Plessy Vs Ferguson

Improved Essays
To say that no one was prepared for the results of emancipation would be an understatement. It would seem to be that the emancipation of African Americans from slavery would be a good thing, and it was. Under the 14th Amendment, all people born or naturalized in the United States are defined as citizens, making former slaves citizens. The 15th Amendment declared that the right to vote could not be denied based on “race, color, or previous condition”, granting voting rights to African American men. The Freedmen’s Bureau was founded in 1865 to assist African American ill-prepared for their lives as freed people and did such activities as set up schools and settle freedmen onto public lands. However, white Southerners were not yet ready to relinquish …show more content…
Ferguson in which the Supreme Court rules that segregation is legal as long as it is equal (“separate but equal”). This gave the legal basis for Jim Crow laws in which they did indeed separate races in areas such as schools, hospitals, and transportation, but in no way made accommodations equal. While the 15th Amendment did give the right to vote to African American men, those voting rights were effectively stripped away through both laws and intimidation. Poll taxes, property and literacy requirements, and grandfather clauses all barred African American men from voting. Black Codes also denied basic rights to African Americans, such as those in Mississippi, which included such things as no marriage between races and if an African American broke a contract for a job and left, they could be captured and brought back to their employer, forfeiting all wages (The New York Times, Black Codes of Mississippi (1865), p. 4). The founding of the Ku Klux Klan, whose goal and purpose was to perpetuate white supremacy and protect white women, contributed enormously to the terrorization of African Americans in the

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Theme Of Racism In Ragtime

    • 1038 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Klan promoted white superiority and patriotism (Pbs.org). The Ku Klux Klan worked to keep African Americans and “inferior” people in subjection. In order to do so, the Klan would harass inferior peoples, such as African Americans, by raping and beating them. Doctorow alludes to the Ku Klux Klan in Ragtime because white men based on him being African American harass Coalhouse. The firemen had no reason to vandalize Coalhouse’s property; however, they did so because they felt like Coalhouse was inferior to them, which gave them justification to target him.…

    • 1038 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The South never budged with their beliefs and that is why they won the Reconstruction of the Civil War. The big question with the reconstruction, “What will become of the former slaves?”. The slaves…

    • 1225 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Separate but equal” It was a phrase that echoed through time as a decision that created an insurmountable amount of tension between races, until it was stricken down later in history. Though the decisions of Brown v. Board of Education and Plessy v. Ferguson were the exact opposite, Plessy v. Ferguson directly influenced the decision of Brown v. Board of Education. The court case Plessy v. Ferguson was case brought by Mr. Homer Plessy, who was appealing because he believed the rail car company had no reason to move him from his car just because he was ⅛ black, meaning his great grandfather was black. The Supreme Court’s decisions would go in favor of the rail car company and would echo into history the okayness of the US believing the separate…

    • 1832 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Jim Crow Laws

    • 655 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “In “Plessy v. Ferguson” (1896) the Supreme Court held that Jim Crow-type laws were constitutional as long as they allowed “separate but equal” facilities. The “separate but equal” requirement eventually led to widespread racial discrimination” (New World). This Supreme Court ruling made separation and segregation legal in the United States. “In 1890, Louisiana passed the "Separate Car Law," which purported to aid passenger comfort by creating "equal but separate" cars for blacks and whites. The Louisiana law made it illegal for blacks to sit in coach seats reserved for whites, and whites could not sit in seats reserved for blacks” (David Pilgrim).…

    • 655 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the mid 1800’s segregation played a big role in society. All public areas such as restrooms restaurants and schools were separate but not equal like the law said it should be. Even the railways were segregated, there were different railway cars for blacks and whites. The only exception was that nurses working on children of the opposite color were allowed to sit in the different compartments. A penalty of twenty-five dollars or up to twenty days in jail was the consequence for sitting in the opposite cart.…

    • 1423 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    After the Civil war, the United States had to welcome a formerly slave population and a formerly rebellious population back into the country. Just as slavery was the center of the Civil war, center to Reconstruction was the effort to ensure that former slaves had the right to breathe full meaning into their newly acquired freedom, and to claim their rights as citizens. The Reconstruction period, under the guidance of President Andrew Jackson, was a time to make reunion possible. With their newly founded freedom, African Americans were, supposedly, equal to white men. Freedom, the ability to express what you want and when you want to without care or concern of other’s opinion, was not always given the way it should have been.…

