Imagine being a newly freed slave. Now imagine being free, but having little to no rights. After the Civil War ended in 1865, there were many new slaves that were often discriminated against due to their race. To ensure quality for the new citizens, three amendments were added to the constitution to ensure they were treated fairly. They are often refered to as the “Civil War amendments”. The fourteenth amendment was one of those amendments. Passed in 1868 following the Civil War, the amendment has helped African-American achieve equality in our country. The amendment says that anyone that is a natural born citizen has equal rights and opportunities in our country. There are also many different clauses in the amendment to specify the rights
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Even though African Americans had many of the same rights as whites, they still struggled with equality. The term “separate but equal” was coined in 1890 in Louisiana’s Separate Car Act. The act explained how on railroads, there would be separate areas for each race and that the areas had to be equal (Laws.com).Plessy v. Ferguson was the first major case since the Civil War to deal with racial inequality. On June 7th, 1892 a one-eighth African-American man, Homer Plessy, sat in what was reserved as a “white-only” car. The scenario was not an accident either. The whole incident was a ploy from The Citizen’s Committee to try to get the Separate Car Act appealed. Homer Plessy was approached by The Citizen’s Committee to test the Separate Car Act; they wanted him because of his racial background and light skin tone (Laws.com). He was the perfect person to be the pawn of this scheme. While he was lighter skinned, he was still asked to leave the railcar. You could say that Homer Plessy was a nineteenth century version of Rosa Parks. However, Plessy refused to leave and was …show more content…
In the state of Virginia, black and whites may have been allowed to use the same facilities, but they were not allowed to be married together. They still had an anti-miscegenation law in place (Gold). Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving, an interracial couple, were married in 1958 in Washington D.C. Not long after they returned and were married, they were arrested for miscegenation in their home state of Virginia. The couple was charged with illegally marrying a person of another race, which had a sentence of one to five years (Gold). The couple had to go to court for the case, which had claimed that they had violated the Virginia law. After the trial was over, the Lovings were sentenced to one year in jail. However, the judge offered the couple a deal that if they leave the state for twenty-five years; he would drop the charges against the couple (The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law). They took the deal and moved to Washington D.C. After a few years, they wanted to return back home, but were not allowed. The couple filed a petition against their charges. The Lovings argued that the case did not obey the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause (Legal Information Institute). The Supreme Court of Virginia said that since the law was equal for both races, whites couldn’t marry blacks and blacks could not marry whites, the law did not go
Even though African Americans had many of the same rights as whites, they still struggled with equality. The term “separate but equal” was coined in 1890 in Louisiana’s Separate Car Act. The act explained how on railroads, there would be separate areas for each race and that the areas had to be equal (Laws.com).Plessy v. Ferguson was the first major case since the Civil War to deal with racial inequality. On June 7th, 1892 a one-eighth African-American man, Homer Plessy, sat in what was reserved as a “white-only” car. The scenario was not an accident either. The whole incident was a ploy from The Citizen’s Committee to try to get the Separate Car Act appealed. Homer Plessy was approached by The Citizen’s Committee to test the Separate Car Act; they wanted him because of his racial background and light skin tone (Laws.com). He was the perfect person to be the pawn of this scheme. While he was lighter skinned, he was still asked to leave the railcar. You could say that Homer Plessy was a nineteenth century version of Rosa Parks. However, Plessy refused to leave and was …show more content…
In the state of Virginia, black and whites may have been allowed to use the same facilities, but they were not allowed to be married together. They still had an anti-miscegenation law in place (Gold). Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving, an interracial couple, were married in 1958 in Washington D.C. Not long after they returned and were married, they were arrested for miscegenation in their home state of Virginia. The couple was charged with illegally marrying a person of another race, which had a sentence of one to five years (Gold). The couple had to go to court for the case, which had claimed that they had violated the Virginia law. After the trial was over, the Lovings were sentenced to one year in jail. However, the judge offered the couple a deal that if they leave the state for twenty-five years; he would drop the charges against the couple (The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law). They took the deal and moved to Washington D.C. After a few years, they wanted to return back home, but were not allowed. The couple filed a petition against their charges. The Lovings argued that the case did not obey the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause (Legal Information Institute). The Supreme Court of Virginia said that since the law was equal for both races, whites couldn’t marry blacks and blacks could not marry whites, the law did not go