Equal Rights In The 1800's
America’s history is far from perfect when deciding what laws to act upon and who was granted rights, two of the most important documents from the 1800’ are Sarah Grimke’s Letter XII: Legal Disabilities of Women, and Plessy Versus Ferguson, a Supreme Court case. They both are historical documents that changed history and how we view who has rights. There two most oppressed groups in the 1800’s were people of color and women. They both believe that they should have equal rights, similar to the white male American and should participate in laws, government and vote for what’s right in society. One of the major problems that these two groups of people had to deal with were the unfair laws that were made towards them so they wouldn’t have any
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During this time there were laws stating that black people couldn’t be slaves and were free, but they had to be separated. This stated the separate but equal movement. Essentially white people had separate buildings, water fountains, and train cars that black people couldn’t share, the separate cars act of 1890 was one example of this. Most of the time they were of lower quality, but the African American’s stressed the fact that they were separated and that this was not fair when they voted on equal rights. Plessy a white skin colored male refused to sit in a train car that was for the blacks. He being 1/8th Black was still treated as an African American but had the skin color of a white person. He knew that this was not fair that people couldn’t be in the same car because of color and that the separate but equal laws were unconstitutional. So in order to bring the law to a court’s attention you had to break it first. Plessy stated that he was 1/8th black and the refused to get off of the train car. He took this case to court and lost, but if you lose you can always move up another level of the judicial court system. Plessy took it all the way up to the Supreme Court where they ruled it was unconstitutional. This case demonstrated that there was no clear definition of black versus black people. However this made the colored race inferior. This also was another example of unjust rights where white people were the ones passing the laws, saying that another race is inferior and can’t ride with them. In and of itself a violation of the 13th and 14th
During this time there were laws stating that black people couldn’t be slaves and were free, but they had to be separated. This stated the separate but equal movement. Essentially white people had separate buildings, water fountains, and train cars that black people couldn’t share, the separate cars act of 1890 was one example of this. Most of the time they were of lower quality, but the African American’s stressed the fact that they were separated and that this was not fair when they voted on equal rights. Plessy a white skin colored male refused to sit in a train car that was for the blacks. He being 1/8th Black was still treated as an African American but had the skin color of a white person. He knew that this was not fair that people couldn’t be in the same car because of color and that the separate but equal laws were unconstitutional. So in order to bring the law to a court’s attention you had to break it first. Plessy stated that he was 1/8th black and the refused to get off of the train car. He took this case to court and lost, but if you lose you can always move up another level of the judicial court system. Plessy took it all the way up to the Supreme Court where they ruled it was unconstitutional. This case demonstrated that there was no clear definition of black versus black people. However this made the colored race inferior. This also was another example of unjust rights where white people were the ones passing the laws, saying that another race is inferior and can’t ride with them. In and of itself a violation of the 13th and 14th