Plessy Vs Ferguson Essay

In 1896, Justice Henry Billings Brown made it clear in the majority opinion he wrote for Plessy v. Ferguson, that segregation of all facilities was constitutional under the doctrine “separate but equal”. Though this opinion was supported by most Americans at the time, John Marshall Harlan wrote a dissent expressing how segregation was promoting the concept of ‘white supremacy’ and creating hate between white and colored people. Considered a landmark of constitutional law, the Plessy v. Ferguson case reveals a lot about the stigma around its time. Colored people lost their right to equality, liberty, and consent at this time, due to the decision made on this case. It is what led to mass segregation and racism in the United States. Plessy v.

Ferguson was a clear indicator of how the late 1800’s adaptation of the constitution allowed for laws based purely on racism to be upheld, by drawing implicit meanings from the original text.
Justice Brown’s majority opinion makes the argument that segregating public spaces was completely constitutional as the facilities were ‘separate but equal’.

At the time many facilities were considered equal, but had clear differences in quality between their white and colored sections. One of the key points in the majority opinion was that segregation was constitutional since it was already being used in schools. He suggested that the use of segregation was valid since it had already been used elsewhere. This argument fails to make any logical sense, since the evidence for a claim cannot be the fact that claim is currently accepted. Furthermore, the implicit meaning that was taken from the constitution was that equality could be upheld through separate lanes, rather than equally to the entire population. By separating people in public spaces you strip them from their liberty. The argument suggested segregation doesn’t affect equality by claiming both white and colored facilities will be equal, but doesn’t describe any definition of what is considered equal, allowing vast differences in white and colored facilities and spaces. Another thing that the majority opinion fails to address is the consent of colored individuals in the usage of separate but equal facilities. Without a consent to be governed, colored people were stripped of their voice, their liberty, and their access to equality. The majority opinion at the time was able to alter the meaning of the constitution so

that it would allow racism to exist and even grow, creating large social separations of white and colored people.
The idea of social gaps is further drawn upon in John M.

Harlan’s dissent which describes segregation as a caste system. Creating physically separations between two groups of people breeds a hatred towards one another and leads to a social divide that eliminates equality. Harlan explains how segregation completely disagrees with the principles of equality expressed in the constitution. This claim is supported by the fact that the constitution is supposed to deliver all citizens their civil rights, while remaining blind to race, religion, and social status. Segregation limits colored citizens from enjoying their civil rights. Though this idea wasn’t popular at the time, it was clearly supported by the constitution. Despite having more validity in its argument, the dissenting opinion wasn’t supported by all but one judge. Allowing segregation to be constitutional, enabled all states to support the dominance of the white race, in “prestige, in achievements, in education, in wealth and in power.” Harlan uses three components of education, wealth, and power to describe the gap between colored and white people, because those were the three components that caused colored people to lose out on their relatively new liberty. Since segregation and social stratification created such a gap between colored and white people, they were unable to make any socio-economic advances. Without money, power, or a proper education, colored people didn’t know how to exercise their power of consent.

Though it was a right they were clearly entitled to they were unable to use to its fullest. The dissent clearly highlights how segregation was removing equality, liberty, and consent from the colored community. Harlan’s arguments were all supported by the constitution and its explicit meaning.
During the late 1800’s people were still in the processes of accepting colored people as full citizens. Since majority of people in certain areas, at the time disagreed with the equality given, they worked to attack and oppress the class of colored people. The majority opinion, which was supported by 7 out of the 8 judges, vocalized the clear inequality, violation of liberty, and lack of consent that was being accepted by twisting what the constitution deems just. The fact that something that is now clearly accepted as unfair by majority of people, was supported by 7 supreme court judges, shows that racism and hatred towards colored peoples was not only common, but the norm across all the states. What we now see to be clear racism, was allowed to be carried out since the majority of people at the time were dissatisfied with the rights colored people had received. Changes in social boundaries are what eventually allowed for practices of segregation to be eventually treated like the unconstitutional acts they were