Separate But Equal

This question arose during trial, “if a State can prescribe, as a rule of civil conduct, that whites and blacks shall not travel as passengers in the same railroad coach, why may it not so regulate the use of the streets of its cities and towns as to compel white citizens to keep on one side of a street and black citizens to keep on the other?” surfacing an issue about the limits of segregation (U.S. Supreme Court). Predating the trial, the “separate but equal” doctrine from 1890 set precedent for much of our nation’s history as a guiding hand through this phase of segregation, but the limits were never truly specified. This policy allowed legal grounds for segregation and discrimination of colored people. Many court cases were decided by
this doctrine, most notably Plessy v. Ferguson. The Plessy v. Ferguson court case left a bigger imprint on the “separate but equal” doctrine than any other civil rights case. The “separate but equal” doctrine, supported by the ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson, established a national standard for segregation without limits because it tolerated racial discrimination to no end.
The Jim Crow laws that date back to Reconstruction were segregation laws that ensured unequal treatment of African Americans. These laws were mostly enacted in the southern states, historically the most racist states. In some cases, “states required African Americans to pass a literacy test in order to vote,” which many could not pass due to the lack of education received in colored schools (U.S. Supreme Court). Since white citizens thought they were superior to colored people, they instated these mandates, knowing that many of the African Americans could not pass the test at the time, making other citizens think they were undeserving of the right to vote. Most African Americans had received very little education if any education because the separate schooling systems were not equally funded or staffed. Another “common literacy test required African Americans to recite the entire U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence from memory,” which many educated white citizens could not do, proving the unfairness of these mandates (U.S. Supreme Court). Even though this test was not legally necessary, each state could institute their own Jim Crow laws to enforce segregation, and if they violated the 13th and 14th Amendments, that would be overlooked.
The “separate but equal” idea legally supported segregation.
The doctrine of “separate but equal” violated the 13th and 14th Amendments because ‘ex-slaves’ were not receiving equal representation of their rights as the 14th Amendment stated they legally have. “Separate but equal” was created by racist Americans in attempt to strip all non-white people in America of their newly instated rights. Post-Civil War, “there was enormous racial tension and considerable racial bias, throughout the country,” which led to the adoption of “separate but equal” (Block). This doctrine led to many unfair and not equal actions by white Americans in order to take away what they believed to be unearned and undeserved rights granted by the 14th Amendment. Under “separate but equal” in 1890, Louisiana passed the “Separate Car Act,” “in which ‘whites’ and ‘coloreds’ were not permitted to ride in the same railway car, unless there was only one car attached to the train—in which case, a physical barrier must be erected in order to separate the races,” which, once again, violated the 14th Amendment (Block). However, people of the Chinese race living as non-citizens in America were able to “ride in the same passenger coach with white citizens of the United States, while citizens of the black race in Louisiana, many of whom, perhaps, risked their lives for the preservation of the Union…are yet declared to be criminals, liable to imprisonment, if they ride in a public coach occupied by citizens of
the white race” proving the direct racism towards “citizens of the black race” (U.S. Supreme Court). This direct discrimination should be charged against in the court of law because of its blatant violation of the 13th and 14th Amendments. However, the white racists did not view things that way and were only concerned with themselves.
In addition to the Separate Car Act, there were many other social inequalities between races. Education was the most notable difference. The cartoon in source “One Nation…Indivisible” shows the physical differences between suburban schools, white schools, and the inner-city schools, colored schools. One of the highlighted differences in the schooling systems is the location. The suburban school appears appealing, large, secluded, and home-like; whereas, the inner-city school seems dirty, tightly surrounded by dumpsters and other buildings, and run-down. Also, each school has an American flag hanging outside; the one outside of the suburban school is proudly flying on a nice flag pole cemented in the ground, but the inner-city school’s flag is hanging off the building and looks sad because of the poor education received inside. Both buildings may have been called schools, but the education taught inside of the buildings was very different. The differences in the flags, though they might seem subtle, represent the American views of each school at the time, which depicts the harsh feelings towards colored people. The actions taken under the “separate but equal” doctrine were nowhere near equal and violated all colored people’s rights (Block).
Homer Plessy, a creole, decided to make a point by purposely disregarding the Louisiana law and the Separate Car Act. He deliberately violated the Separate Car Act for national attention to actively show the daily racism colored people endure in the country. Since he could pass as a white man, he was able to board the white railcar without question, but he “announced to the conductor that he was a black man” and “refused the conductor's request to move to the "black only" railcar and was arrested for his crime” (Sherman). Plessy knew he would be arrested for his actions, but it was worth it to fight for his rights. He wanted to make a big gesture in his fight for equality, and he loudly made his point. Homer Plessy proceeded to fight his case in court, hoping for the outcome of genuine equality. In the Criminal Court of New Orleans, Plessy and his lawyer were fighting on “the ground that [Plessy’s arrest] conflicts with the Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution, abolishing slavery, and the Fourteenth Amendment, which prohibits certain restrictive legislation on the part of the states” (U.S. Supreme Court). Judge John Ferguson wrongly sided with the opposition’s argument, in which they “[thought] that the enforced separation of the races, as applied to the internal commerce of the state, neither abridges the privileges or immunities of the colored man, deprives him of his property without due process of law, nor denies him the equal protection of the laws, within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment,” but this case does “abridge the privileges,” directly infringing the 14th Amendment (U.S. Supreme Court). His decision was that Homer Plessy intentionally violated the law of the Separate Car Act under the fair doctrine of “separate but equal”.
Since Judge Ferguson’s decision was not good enough for Plessy, his lawyer, or the rest of the colored population in America, Plessy took his case to the Supreme Court. After hearing out both sides, Justice Brown, the deciding Supreme Court Justice on Plessy’s case, agreed with Judge Ferguson. Justice Brown deemed Homer Plessy’s actions unlawful and, therefore, under grounds for arrest. This ruling crippled hope for immediate help for colored people’s rights. The goal of the case was to gain true equal rights for people of all races, but Judge Ferguson and Justice Brown failed the colored community. After being ruled guilty, he was given his options, and “Plessy chose to pay the $25 fine rather than go to jail for up to 20 days” (Sherman).
Judge Ferguson and Justice Brown set the standard in court cases regarding racial issues until the case of Brown v. Board of Education. It was not until 1954, a whole 62 years later, that the doctrine of “separate but equal” was overturned by Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren during the Brown v. Board of Education trial. Justice Warren rightfully sided with Brown, deciding that “the Court [was] found to violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment” (Sherman). This case was a pivotal moment in American History, finally setting up the fair treatment of all people, but it would not be possible without the arguments presented from Plessy v. Ferguson.
The case of Plessy v.
Ferguson created a forever imprint on American History, since the decision supported the “separate but equal” claim. Everything that predated the case, Jim Crow laws, discrimination and racism, social inequalities, and the Separate Car Act, all contributed to Justice Brown’s final decision. These policies all also helped change the standard for the Brown v. Board case, which led to integrated lifestyles that America still possesses today. The verdict in the Plessy v. Ferguson trial shows how deep of an issue racism was in our country in the 1800s and how much the nation has changed to accept all
people.