Case (1896): Homer A. Plessy challenged an 1890 Louisiana law that required separate train cars for Black Americans and White Americans. Decision: The Supreme Court held that separate but equal facilities for White and Black railroad passengers did not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Significance: Plessy v. Ferguson established the separate but equal doctrine that would become the constitutional basis for segregation. Homer and his family were light- skinned and passed as white. They were considered free people of color. His great- grandmother however, was of African origin and thus, Homer considered himself as being 7/8 white and 1/8 black. Review: Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) Blacks and whites were kept separate in Homes: Blacks could not buy houses in white neighborhoods. Jobs: Blacks could not get many jobs that whites could get. Buses and trains. Courts: Blacks could not serve on juries. Movie theaters. Restaurants: Many places would serve blacks in the back or would not serve blacks at all. Schools and universities. Marriages: Blacks and whites could not marry. Hospitals: Black babies were not born in the same hospitals as white babies. Graveyards Is separate really equal? The Legacy of Brown v. Board of Education Issue: Was the ruling of separate but equal in the Plessy case constitutional? Is it constitutional to make children of color attend different schools from white children even if the school facilities are equal? Decision: The Supreme Court reverses its decision of separate but equal from the Plessy case. Segregation sends a message that children of color are inferior. This deprived black students of equal protection under the law provided by the 14 th amendment Significance: Schools would now be desegregated and the Civil Rights Movement would continue to progress Brown v. Board of Education leads to the desegregation of Public Schools After the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, schools began to be desegregated In Little Rock, Arkansas, 9 black students [The Little Rock 9] enrolled at the previously all-white Central High School. September 2, 1957: The day before classes begin, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus summons the Arkansas National Guard to surround Central High School & block any attempts by black students to enter the school. September 25: The Little Rock Nine, under protection from federal troops, enter Central High School through the front entrance. Aggressive white mobs verbally chastise the students and physically harm black reporters in the crowd covering the affair. The event is seen around the world. Video Results of the Dred Scott decision 1.Slaves were not protected by the constitution and could not become citizens even if they were freed 2.The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was unconstitutional because Congress had no right to prohibit slavery 3.Slaves were considered property and property could be move to, and owned in, any state (slave or free). Opposing viewpoints over slavery widen the sectional tensions between North and South and these differences are bringing the nation closer and closer to a Civil War. Copy Notes! Activity #2 Abraham Lincolns Opinion- Quote Analysis With your partner read the background in formation and the quote from President Lincoln On June 16, 1858, at the Illinois Republican convention in Springfield, Abraham Lincoln kicked off his bid for the U.S. Senate with a speech that would come to be known as the "House Divided" speech. Lincoln believed that the recent Supreme Court decision on the Dred Scott case was part of a Democratic conspiracy that would lead to the legalization of slavery in all states. What Dred Scott's master might lawfully do with Dred Scott, in the free state of Illinois, every other master may lawfully do with any other one, or one thousand slaves, in Illinois, or in any other free state. A house divided against itself cannot stand It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery, will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new -- North as well as South. After reviewing the Dred Scott decision, do you agree or disagree with Lincoln? Justify your reasoning. Today, his body lies in a grave in the Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis. For many years, it has been a local tradition to place Lincoln pennies on his headstone. Often, the pennies overflow and fall next to the commemorative marker on the ground, which says: IN MEMORY OF A SIMPLE MAN WHO WANTED TO BE FREE DRED SCOTT Activity #3 Frederick Douglass Speaks on the Dred Scott Decision (1857) Frederick Douglass, Speech on the Dred Scott Decision, 1857 I have a quarrel with those who fling the Supreme Law of this land between the slave and freedom....[The Constitution says] We, the peoplenot we, the white peoplenot we, the citizens, or the legal votersnot we, the privileged class, and excluding all other classes but we, the people; not we, the horses and cattle, but we the peoplethe men and women, the human inhabitants of the United States, do ordain and establish this Constitution. I ask, then, any man to read the Constitution, and tell me where, if he can, in what particular that instrument affords the slightest sanction [approval] of slavery? Where will he find a guarantee for slavery? Will he find it in the declaration that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law? Will he find it in the declaration that the Constitution was established to secure the blessing of liberty? Will he find it in the right of the people to be secure in their persons and papers, and houses, and effects? Will he find it in the clause prohibiting the enactment by any State of a bill of attainder? These all strike at the root of slavery, and any one of them, but faith-fully carried out, would put an end to slavery in every State in the American Union. How does Frederick Douglass justify the application of Constitutional protections to African Americans? Do Now: Write the following vocabulary in your own words 1.Japanese internment camps: The forced relocation of Japanese nationals and Japanese Americans in the United States to camps during WW II. 2.Korematsu v. U.S.: decision of the Supreme Court that affirmed the conviction of a Japanese American citizen who violated an exclusion order that barred all persons of Japanese ancestry from designated military areas during WWII Aim: How did the United States react to the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor? In early 1942, the United States was at war with Japan following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Many Americans feared that Japan might invade the West coast. At this time, 112,000 people of Japanese descent lived in the West coast. People feared that some Japanese Americans would become enemy agents. On February 19th 1942 Roosevelt signed Executive Order Under the terms of the Order, some 120,000 people of Japanese descent living in the US were removed from their homes and placed in internment camps. The US justified their action by claiming that there was a danger of those of Japanese descent spying for the Japanese. However more than two thirds of those interned were American citizens and half of them were children. None had ever shown disloyalty to the nation. BACKGROUND