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  • Essay / The Case of Plessy V. Ferguson and Its Impact on American Lives

    On January 31, 1865, the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery in the United States was adopted. Even though slavery was abolished, it did not end discrimination against African Americans. States continued to develop laws making it more difficult for African Americans to achieve equality. In 1896, a man named Homer Plessy decided to put one of these laws to the test. Plessy was Creole. This meant he was not fully African American nor fully white, but in the eyes of the law he was considered African American. On June 7, 1892, Plessy decided to sit in a car reserved for whites. After he was told to move without obeying, as he expected, he was arrested and sent to prison. In the case of Homer A. Plessy v. John H. Ferguson, 163.US 537 (1896), the judge ruled that forcing him to move into another train car did not violate his constitutional rights. Plessy took action by taking his case to the Supreme Court. In a 1-7 decision, the court ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment permitted separate facilities for different races as long as those facilities were equal. The Plessy v. Ferguson case impacted the lives of many Americans in multiple ways, from reinforcing segregation in schools and public places with Jim Crow laws to literacy tests that barred citizens African Americans to vote and made them ineligible to serve on a jury, and A grandfather clause was also created to further segregate the African American community. Say no to plagiarism. Get Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get Original EssayBefore the execution of the Plessy v. Ferguson case, the idea of ​​Jim Crow laws was born, “Jim Crow” made referring to a slang term given to an African-American man. The Jim Crow laws were the previous set of laws that enforced racial segregation in the American South. Jim Crow laws were enacted by white supremacists who believed that whites were superior to African Americans in every way. At first, major cities did not fully comply with Jim Crow laws, which led to an influx of African Americans into these cities where they could gain greater freedom from these laws. There was no real documentation or legislative body to support these laws before the decision of Plessy v. Ferguson. Once the case was settled, Jim Crow laws began to be formalized. The establishment of these laws continued to further divide the United States. Jim Crow laws greatly affected the lifestyle of African Americans throughout the country, preventing African Americans from entering public parks, theaters, and restaurants due to segregation. Everything had to have separate waiting rooms inside stations, water fountains and elevators. Laws were created to prohibit African Americans from living in white-only neighborhoods. Jim Crow laws enforced segregation in schools, and white and African American students were assigned different textbooks in some states. Not only did Jim Crow laws enforce segregation in public places, but they also implemented literacy tests. After Plessy v. Ferguson, literacy tests were implemented to prevent African Americans from voting, serving on juries, and running for office. A literacy test is a test used to assess an individual's reading and writing abilities. Many U.S. state governments administered literacy tests in order to disenfranchise African Americans. The testsLiteracy restrictions were first implemented in the 1890s to deny rights to African Americans. Literacy tests would be conducted as part of voter registration. In the literacy test, candidates were required to write and interpret sections of the Constitution and write an essay setting out the responsibilities of citizenship. Registrars were authorized to determine which candidates passed or failed. If the test failed, the citizen would be denied the right to vote. Whites could be exempt from literacy tests if they met certain requirements such as a grandfather clause. The Plessy v. Ferguson also expanded segregation in America by implementing grandfather clauses. To further restrict African Americans' voting rights, white supremists implemented an unfair literacy test and poll tax that they knew black people could not afford. They required everyone to take the literacy test and pay the poll tax, but there was one exception, the grandfather clause. A grandfather clause occurs when certain people or things are exempt from the requirements of a piece of legislation affecting the person's prior rights or privileges. For example, regarding literacy tests, white Americans were allowed to vote before literacy tests were implemented, and could now be exempt from having to take the literacy test to be able to vote. The grandfather clause stated that if a man whose grandfather or father had the right to vote before the Civil War, he would be covered by the clause and people who did not have the right to vote before the Civil War would be required to take the literacy course. test and pay the poll tax. Almost all whites were allowed to vote thanks to the grandfather clause. Unfortunately, no African Americans had a father or grandfather who voted before the Civil War because they had just granted the right to vote to men of all races. Therefore, the grandfather clause only applied to white people, which was the goal of the white supremists who allowed this clause. Overall, the Plessy v. Ferguson impacted the lives of many Americans in multiple ways, including reinforcing segregation in schools and public places with Jim Crow laws, literacy tests preventing African American citizens from voting, and their ineligibility to vote. serve on a jury, and a grandfather clause was also created to further segregate the African American community. Plessy v. Ferguson was a landmark case that resulted in a total of seven votes to one from the justices ruling against Plessy. The majority opinion was written by Associate Justice Henry Billings Brown who rejected Plessy's arguments that they violated the Thirteenth Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment. . The Thirteenth Amendment outlawed slavery, and the Fourteenth Amendment granted equal citizenship rights to African Americans. According to Brown, the Thirteenth Amendment and the Separate Car Act were not in conflict. Brown said there was no conflict because it did not restore slavery and in no way represented slavery. Brown relied on previous civil rights cases from 1883. To reach this conclusion, he relied on the Supreme Court's decision in Civil Rights Cases (1883), which concluded that racial discrimination against African Americans in inns, public transportation, and places of public entertainment "imposes no signs of slavery or.