Brown v. Board

In class we did another court case on Brown v Board. I enjoyed this case very much. A man named Oliver Brown made the argument that Topeka's racial segregation violated the Constitutions Equal Protection Clause because the city's black and white schools were not equal to each other and never could be. A point during this case was made that the school's were "substantially" equal enough to the constitution. Later on a man named Earl Warren became chief justice. He helped create integration in the schools. Another point that was made was, any child denied good education would be unlikely to succeed in life. In class on the side of the board, the point was made that there had been very many African Americans who grew up in the black schools, who grew up to be famous. This is a very good point to fight with now, but then that would not have worked. Widespread integration had begun in the 1960's and the 1970's.

Plessy v. Ferguson

In class we had a trial on the case of Plessy v. Ferguson.This case was the start of the Jim Crow era and ended the de facto segregation era. Plessy boarded a train and sat in the white mans cart. Ferguson gave him grief because he was one-eighth black. A point came up about God, saying he treats everyone the same, regardless on their skin color, making it seem that everyone does get treated the same. But this is not the case. The counter argument was that everyone is "separate but equal". Ferguson seemed like the right person at the time, but now a days that would be unjust.