Supreme Court Impact

on Civil Rights

US History

Jim Crow Laws Railroads/transportation and education laws

were the most common types of segregation in Tennessee.

Miscegenation: Interbreeding and marrying of people from different races.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Homer Plessy, a man of mixed race, boarded an all white railroad car in Louisiana.

Plessy refused to leave the white only car and was arrested immediately.

Decision that upheld racial segregation under the doctrine of “separate but equal.”

Vote of 7 to 1.

Missouri v. Gaines The QR code listed

on your pages doesn’t work.

Use this one instead. Go directly to the paragraph that begins with “Lloyd Gaines, a college graduate….”

Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada

(1938)

Lloyd Gaines was was denied admission to the University of Missouri Law School because he was African American.

The university informed Gaines that they would pay his tuition to another law school outside of the state of Missouri.

Held that if a state provides schools for whites they must also provide schools for blacks. Integrate or form a separate

school for blacks

Did not strike down separate but equal but struck down segregation by exclusion.

If only 1 graduate school exists, it must integrate (desegregate – accept both whites and blacks.

Stepping stone case.

Bolling v. Sharp I preferred this site

to write my answers.

I wanted to provide you with an additional resource to help clarify this case.

This case is hard to understand. If you have questions let me know.

Bolling v. Sharpe (1950)

It is important to note this case takes place in the District of Columbia. It is important to note that D.C is not a state and …

D.C schools had been segregated since 1874 and, in general, the facilities of the schools were somewhat equal. Furthermore, the schools were free to public.

BUT, by 1930, the facilities could no longer be said to be equal. They had not built more schools to accommodate a growing population.

Parents of black children petitioned the DC School Board to have their children admitted into the school. The Board denied their petition despite having empty classroom space in a newly built school.

Bolling v. Sharpe Continued…

Unique case for two reasons.

1. The 14th Amendment only applies to state laws. The District of Columbia is NOT a state. The federal segregation law, which mandated segregation to the District of Columbia.

2. No evidence of inequality was presented in the case. The argument was simply that separate but equal was unconstitutional.

3. The Court ruled that the plaintiffs were denied due process of law guaranteed in the Constitution.

2. The Board refused to receive their petition for admittance.

Davis v. CSD of Prince Edward

County In the state of Virginia, the only way an African

American could receive a high school diploma was to attend a private school.

The public schools were predominately found in the county and were for grades 1-8. Prince Edward CSD was considered progressive compared to other CSDs.

The newly built school was never large enough. To accommodate students they used tar paper covered buildings for the use of classrooms. These temporary classroom sparked a student strike.

Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County (1952)

Black students walked out of their school to the homes of school board members to protest poor conditions. This is the ONLY recorded case in which students protested against their classroom conditions.

Only case involving an active protest by students.

Led to the eventual integration of public schools in Virginia. This case along with four others would lead to the eventual desegregation of schools in the United States.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

Kansas (1954) African American parents were refused when

trying to enroll children at white schools.

Combined with 4 other NAACP cases to reach a ruling. (Briggs, Bolling, Belton, Davis)

Overruled Plessy v. Ferguson and stated that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”

Overcoming Apartheid