Today in class we had a mock trial that deals with the allowance of the state legislations to uphold segregation based upon that segregation is not a violation of the 13th or 14th amendment. The defendants brought up the idea that segregation is illegal because they Plessy's 13th and 14th amendment rights were violated. They also had the idea that Plessy's race allowed him to sit on the white first class train car because he is only 1/8th african american, which means that he is mostly white and should be viewed as a white man. The defense also brought up that because the train is an equal carrier car, all people have the right to sit wherever they want if they have the ability to pay for their ticket.
The state used the jim crow laws of the time, and the idea that because white's are more wealthy, and blacks cannot pay as much for items as the whites can, the idea that a black and white train car should be allowed, therefore it is constitutionally allowed because isn't violating anyone's rights, it is just based upon economical and monetary income. The public conveyances law had to provide accommodations for whites and blacks, but they HAD to be separate. The segregation of people is allowed by law, therefore it is De Jure Segregation, which means legislation segregation.
In my own personal opinion, I don't believe that segregation should be allowed, and it is very concerning to me that at this time in American society, the constitutional law that was supposed to protect ALL citizens of the united states, still allowed for segregation, a form of slavery after slavery was outlawed previously by the 13th amendment. Concerning the actual trial and both team's cases about the topic, both teams worked very well and made extremely concise and appropriate ideas. I think even though in reality the State won, I would personally agree more with the defense, and I also think that in our trial, the defense too made a better case that followed and manipulated the law in a better way.
If you would like to find more information about the case, you can read a brief overview from wikipedia following this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plessy_v._Ferguson
No comments:
Post a Comment