Lesson 3: Equal Protection: Race

 How did Plessy v. Ferguson affect race relations in the South?

By the end of the nineteenth century, thirty years had passed without slavery. Life for African Americans however, had not improved significantly. Most lived in poverty in the rural South and even those that were able to rise above poverty did not advance very far. They all fell victim to the infamous Jim Crow laws in the South, which set aside separate facilities for blacks and whites in public places such as railroad cars, hospitals and schools.

While hardship was great, sympathy was little. Opportunities for education, jobs and the accumulation of wealth were too scarce to make any real difference. Jim Crow laws and "separate but equal" legislation helped maintain segregation. The "but equal" language was almost never enforced and in all areas of life, African Americans found themselves in inferior circumstances.

One of the earliest challenges to the inequality that resulted from segregation came from Homer Plessy. Plessy was 7/8th white of Creole descent and 1/8th African. He boarded a train in Louisiana and took a seat in a car marked "for whites only." When he refused to vacate the seat, he was charged with violating a Louisiana statute that provided for separate but equal facilities in railway cars.

Plessy claimed that he was entitled to all the rights and privileges of a white citizen. He argued that Louisiana's separate but equal law and any like statutes violated his equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment.

Although it did not appear to involve complicated issues, Plessy v. Ferguson shaped race relations for generations to come. With this decision, the Supreme Court put the judicial stamp of approval on segregation. The Court could conceive of no ill affects in maintaining separate facilities based on race. As far as they were concerned, any commingling of the races should not be accomplished through legislative or judicial interference.

Perhaps it can be said of race relations since Plessy, that everything has changed and nothing has changed. Jim Crow laws and all laws with a discriminatory purpose have been abolished. Yet, despite the elimination of the last vestiges of legal discrimination, the nation is often racially divided. Even in 1896, the Court knew and said so in Plessy, "if the two races are to meet upon terms of social equality it must be the result of a voluntary consent of individuals."

 In this lesson, students will explore the many facets of the Plessy v. Ferguson decision and how the separate but equal doctrine and Jim Crow laws helped to maintain segregation well into the twentieth century. Students will gain a better understanding of the many difficult questions that persist in the area of race relations today.

After studying Plessy v. Ferguson and engaging in a pictorial analysis of the Jim Crow laws, students will be able to:

• Explain the facts and arguments in Plessy v. Ferguson.
• Assess the arguments made by the lawyers in favor of Homer Plessy.
• Discuss the Supreme Court's decision and the dissenting opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson.
• Explain the relationship between the decision in Plessy v. Ferguson and the enactment of Jim Crow laws in the south.
• Take a position on whether separate facilities can ever be equal.

Handout 3A "Plessy Takes a Ride"

Handout 3B "The Chief Justice Speaks and Harlan's Dissent"

Handout 3C "Jim Crow Laws and American Gazette"

Handout 3D "Plessy v. Ferguson"

1 class period

Distribute Handout 3A "Plessy Takes a Ride." Have students read the story and complete the activity. At the conclusion of the activity, have students explain their answers to the following questions:

• Why do you think Plessy was asked to move to a different car on the railroad?
• Should Plessy have been considered white since he was of 7/8th white descent? Why? Why not?
• What do you think you would have done in the same circumstances? Would you be willing to move to a different car? Explain.
• Was there any way Plessy could protest his treatment? Did Plessy have any legal remedy other than paying the fine and serving a short prison term? Explain.
• If you were Plessy's lawyers, how would you have argued his case?
• Does the Fourteenth Amendment add further support to your arguments? Explain.
• Why did Plessy's lawyers believe that his Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated? Explain. Do you agree?
• What do the lawyers mean by claiming that being white is a "property right?"
• Do you agree that there is no scientific distinction between who is black and who is white? If so, was Plessy denied a property right?
• Could separate facilities create a "badge of inferiority" for blacks? Explain.

Distribute Handout 3B "The Chief Justice Speaks and Harlan's Dissent."

