Supreme Court Cases

Nikki Byrnes

Supreme Court Cases

Throughout history, the Supreme Court had to deal with many court cases, most of them making history. Two court cases in particular was Brown vs. board of education, dealing with segregation, and Korematsu vs. The United States, dealing with citizens' rights during wartime.

Before Brown vs. Board of Education, President Eisenhower attempted Reconstruction. Since Reconstruction failed, African Americans never achieved social or political equality. They were kept from participating in our government by the Ku Klux Klan, which was a terror group, that murdered African Americans, burned down their homes, and did whatever they had to do to keep them from voting. They were also restricted with the poll taxes, which required them to pay money to vote, and the literacy tests, which required them to read a very difficult passage. In 1896 the Supreme Court legalized segregation when it ruled in Plessy vs. Ferguson that separate but equal was legal. In the case Plessy vs. Ferguson, a white man, who was 1/8th African American, was forced to sit in the black car. He bought a first class ticket, and sat in the white car, but was forced to move. In the courtroom the judge said as long as you bought a ticket and you received a ride, there was no problem that he was segregated.

In 1954 Lucinda Brown's dad sued the school district to allow his daughter to attend the all white school. The Supreme Court ruled that the doctrine of "separate but equal" is inherently unequal. The Federal Government is now enforcing integration, which is allowing people from different ethnic backgrounds, to take over jobs, because they are a different race or religion, so they don't get treated how they were in the past; like giving one of your kids special treatment over the other one because he is disabled.

In Little Rock Arkansas 9 African American students could now attend Central High School. Governor Faubus attempted to prevent this from happening, by standing in front of the school and not letting any African Americans in his school. Eisenhower use 1,000 paratroopers and federalized the Arkansas National Guard, to allow these 9 African Americans to attend this school. Our government began enforcing the equal protection of African Americans in public schools. The 14th Amendment in the 1860's made African Americans equal.

Korematsu