Equal But Seperate is Not Equal

      In 1954 the Supreme Court decided that “equal but separate” was not equal. This started a long overdue reform in the US to integrate schools and eventually do away with the Jim Crow laws in the south. There are still racial issues today in 2010 almost 60 years later in some areas, but this decision has helped tremendously to equal the rights of not only African Americans but other minorities as well.

      In 1875 the civil rights act made it illegal to deny access to any and all public places on the basis of race except those established by law. This caused states to start creating and enforcing Jim Crow laws. In 1883 the supreme court over ruled this decision saying that congress did not have the authority to prevent discrimination by private individuals and that victims should seek help from state government the same governments who created and enforced the Jim Crow laws. Such as Florida who passed a law that trains had to have separate cars for African Americans called Jim Crow cars.

      In the ruling of May 15th  by  Louisiana state supreme court when Albion W Tourgee an attorney representing the “citizens” committee (a group of concerned African American men) argued railroads were interstate travel and separate cars were unconstitutional the Louisiana state supreme court agreed, encouraged by this decision the group decided as a test to see if the ruling of May 15thwould actually be up held and with the help of the railroad had  a man who was 7/8 white named Homer Plessy seat himself in a whites only car, he was arrested and charged with violating Louisiana state law In the Criminal District Court for the Parish of Orleans, Tourgée argued that the law requiring “separate but equal accommodations” was unconstitutional However Judge John H. Ferguson ruled against him and Plessy appealed to the United States Supreme Court where in  1896 Supreme Court Justice Henry Brown delivered  a majority decision equal but separate accommodations for separate races was in fact legal.

While the southern states continued to enforce Jim Crow laws under the guise of states’ rights the US government was hard at work enforcing equal rights among races, in 1941 FDR established the fair employment practice committee, in 1947 Jackie Robinson became the first African American Major League Baseball player and in 1948 the Armed forces were desegregated however American schools were still segregated until 1951 when Oliver Brown a Kansas minister whose daughter had to walk through a dangerous railroad switching yard  to get to an all African American school when an all white school was only a few blocks from their home decided to go to court to fight for desegregated schools The U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas heard Brown’s case however it was a difficult decision for them because of the 1896 ruling of Plessyvs. Ferguson at the trial, the NAACP argued that segregated schools sent the message to African American children that they were inferior to whites; therefore, the schools were inherently unequal. The court agreed with the expert witnesses that Segregation of white and African American children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the African American children…A sense of inferiority affects the motivation of a child to learn but because no court ruling had overturned the Plessy vs. Ferguson ruling the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas ruled against Brown. Brown and the NAACP appealed to the Supreme Court where the case was heard by Chief Justice Earl Warren and Associate Justices:
Hugo Black, Stanley F. Reed, Felix Frankfurter, William O. Douglas, Robert H. Jackson, Harold H. Burton, Tom C. Clark, Sherman Minton. On May 17, 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren read the decision of the unanimous Court: We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of separate but equal has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. This ruling began a desegregation movement of schools all across America however states such as Arkansas and Alabama fought this ruling. Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus in 1957 mobilized the Arkansas National Guard to prevent nine African Americans from entering an all white school in Little Rock Arkansas. President Dwight D. Eisenhower federalized the National Guard and dispatched Army troops to restore order and enforce the court’s ruling. The troops stayed through the school year. The following year Little Rock voted to close the school.