Essay On Plessy Vs Ferguson

Words: 547
Pages: 3

On May 17, 1954 in the Brown vs Board of Education case, the Supreme Court overturned their decision that allowed segregation in the Plessy vs Ferguson case. Both challenged the idea of segregation in society either on a train or in the schools. The real question was is segregation constitutional.

Plessy vs Ferguson was the Supreme Court case in 1896 that rejected Mr Plessy's 13th and 14th amendment argument. On June 7, 1892 in New Orleans, Mr Plessy who was biracial, got on a whites only train. (Cornell Law School). This violated the Separate Car Act passed in Louisiana that required whites and blacks to ride on separate rail cars. His actions sparked one of the most important cases in American history.

The case started in lower courts and moved its way up to the
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(The Court's Decision) His well known conclusion states “We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”

These two cases both argued the constitutionality of racial segregation. Plessy vs Ferguson ruled that segregation did not in any way violate the constitution while Brown vs Board of Education ruled that segregation violated the 14th amendment. Plessy's case established that segregation was legal while Brown's case knocked down this principle and said that the facilities are unequal.

Both cases questioned segregation and whether or not it was constitutional. Brown vs Board of Education knocked down the terrible precedent set in Plessy vs Ferguson. These two cases were related because of what the questioned. These two cases were extremely important in the American Civil Rights movement. One case upheld segregation while the other knocked down this terrible time in American