Louisiana Railway Accommodations Essay

In the past most people believed it was fine to have segregation. One case that clearly demonstrates this view point was “Plessy vs. Ferguson Court Case.” in this cases, a 1/8 black man named Homer Plessy sat in a segregated seat for “Whites” in a train car. He was then arrested for interfering with the Louisiana law. This case went all

A “separate but equal” doctrine became known for segregation being legal as long as the separate facilities were equal. The majority of the South was separated, but the African American facilities were very rarely considered equal as to the Caucasian facilities. The Louisiana state law stated that railroad cars were to be separated by race, and that if a train had more than two passenger cars, they were required to have designated seating for the opposite races. If the train only had one passenger car, they were to put up a curtain to separate the people of separate races. This law had a fine of twenty five dollars or up to twenty nights in jail for

In 1890, the state of Louisiana passed a law (the Separate Car Act) that required separate accommodations for blacks and whites on railroads, including separate railway cars.[2] Concerned, a group of prominent black, creole, and white New Orleans residents formed the Comité des Citoyens (Committee of Citizens) dedicated to repeal the law or fight its effect.[3] They persuaded Homer Plessy, a man of mixed race, to participate in an orchestrated test case. Plessy was born a free man and was an "octoroon" (of seven-eighths European descent and one-eighth African descent). However, under Louisiana law, he was classified as black, and thus required to sit in the "colored" car.[4]

In 1892, in Louisiana, a man who was one- eight black, Homer Plessy agreed with a group of Africa American take part in the test the constitutionality of Louisiana about the law which known as the Separate Car Act. Plessy bought a first- class ticked and board on the car for white people only in New Orleans. Also, Plessy refused to seat in the car for Africa- American which the state law required, so he was arrested and brought to court. In the Criminal Court, Plessy argued that the Fourteen Amendment prohibited racial segregation in front of judge John H. Ferguson who held the state law, and Plessy’s lawyer argued that the separate the transport car between citizens is violation Fourteen Amendment which should be not allow by legislation on

This legislation came in the way of the Civil Rights Act of 1875. The act, while keeping schools, churches, and cemeteries segregated, gave blacks access to many of the same faculties previously only enjoyed by whites (421). However the bill was declared unconstitutional in 1883 and both Democrats and most Republicans were at peace with the decision; they cited the old rhetoric of social equality and a free labor society didn’t need civil rights protections

Many African-Americans were treated unequally after the Civil War. In source 1, the text states that racial tensions across the country were extremely high after the Civil War, and African Americans continued to deal with oppression (source 1, paragraph 1). This evidence proves that even though African Americans were no longer slaves after the Civil War, they still were being treated unfair. With that in mind, many African Americans had experienced horrible times during the 1800s just because of the color of their skin. According to source 1, back in the 1800s, there were “whites only train cars” and “blacks only train cars”, and the cars were not the same quality (source 1, paragraph 5).

Constitution, following the end of the Civil War. It is evident that Lincoln desired the restoration of national unity, as well as the assurance of equal liberties to all people. Thus, on January 31, 1865, Congress ratified the Thirteen Amendment, which formally abolished slavery in the United States. Soon thereafter, Congress sanctioned the Fourteenth Amendment in July of 1868, defining the civil liberties and rights of all individuals in the United States. As written in Document one, the Fourteenth Amendment declared, “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

Plessy argued that the concept of the “Separate Car Act” violates the 14th Amendment because the amendment states that laws do not have the power to take away or jeopardize any of the citizens’ natural rights (PBS.org). Plessy lost the case when the court claimed that the 14th Amendment only protects legal and political equality among all people, but not social equality; this means the 14th Amendment is not responsible for assuring that people are viewed equally in society or that they are receiving equal services or goods, which confirms the “Separate but Equal” concept as constitutional (Cornell University Law

In the 1800s, both African Americans and Mexican Americans faced similar treatments from whites. One of the main things that both groups had to face was racial discrimination mainly because they both were not viewed as racially equal by most whites. For example, the U.S. court validated legislations that institutionalized race separations between blacks and whites, such as the Jim Crow Laws. The Plessy v. Ferguson was a Supreme Court Case that gave states the right to pass laws allowing or required racial segregation in public and private institutions like schools and public transportation. The laws not only affected black people, but it also affected Mexicans.

What were the major causes of the civil war and reconstruction? The North and South states had many conflicts that made them butt heads. The conflicts lead to some long term and short term causes and effects. With all that happened there were some successes and some failures. The impact the civil war and reconstruction left were not too good.

Once they returned, most of their jobs that they had in factories and mills had been taken by the African Americans. However, the African Americans that had fought in the war and had recently come home were denied basic rights. Hundreds of people died in the “Red Summer”. Some from lynching, race riots, beaten, tortured and so much more. The racial violence was getting out of hand and the African Americans weren’t going to take it anymore.

In the 1800’s, African Americans were affected by the Jim Crow Laws in the South because of the discrimination. The Jim Crow Laws were a set of strict rules preventing blacks from having the same privileges as whites. These laws affected blacks and treated them differently because of the color of their skin. From having different ways of transportation for African Americans, to not letting them use the same restroom, the Jim Crow Laws had a tremendous impact across America. Throughout my research, I learned how the blacks were affected after the Jim Crow Laws were passed.

In 1891, a group of concerned young black men of New Orleans immediately formed the “Citizens’ Committee to Test the Constitutionality of the Separate Car Law.” They raised money and engaged Albion W. Tourgée, a prominent Radical Republican author and politician, as their lawyer. The poeple involved in this case are the young concerned black men the us government and the states. On May 15, 1892, the Louisiana State Supreme Court decided in favor of the Pullman Company’s claim that the Separate Car Law was unconstitutional. The importance of this case is that In 1883, the Supreme Court finally ruled that the 14th Amendment did not give Congress authority to prevent discrimination by private individuals(Plessy v.

The ruling thus lent high judicial support to racial and ethnic discrimination and led to wider spread of the segregation between Whites and Blacks in the Southern United States. The great oppressive consequence from this was discrimination against African American minority from the socio-political opportunity to share the same facilities with the mainstream Whites, which in most of the cases the separate facilities for African Americans were inferior to those for Whites in actuality. The doctrine of “separate but equal” hence encourages two-tiered pluralism in U.S. as it privileged the non-Hispanic Whites over other racial and ethnic minority

Alliyah Sharpe In the Southern states, there are Jim Crow laws, which are state and local laws that enforce segregation. The Louisiana Separate Car Act states that there is “separate but equal” train car accommodations for Blacks and Whites. This idea of “separate but equal” is not only used in train cars, but also used among many public spaces such as restrooms, water fountains, hospitals, etc, but it’s clear what blacks receive isn’t equal to whites. In an effort to cease the law and others, a citizens’ committee and railroad company created a case that would challenge the court.