Have students read the two opinions and then complete the activity. Divide the class into dyads (pairs). Have each dyad exchange their completed Handouts. Each student should then compare and contrast what he/she believed to be the major points in the case with his/her partner. After students have completed the activity, have them explain their answers to the following questions:

• Why does the Supreme Court believe that separate railroad cars are constitutional? Refer to the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments in your answer.
• Why does Chief Justice Brown believe that the laws separating the races do not place a "badge of inferiority" on blacks? Do you agree?
• Are there instances in which groups of people are separated but not because one group is better or worse than another? What are these instances? Explain.
• Does segregation between men and women ever fall into the category above? Explain.
• Are there instances of segregation between men and women that show that one gender is superior to another? Give examples.
•  What instances of gender discrimination do you think are reasonable? What instances unfairly discriminatory? Explain.
• Do you agree with Chief Justice Brown that social equality cannot be legislated? Explain.
• Do you agree with Chief Justice Brown that laws are reasonable when they are according to the established usages, customs and traditions of the people? Why? Why not?
• Is this a good criterion for assessing a law and determining its validity?
• Why does the dissent believe that separate railroad cars are unconstitutional?
• What does Justice Harlan mean when he says that the Constitution should be "color blind" regarding "man as man?" Explain.
• What is Justice Harlan's most persuasive argument against the separation of the races? Explain.
• Do you think that Justice Harlan would be writing a dissenting opinion if this case were decided fifty years later? Why? Why not?

Distribute Handout 3C "Plessy v. Ferguson Gives Stamp of Approval to Jim Crow, and American Gazette."

Review the Jim Crow laws and the accompanying pictures from the American Gazette. Have students complete the activity and explain their answers to the following questions:

• How did Plessy v. Ferguson influence Jim Crow laws and the events depicted in the American Gazette?
• Do you think the events in the pictures would not have occurred if the Supreme Court had decided in favor of Plessy?
• How would you feel if you were one of the people in these pictures?
• Do you believe separate conditions can ever be equal? Explain.

Divide the class into two equal sized groups. Separate the groups of students and have them face each other. One group will defend the decision in Plessy v. Ferguson. The group facing them will oppose the decision. Begin with one member of the opposing group making a statement against the decision. A student from the defending side will answer the statement. No student may repeat another student's statement or response. If a student cannot respond to a statement, he/she may say pass so that another student in the group has an opportunity to respond. This process should continue until no student on either side can think of a response to a previous statement.

Based on multiple intelligence theory.

Linguistic: Hold a debate on the following topic: Laws must be reasonable and "separate but equal" is a reasonable law because it reflects the established usages, customs and traditions of the people.

Logical/Mathematical: Research statistical information on the affect of Plessy v. Ferquson on Jim Crow laws e.g.

Percent of blacks who voted

Number of blacks lynched

Number of black only schools.

Kinesthetic: Divide the class into groups of three. Each group will meet in a different part of the room. One student will role-play the lawyer defending Plessy and another student will role-play opposing counsel. The third student will role-play the judge. Each lawyer will make his/her argument and the judge will render a decision based on these arguments.

Read the following story and complete the activity that follows:

On June 7, 1892, Homer Plessy, who was 7/8th white of Creole descent and 1/8th black, walked into the New Orleans station of the East Louisiana Railway and bought a first-class ticket to Covington, a small Louisiana town. He boarded the train and took a vacant seat. Within minutes a conductor approached him and said: "You'll have to move to the next coach. This one is for white passengers only.

In the cosmopolitan atmosphere of New Orleans, Plessy had often been regarded as white by casual observers. Indeed, Plessy thought of himself as white and therefore refused to move from his seat. The conductor called a policeman. Plessy was forcibly removed from the car and taken to the Orleans Parish jail to await trial on charges of violating an 1890 act of the Louisiana General Assembly. The act read in part:

Passengers or railway officials who refused to follow this law were subject to a fine of twenty-five dollars or twenty days in jail. Instead of suffering the penalty, Plessy and his lawyers fought the case in the Louisiana courts and eventually the Supreme Court of the United States.

