Segregation...brown vs. board of ed and plessy vs. ferguson
...ain. Plessy went to court and argued that the Separate Car Act violated the thirteenth and fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. The Supreme Court decision was 7-2 agreeing with the previous decisions and finding Plessy guilty. The "separate but equal" policy was quickly used as an excuse for segregation all over the country. It covered many areas of public life, such as restaurants, restrooms, public schools, buses, and benches. The thirteenth amendment abolishes slavery. The justice writing the decision for the majority states "That [the Separate Car Act] does not conflict with the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery...is too clear for argument…” however the fourteenth amendment was more of an applicable issue. The lone dissenting justice wrote, “Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law…” this statement became true overtime. Only after the brown vs. board of education case was the separate but equal policy abolished. Furthermore, the Supreme Court decision on brown vs. board of education of Topeka, Kansas is considered a landmark decision because it overturned the state policy of “separate but equal”, established by the Plessy vs. Ferguson case. The passing of Jim Crow laws in the south created different facilities for blacks and whites. Facilities such as public restrooms, schools, drinking fountains, and public benches became segregated. The “separate but equal” policy was challenged repeatedly in the Supreme Court over the years. The brown decision came after a series of Supreme Court decisions made on education specifically. In the case of Sipuel vs. the board of regents of the university of Oklahoma in 1948, the Supreme Court ruled that blacks must be allowed to attend state universities because state schools were better and offered more advantages then black schools did. The brown decision came soon and found that al segregated schools were unequal. The segregation of schools it was found violated students constitutional rights under the equal protection clauses of the fourteenth amendment. The segregation “separated children solely on the classification of the color of their skin.” This decision was the first step to a long road of desegr...