It's time to have more fun with civil rights vocab!

It's time to have more fun with civil rights vocab!

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

1862: Homer A. Plessy born (1/8th black) 1892: Louisiana passes “Separate Car” Law Plessy is asked to ride the East Louisiana RR and sit in the white section as a protest He does, and when he refuses to move to the black car he is arrested 1892-1896: Plessy fights his arrest; eventually the case reaches the Supreme Court

I am of the opinion that the statute of Louisiana is inconsistent with the personal liberty of citizens, white and black, in that state and hostile to both the spirit and letter of the Constitution of the United States. Justice John Marshall Harlan (The Lone Dissenter)

Too bad we all disagree with you, you big jerk! Chief Justice Henry Billings Brown

The object of the Fourteenth Amendment was undoubtedly to enforce the absolute equality of the two races before the law, but in the nature of things it could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based on color, or to enforce social, as distinguished from political equality, or a commingling of the two races upon terms unsatisfactory to the either. If the two races are to meet upon terms of social equality, it must be the result of voluntary consent of the individuals. Chief Justice Henry Billings Brown

So in other words: separate but equal is okay as long as it really is equal… Chief Justice Henry Billings Brown

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): Supreme Court decision that set the precedent for “separate but equal” segregation

Segregation

Segregation:

Segregation: the forced separation of a race, class, or ethnic group

Lynching

Lynching: illegal execution of a person by hanging; usually mob violence

Lynching: Southern Lynchings: 1882-1968

It's time to have more fun with civil rights vocab!