Supreme Court from 1896 to 1954 Essay Example

struggles were short-lived the famous Supreme Court decision of 1896.

Basically, the court process was fueled by Homer Plessy (Orleans Shoemaker) in Louisiana who objected being segregated and discriminated on the train within Louisiana. He was backed up by influential business leaders and African American civic movements who sued the States for violating his constitutional rights. He argued that segregation on the basis of skin color endorsed discrimination as legal and reasonable action. Also, he argued that such segregation portrayed African American as Inferior.

Regardless of his claims, the Supreme Court Plessy V. Ferguson decision in 1896 ruled against him asking for a “Separate but Equal” doctrine which began acting as a benchmark for discrimination and segregation of African Americans. Following this, the “Separate but equal” doctrine was extended to other spheres of public life that influenced other states to relegate all African Americans to the said lower or inferior status. Blacks and whites were separated in each and every part of daily life including hotels, sports, hospitals, education, prisons, public transport and even restrooms. African Americans experienced this terrible life as strict laws offensively supported this heinous actfootnote.

The situation grew from bad to worse when African Americans were even denied the right and freedom to vote while others placed a 10:00 PM curfews for all blacks found in the city at such as an hour. For example, in Alabama and Birmingham, the law was passed preventing the whites and blacks from participating in checkers game together. Basically, from this experience, the Plessy v. Fergusson decision stamped legal racial oppression, discrimination, and segregation of African Americans. Therefore, the dictated suit by the Supreme Court sanctioned more than

fifty years of unequal opportunities and legal discrimination against the blacks which also affected and gave birth to the false communication ties between the two races, henceforth, impeding on the social progress in the United States.

1954, Brown V. Board of Education Decision

The court proceeding on Brown V. Board of Education began in the year 1951 and turned the nation towards another direction of racial segregation and focus. The case was initiated by a Kansas African American named Oliver Brown after the Topeka Board of Education denied her daughter an opportunity to join a neighborhood school due to skin colorfootnoteRef:10. From the year 1951, the case was argued out for three years till 1954 when the Supreme Court handed over its decision. The Supreme Court discovered that there was no way a segregated school or separate education system would be equalfootnoteRef:11. It also earthed out the fact that African Americans were considered inferior and, therefore, were expected to receive inferior educational services. Following this, the Supreme Court placed an order that all segregated schools should be abolished immediately.

Following this, violence erupted is some parts of the States, but the federal government used the National Guard troops to quell the protest and assure the African-Americans that they were free to enroll in public colleges and schoolsfootnoteRef:13. Though, the Native “white” Americans still practiced segregation behind the scenes through the proliferation of private schooling system and abolishment of the compulsory education system. Therefore, the Brown v Board of Education decision gave the African Americans the power to fight segregation and discrimination in any part of American culture and life.

After the struggling period running from 1857 to 1954 Brown

Decision, equal rights in the education system were directly linked to social justice. Consequently, in cohort with liberal white Americans, African Americans with the able influence of non-violent leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King protested against segregated public transport, hotel, and restaurants and also boycotted against any employer, business or products that fueled discrimination and segregation in the United StatesfootnoteRef:15. Therefore, the Brown Decision of 1954 may be considered as an opener that helped in solving social issues that were challenging to address before. To that end, though live was lost (both blacks and white) property scorched and a billion dollar investments brought down, the Supreme Court prodded into siding with Civil rights causes with the influence dictated by the Constitution, bringing in the Change we apparently observe in America.

1. Hall, Kermit L., and John J. Patrick. 2006. The pursuit of Justice: Supreme Court decisions that shaped America. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2. Harrison, Maureen, and Steve Gilbert. 1991. Landmark decisions of the United States Supreme Court. Beverly Hills, Calif: Excellent Books.
3. Mauro, Tony. 2006. Illustrated great decisions of the Supreme Court. Washington, D.C.:
4. Urofsky, Melvin I. 2006. The public debate over controversial Supreme Court decisions. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press.

Discuss the status of your capstone project. The status of my capstone project is in its earliest stages. I’m still fine tuning my thesis. I want to phrase it in a way that is unique but still allows me the capability to draw upon primary sources heavily. I need to understand how the Supreme Court in Cohort with the constitution achieved the America we are experiencing today.

Have you completed any research so far? I really haven’t

completed any research at this point. I have very basic knowledge about the subject. I just know that it holds my interest. Am reading over different historical books to have a glimpse of what am expected to do in future.
Have you written any of the project so far, and if so how much? No. But am well informed on the expectations. That is content, format and information to upload.

How much do you have left to do, and what is your plan for completing the work? I pretty much have the entire project to do. My hope is to chip away at it a little at a time using the Milestone assignments as guidance. Am ready to offer an excellent project at the end of the whole evaluation and analysis period.

It has been a challenging task to tackle. There are many topics that I would like to further research. I think one of the keys to this will be narrowing it down to specifics and making everything finer tuned to provide a sharper, clearer perspective. I am fascinated by the repetitive cycle of how America discriminates against different groups of people over time. It seems like there are phases that each era’s modern culture shifts to exclude (in no particular order): Native Americans, African-Americans, Irish, Chinese, Japanese, Mexicans, Muslims, Gays, etc. One of my favorite periods in American history is the Civil Rights Movement.  This is still quite a broad spectrum to evaluate.

Dr. Reynolds suggested I look at how the Supreme Court (and its rulings) shifted over time from 1896’s Plessy v. Ferguson to 1954’s Brown v. Board of Education. Although the Civil Rights Movement is

generally characterized as ranging from the 1950s to the 1960s, the impetus for action began much earlier. I think this topic holds my interest because I’m amazed at what both groups of people and individuals themselves were able to accomplish. As a citizen, you have to look at it and say “Wow! Look at how far we’ve come.” But in the same regard, “Look at how far we still have to go.” And why is it that generations haven’t learned their lessons from past cycles of discrimination?

So, I am working on investigating the process by which the Supreme Court shifted its ruling from the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson court case to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education court case. I want to find out how and why the federal ruling altered so dramatically over the course of 60 years.  I am seeking to understand what catalysts were most significant in generating change so that I can help other minority groups fight against oppression and prevent the cycle from repeating itself within our country.

I think the question that I’m asking is a hybrid of practical and applied. Ultimately my inquiry into this topic should promote change by the readers to fix this recurrent issue. However, I think the application comes into play because I’m examining what contributed to past change. If my readers are able to identify whether social (groups of people) or political (the court system) revolution was more successful in creating cultural transformation, then the audience will be better enabled to initiate change within current society.