What actions do you think Homer Plessy should have taken?

Plessy's lawyers argued four major points in their written briefs and oral arguments. Rank the four arguments from the strongest to the weakest, by assigning a one to the strongest argument and so on, until assigning a four to the weakest argument. Place the number in the box provided:

• Railway segregation laws are contrary to the Constitution and distinguish and discriminate between citizens of the United States based upon race, which is obnoxious to the fundamental principles of citizenship and democracy.
• Plessy's condition of being almost white was a "property right" because of the privileged situation occupied by white people. There was no law defining with accuracy who was and who was not "colored." Therefore, the railroad denied Plessy an important property right by stamping him as a "colored" person.
• The railroad segregation law violated the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of "equal protection of the laws." A law forbidding blacks to sit in the same railway coach with whites is "unequal" on its face. It was adopted to keep blacks in a lower status and clearly stamped them with a "badge of inferiority."
• If the court should approve the principles of "separate but equal" facilities for white and black races, then there was nothing to prevent states from separating any groups they chose on the basis of language, customs, color or national background. Could they not require people with blue eyes to ride on one coach, those with brown eyes on another?

Plessy v. Ferguson

Mr. Chief Justice Brown delivered the opinion of the Court:

This act does not conflict with the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery and involuntary servitude. Slavery implies involuntary servitude-a state of bondage. A statute which implies merely a legal distinction between the white and colored races, does not destroy the legal equality of the two races, or return one race to a state of involuntary servitude.

The object of the Fourteenth Amendment was to enforce the absolute equality of the two races before the law. It could not have been intended to eliminate distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social equality, or a mixing of the two races upon terms unsatisfactory to either. Laws permitting, and even requiring, their separation do not imply the inferiority of either race to the other.

It is also claimed that, in any mixed community, the reputation of belonging to the dominant race, in this instance the white race, is property. We are unable to see how this statute deprives or in any way affects the right to such property, since a person may sue the railroad if it is later determined that the person is white.

The Louisiana legislature is free to make reasonable laws of this sort under the state's police power. In determining the reasonableness of the statute, the legislature can act according to the established usages, customs and traditions of the people, and the preservation of the public peace and good order. Judged by these standards, the Louisiana statute is reasonable.

The Court disagrees with the argument that the enforced separation of the two races stamps the colored race with a badge of inferiority. If this be so, it is not by reason of anything found in the act, but solely because the colored race chooses to put that meaning upon it. The argument also assumes that social prejudices may be overcome by legislation, and that equal rights cannot be secured to the negro except by the enforced mixing of the two races. If the two races are to meet upon terms of social equality, it must be the result of a mutual appreciation of each other's merits and a voluntary consent of individuals. If one race be inferior to the other socially, the Constitution of the United States cannot put them upon the same plane.

The Louisiana law interferes with the personal freedom of citizens, both white and black. The destinies of the two races in this country are indissolubly linked together, and the interest of both require that the common government of all shall not permit the seeds of race hate to be planted under the sanction of law.

What can more certainly arouse race hate, what can more certainly create and perpetuate a feeling of distrust between these races, than state enactments which in fact proceed on the ground that colored citizens are so inferior and degraded that they cannot be allowed to sit in public coaches occupied by white citizens?

The Constitution should be "color-blind," regarding "man as man" and taking no account of color when his civil rights are involved.

Summarize the major points of the majority and dissent above in your own words.

Major Points of Majority Opinion

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Major Points of Dissenting Opinion

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Plessy v. Ferguson Gives Stamp of Approval to Jim Crow

EXAMPLES OF JIM CROW LAWS IN THE UNITED STATES

1890-1914

Create a diary entry for all of the daily activities in your present life, as if you were an African American living under the Jim Crow laws. Explain how your life would be different under Jim Crow laws and how you would feel about living this kind of life.