight for civil rights. This led to the formation and presence of a formidable adversary to the establishment of