    • 1094 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    -The process of emancipation was an enduring process for the United States along with the rest of the world when we transformed in the socio-economic sphere; at the same time, the country was reorganizing politically to change from a slave to post-slave society. Freedom in this time was defined as having the ability to own property. Emancipation was a post-abolition collaborative effort by many former slaves, abolition supporters, and politicians alike to re-shape America into a place where former slaves would have freedom, and be able to live with a sense of comfortability. This was the ideology, an excellent way of thinking on behalf of the former slaves, for they would come to inherit the liberties they had never previously experienced. In the late 19th century, the newfound freedoms that African Americans came to have were simple pleasures such as mobility.…

    • 560 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the primary source “James Henry Gooding, an African American Soldier, Pleads for Equal Treatment, 1863,” discusses how black soldiers were not being treated as equals in comparison to their white counterparts. Their main concern was with being underpaid for the same work as the white soldiers. They felt as though they were being treated as if they were “contraband” instead of freemen. In a way, African Americans were still in a way being treated as slaves when in fact they were free. The issues as described in this primary source exemplify the equality and freedom, or lack thereof, for African Americans following their emancipation.…

    • 1483 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    During the Reconstruction Era Congress found a way to adopt its own reconstruction plan by approving two Constitutional Amendments. These Amendments were made to give rights to the newly freed African Americans. The Amendments that were added were the 14th and the 15th Amendment. These new Amendments were created because the federal government wanted to have an interracial democracy.…

    • 679 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The ratification of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments raised the hopes of the newly-freed slaves of North America. Slaves, abolitionists and Radical Republicans believed this would be the beginning of justice and equality for all Americans. The Freedmen’s Bureau reunited ex-slaves with their families and provided education, raising their hopes further. Their hopes, however; were soon dashed by the reality of Reconstruction. They were subject to long-term discrimination and segregation by angry southerners, threatened by their freedom.…

    • 1180 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    Southern states denied African Americans from voting through voting restrictions such as the poll tax, grandfather clause, and the literacy test. Jim Crow Laws separated blacks and whites in restaurants, schools, theaters, railroads, hospitals, and all other public places. The Jim Crow Laws were clearly passed to ensure that black people could not dot eh same things as white people. Such laws encouraged and promoted racial segregation and varied from district to district. Some required black people to drink at separate fountains and use separate bathrooms than white people.…

    • 1656 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Plessy V Ferguson

    • 409 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The first major legal challenge of the Jim Crow laws was the Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) for his removal from the car on a train all the way to the high court, which ultimately decided that "separate but equal" accommodations for African Americans and whites weren't discriminatory. The US Supreme Court ruled that under the Constitution (14th and 15th Amendments) African Americans had political rights, but social rights were not required. According to the court, as long as facilities were equal for both races they could be separate. This ruling helped to enforce the Jim Crow laws and acceptable in the US.…

    • 409 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Plessy V. Ferguson

    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages

    " We declare our right on this earth to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring existence by any means necessary ". That was a quote written by The great Malcolm X experience . Himself wanted more than just Civil rights, He wanted everyone to have the same respect for each other. Myself wanted to share Some important court cases that were helpful for achieving what Malcolm X wanted to achieve. Three cases have made changes in society to help African Americans: Brown v. Board of education, Regent of the University of California v. Bakke, and Plessy v. Ferguson.…

    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The lives’ of African Americans were altered considerably after the Civil War ended in 1865. Before the Civil War began in 1861, slavery and the limitations placed on both free and enslaved black people was part of life, but when slavery was abolished in 1865 by the passing of the 13th amendment; a new era was arriving. The Era of Reconstruction after the Civil War presented impacted the lives of African Americans positively in many ways, but it must be recognized that there were negative consequences as well. In this essay, both the positive and negative impacts of the changes brought about after the Civil War will be examined. When the Civil War concluded, and Slavery abolished in 1865, the African American people, who lived in the South, were ushered into an era where they had the opportunity to choose their destiny.…

    • 1031 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The KKK made a lot of people fear them and created a fearful climate that stopped people from voting against what they believed, Killing thousands of Americans through torture. Lynching played a huge factor in how the KKK went about murder, it became a popular way for them kill free blacks and those in support of them. In 1961 a freedom ride was set out to call for change and make a statement, they were met with a lot of violence and hatred causing a lot of fear, local police refused to get involved. Risking their lives for a movement that was very beneficial in supporting the civil rights movement. June 21-22, 1964 three civil rights workers had been abducted and murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi which has been since been called the freedom summer murders.…

    • 891 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays