Similarities Between Plessy V. Ferguson And Brown V Board Of Education

Improved Essays
Karlee Sunday
Mrs. Holt
Due-10/8/17
Law Essay

Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v Board of Education, two of the most landmarking cases that have changed the ways of the U.S. The case of Plessy v. Ferguson started with a man who opposed to discrimination of race, Brown v. Board of Education repealing the Pv.F case and making the final change on discrimination, both cases have similarities changing the way of human history, and the Supreme Court plays a big role in making the final decision. History is made by the people that want to make a change in the world.

To start off, the Plessy v. Ferguson case took place in the 1890s in Louisiana. A man named Homer Plessy was 1/8
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Board of Education case happened in 1955, when schools in Topeka, Kansas were getting segregated by race. A child and her sisters always had to walk across a dangerous railroad to get to their all black school even though there was an all white school much closer to their house without dangers of a railroad. The family (Brown's) decided to take the case to court because they believed it violated the Fourteenth Amendment. They went to both federal and Supreme Court, but found what they were looking for in Supreme. This case is very similar to Plessy v. Ferguson case and because of this the case got challenged. The majority decision in this case was unanimous but Supreme Court chose to side with Brown. According to “Landmark Cases of the U.S. Supreme Court.” Summary of the Decision | (www.Streetlaw.org, landmarkcases.org/en/Page/522/Summary_of_the_Decision), " The Court found the practice of segregation unconstitutional and refused to apply to its decision on Plessy v. Ferguson to 'the field of public education'." This means that the Court thought that it was wrong to separate schools by race and call them equal, because if everyone was equal they wouldn't be separated. This allowed for the precedent to be made that anyone segregating a race would doing wrong on the Constitution. The decision on this case affected the decision on the Plessy v. Ferguson case by saying the case did in fact contradict the Fourteenth Amendment and no one is equal if they are separated. According to “FindLaw's United States Supreme Court case and opinions.” (Findlaw, caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/347/483.html), " Plessy v. Ferguson, this finding is amply supported by modern authority. Any language in Plessy v. Ferguson contrary to this finding is rejected." This means that no matter what the decision was in the Plessy v. Ferguson case that Brown v. Board of Education changed the precedent and if any one tried to go against this final decision, they could be

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