How would life in the United States be or have been different IF the Supreme Court had rule in favor of Plessy and supported "separate is never equal" in its 1896 decision? (Consider what you know about the Civil Rights Movement when responding to the prompt.)
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
The Supreme Court
In 1896 the Supreme Court ruled in favor of "separate but equal" in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson. The one dissenting justice (Justice Harlan) stated that the Constitution was "color blind". In the 1954 Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education Topeka the court determined that "separate is never equal" and reversed the Plessy v. Ferguson decision.
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7 comments:
If the Supreme Court would have ruled in favor with Plessy in 1896 then so many things could have been avoided. The Rosa Parks incident would have never happened, and same with little rock 9. We could have saved America from a lot of hardship and encouraged diversity. Schools could have been mixed and saved people extra miles to walk and shown kids that it's okay to be friends with people of another skin tone.
If the Supreme Court decided to rule in favor of Plessy instead of Ferguson, not only would life in the United States have been drastically different during the 19th/20th century, but we would have never had to endure the struggles of the Civil Rights Movement in the first place. If equal rights for African Americans would have been granted sooner, America would have undoubtedly been on a much better road to reform and would have saved many African Americans lives in the process. Between vicious church bombings in Alabama to many of the race riots across the country, it is still hard to believe that all of this took place not even 50 years ago. However, although the favorable outcome of the case would have been for the Supreme Court to rule in terms of Plessy, the case is just another reminder of the country’s historic struggles and eventual success of the repercussions of the case. It also serves as a constant reminder that although it is a hard battle to fight, it is definitely worth fighting for, if it is something you truly believe in. Equal rights should have been granted long ago, or perhaps not even debated in the first place, but it continues to represent America and how we have grown over the past century or so, and will continue to evolve.
If the Supreme Court would have ruled in favor with Plessy in 1896, seperation would have been gone long ago and saved many people's lifes. We would not have all the heros that we do today such as rosa parks. Seperation made things very hard and inconvient for many people, and that all could have ended a lot sooner if the Supreme Court would have came to the correct conclusion earlyer.
The way I think our country would be different is the fact that the Civil Rights might never have happened and we might have avoided some of the worst things in our country's history. The Jim Crow laws would have never existed and tore the South apart. Great leaders like Martin Luther King would never have been gunned down for what they believe in. I also believe that the little racism that still exists in this country would not exist. I believe people would be more tolerant of other races like I believe in 70 years from now, most of the racism will be gone from our country. So I do believe our country would be very different if the Supreme Court had not made that ruling
If the court would have agreed with Plessy ther woouldn't be so many racial issues now. So many people wouldnt hae gotten hurt. A lot of fights could have been avoided, and some heros proally could still be here.
I thik if the Supreme Court would have ruled in favor with Plessy in 1896 then so many things could have been so different. As soon as people made things ok by the law there it still took the people awhile to actually obey it so we would have gotten past everything so much quicker and so many incidents that happened that are now in our history books and not things to be proud of by our country could have never axisted like as amanda said little rock 9 or Rosa parks. Now those specific people are awesome, i'm not saying that, but our people as a whole are def. looked down upon when we hear about these past events. Someone I am siting next to right now is doing a research paper on how women still to this day make less than men and if we were to have equaled that we probably would have equaled everyone else so much quicker too and I honestly think everyone would be a lot more equal now.
If the Supreme Court would have been in favor of Plessy v. Ferguson back in 1896, then such events like the 1954 case Brown v. Topeka, Little Rock 9 and the Bus/Rosa parks issue (just to name a very small few) would have never happen. Thus "separate is never equal" would have had a greater impact on the world today, since it would have been established over 50 years ago. Those 50+ years would have been even easier on colored back when it was "separate but equal." Maybe even in todays age things would have been different as well, like MIssissippi's segregated Prom. If they just reestablished their prom two years ago, think of how much earlier it would have been changed, had Plessy v. Ferguson been in favor. It's a shame that this case was not in favor, but we're all lucky Brown v. Board of Education came along when it did, or else who knows what life would be like today.
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