About the Plessy vs. Ferguson case where the 14th and 15th amendments were violated

Essay by lilkrayzeechickHigh School, 11th gradeA+, December 2003

download word file, 1 pages 5.0

"Plessy vs. Ferguson(1896) What's to be said"

After courts deciding what is right from wrong, and putting the bad in jail, its what courts are there to do, right. Well in the case of Plessy vs. Ferguson in 1892,, the Supreme Court was involved because of Plessy taking what he thought was wrong and violating the 13th and 14th amendment: The 13th amendment banned slavery, and the 14th amendment required that the government treat people equally. After he purchased a ticket on the East Louisiana Railway, New Orleans to Covington, he considered himself white, and only 1/8th black. He was required to sit in the "colored" section, and when he refused to move he was jailed. He thought that he should be treated as any other white man. After Plessy argued in the Separate Car Act that there had been a violation of the 2 amendments listed above , John Howard Ferguson, the judge hearing the case, said that the previous court decision had decided that the Separate Car Act was unconstitutional and that it applied to trains running outside of Louisiana.

But , however in this case he declared that the law was constitutional for trains running within the state. After his argument Ferguson found Plessy guilty for not leaving the white-only car.

After Plessy taking his argument to Louisiana State Supreme Court, a higher court, about Ferguson's decision, the court decided that what Ferguson said about the Separate Car Act being constitutional was right, and they agreed. Later than Plessy took his case, Plessy vs. Ferguson to the Supreme Court of the United States, the highest in the country, and argued his rights as a white man, and black man. This case ties into the Black codes and both the 13th and 14th amendments...