To quote Atticus Finch, the sapient attorney of Harper Lee’s classic, To Kill A Mockingbird, and his belief in justice that is indiscriminate, “...in this country our courts are the great levelers, and in our courts all men are created equal” (274). However, this ideal presumes that the law, those very words on which a court is built, is fair—but it was not so. In the dark times of Atticus Finch, indiscriminate justice was absent from the legislation, and often laws were built specifically to restrict racial equality, known now as the Jim Crow laws. Named after a derisive minstrel show of the late 1920s, Jim Crow refers to a set of unjust laws upheld in the post-Civil War era that violated at least three amendments of the U.S. Constitution.
…show more content…
In particular, the Plessy v. Ferguson case had confirmed the legal state of “separate but equal.” In Louisiana of 1890, seating arrangement within transportation was required by state law to be separated. In 1892, a genetically caucasian man purchased a ticket that seated him in the whites-only section of the train. Homer Plessy was one-eighths black and seven-eighths white, yet he was denied the right to stay in his intended seat and later tried for violation of the Separate Car Act. After he was convicted and fined, Plessy appealed the court’s decision to the Louisiana Supreme Court and finally, the U.S. Supreme Court, where his plea for justice was once again overruled. Here, the Fourteenth Amendment that guaranteed equal protection by the Constitution for all citizens regardless of race, was interpreted by Justice Brown to only provide equality before the law. This apparently by no means equated to zero tolerance for "distinctions based upon color." Countering this ruling was Justice Harlan, and he alleged that not only did Louisiana law offend the "personal liberty of citizens", such laws were inimical to the U.S. Constitution both in "spirit and letter" (Purdy). Alas, he alone was in …show more content…
First, the Thirteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, on its second attempt of ratification, not only abolished slavery but also any "badges" or "burdens" that implies the black man as servant to the white. As Justice Harlan alleged, in dissent to the final verdict of case Plessy v. Ferguson, "The arbitrary separation of citizens on the basis of race, while they are on a public highway, is a badge of servitude, wholly inconsistent with civil freedom and the equality before the law established by the Constitution" (Smith "Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution"). Segregation itself is inequality, for by forcing someone to comply with rules of separate facilities due to unchangeable characteristics out of his own control, is entirely ridiculous. Colored facilities were extremely lacking compared to white, and if inferiority is not a badge of servitude then perhaps lynching may not be considered murder, even if they are synonymous in every
In particular, the Plessy v. Ferguson case had confirmed the legal state of “separate but equal.” In Louisiana of 1890, seating arrangement within transportation was required by state law to be separated. In 1892, a genetically caucasian man purchased a ticket that seated him in the whites-only section of the train. Homer Plessy was one-eighths black and seven-eighths white, yet he was denied the right to stay in his intended seat and later tried for violation of the Separate Car Act. After he was convicted and fined, Plessy appealed the court’s decision to the Louisiana Supreme Court and finally, the U.S. Supreme Court, where his plea for justice was once again overruled. Here, the Fourteenth Amendment that guaranteed equal protection by the Constitution for all citizens regardless of race, was interpreted by Justice Brown to only provide equality before the law. This apparently by no means equated to zero tolerance for "distinctions based upon color." Countering this ruling was Justice Harlan, and he alleged that not only did Louisiana law offend the "personal liberty of citizens", such laws were inimical to the U.S. Constitution both in "spirit and letter" (Purdy). Alas, he alone was in …show more content…
First, the Thirteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, on its second attempt of ratification, not only abolished slavery but also any "badges" or "burdens" that implies the black man as servant to the white. As Justice Harlan alleged, in dissent to the final verdict of case Plessy v. Ferguson, "The arbitrary separation of citizens on the basis of race, while they are on a public highway, is a badge of servitude, wholly inconsistent with civil freedom and the equality before the law established by the Constitution" (Smith "Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution"). Segregation itself is inequality, for by forcing someone to comply with rules of separate facilities due to unchangeable characteristics out of his own control, is entirely ridiculous. Colored facilities were extremely lacking compared to white, and if inferiority is not a badge of servitude then perhaps lynching may not be considered murder, even if they are synonymous in every