Download Name: Document 1: What is the main message of this cartoon

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Document 1:
1.
What is the main message of this cartoon?
Document 2: Majority Opinion
DIRECTIONS: Highlight and annotate the following passage and answer the question at the bottom.
Plessy v. Ferguson
Justice Brown (Opinion of the Court)
163 U.S. 537, May 18, 1896
MR. JUSTICE BROWN delivered the opinion of the court,
By the Fourteenth Amendment, all persons born in the United States are made citizens of the United States and of
the State wherein they reside, and the States are forbidden from making or enforcing any law which shall
interfere with the privileges of citizens of the United States, or shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property,
or deny to any person the equal protection of the laws. …
The object of the 14th amendment was to enforce the absolute equality of the two races before the law, but it
could not have been intended to erase distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social interaction of the two races.
Laws requiring their separation in places where they are to be brought into contact do not necessarily imply the
inferiority of either race to the other, and have been recognized as within the right of the state to exercise their
police power to make that law.
We think the enforced separation of the races, neither interferes with the privileges of the colored man, deprives him
of his property, nor denies him the equal protection of the laws within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment.…
Legislation is powerless to eradicate (erase) racial instincts or to abolish distinctions based upon physical
differences. If the civil and political rights of both races be equal, one cannot be inferior to the other civilly or
politically.
1.
Why did Justice Brown rule against Homer Plessy?
2.
Does Justice Brown believe that “separate but equal” is constitutional? Why or why not?
Document 3: Dissenting Opinion
DIRECTIONS: Highlight and annotate the following passage and answer the question at the bottom.
Plessy v. Ferguson
Justice Harlan
163 U.S. 537, May 18, 1896
We have before us a state law that forces the separation of the two races in railroad passenger coaches, and makes it
a crime for a citizen of either race to enter a coach that has been assigned to citizens of the other race.
In respect of civil rights, the Constitution of the United States does not, I think, permit any public authority to
know the race of those allowed to be protected in the enjoyment of such rights. Indeed, such legislation as that
here in question is inconsistent not only with that equality of rights which pertains to citizenship, but with the
personal liberty enjoyed by everyone within the United States.
The Fourteenth Amendment added greatly to the dignity and glory of American citizenship and to the security of
personal liberty by declaring that “all persons born in the United States are citizens of the United States”and
that “no State shall make or enforce any law which shall interfere with the privileges of citizens of the United
States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty or property, nor deny to any person the equal
protection of the laws.”
This amendment, if enforced according to its true intent and meaning, will protect all the civil rights that
pertain to freedom and citizenship. These notable additions to the fundamental law were welcomed by the friends of
liberty throughout the world. They removed the race line from our governmental systems.
The amendment declared, “that the law in the States shall be the same for the black as for the white; that all
persons, whether colored or white, shall stand equal before the laws of the States, and, in regard to the colored
race, that no discrimination shall be made against them by law because of their color.” …
It was said in argument that the statute of Louisiana does not discriminate against either race, but prescribes a rule
for both white and colored citizens. But this argument is not true. Everyone knows that the law in question does
not exclude white persons from railroad cars occupied by blacks but only excludes colored people from cars
occupied by white persons.
1.
Why did Justice Harlan feel that Homer Plessy was right?
2.
Does Justice Harlan believe that “separate but equal” is constitutional? Why or why not?
Document 4: Louisiana Segregation law
DIRECTIONS: Highlight and annotate the following passage and answer the question at the bottom.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Louisiana, That all railway companies carrying
passengers in their coaches in this State, shall provide equal but separate accommodations for the white,
and colored races, by providing two or more passenger coaches for each passenger train, or by dividing the
passenger coaches by a partition so as to secure separate accommodations. No person or persons, shall be
permitted to occupy seats in coaches, other than the ones assigned to them on account of the race they
belong to.
1.
What is the Louisiana Segregation law?
Document 5: Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment
DIRECTIONS: Highlight and annotate the following passage and answer the question at the bottom.
Homer Plessy argued that the segregation law violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,
which forbids states from denying "to any person the equal protection of the laws," as well as the Thirteenth
Amendment, which banned slavery. The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment is written below:
All persons born in the United States are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.
No State shall make or enforce any law which shall interfere with the privileges of citizens of the United
States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property; nor deny to any person the equal
protection of the laws.
1.
Explain the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment in your own words.
Document 6: Louisiana’s state rights
DIRECTIONS: Highlight and annotate the following passage and answer the question at the bottom.
The Court rejected Plessy's arguments that the law targeted blacks "with a badge of inferiority (lesser or
beneath)," pointing out that both blacks and whites were given equal facilities under the law and were equally
punished for violating the law. "We consider Plessy’s argument, "to assume the separation of the two races stamps
the colored race with a badge of inferiority (lesser). If this is true, it is not because of the law, but solely because the
colored race chooses to put that badge of inferiority upon themselves." The Court also noted that it is the right
of each State (not the federal government) to make rules to protect public safety. Segregated facilities reflected
the public will and the state government in Louisiana. A separate but equal facility provided the protections
required by the 14th Amendment and satisfied the demands of white citizens as well. “Legislation is powerless to
eradicate (erase) race….” In other words, legislation cannot change public attitudes.
1.
Why did the Court reject Plessy’s argument?