Supreme Courte Cases Regarding Segregation in Education

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Recommended: Social changes in the 1960's

Plessy v. Ferguson Brown v. Board Introduction Growing up in the post-Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, most US citizens have a broad and unspecific knowledge of this movement and its effects. Even fewer citizens know the causes and the driving factors of the movement. The Dredd Scott Decision, and Plessy v. Ferguson were two of the driving forces behind social change in the 1960s. There is a simple progression of American civil laws and the precedence they carry; likewise, the change in the American ideas of equality, and the interpretation of the 13th-15th amendments forged the way for these court cases to hold credence. Dredd Scott decision was handed down by the Supreme Court in 1857(Johnson). In the simplest terms this decision stripped US citizenship from any Negro, living in any state of existence, free or slave. Also Dredd Scott deemed the Missouri Compromise Unconstitutional (which is one cause of the South succeeding in 1863.) Almost thirty years later, and after the Emancipation Proclamation in1864, another enormously influential Supreme Court decision would be handed down. Plessy v. Ferguson was heard by the Supreme Court in 1896 that deemed it constitutional that those individual states could institute and enforce laws pertaining to the segregation of society using parameters of race and ethnicity. These two 19th century court cases produced a de jure means of ethnic discrimination. They paved the way for another half decade of segregation, hate, and mistreatment. The mutation and progression of civil rights and the idea of what it means to be “American” can be examined in the differences between Dredd Scott, and Plessy v Ferguson compared with Brown v. Board of Education. This case was heard and decided ... ... middle of paper ... ...Separate Education is Not Equal Education”. Historic U.S. Court Cases: An Encyclopedia. Ed. John W. Johnson. 2nd ed. Vol. 2. New York: Routledge, 2001. Print. Hall, Kermit L. “”They Have No Rights”” . Historic U.S. Court Cases: An Encyclopedia. Ed. John W. Johnson. 2nd ed. Vol. 2. New York: Routledge, 2001. Print. Hudgins, H.C. Jr. The Warren Court and the Public Schools: An Analysis of Landmark Surpreme Court Decisions. Danville, Illinois: The Interstate, 1970, Print. Patterson, James T. Patterson. Brown v. Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and its Troubled Legacy. New York: Oxford, 2001, Print. Telgen, Diane. Defining Moments: Brown Board of Education. Detroit, Michigan: Omnigraphics 2005. Print. O’Connor, Karen, Larry J. Sabato, Alexandra B Yanus. American Government: Roots and Reform. Indianapolis, indianna: Pearson, 2011.Print.

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