Plessy And Brown: The Changing Opinion Of The Supreme Court

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Plessy and Brown: The Changing Opinion of the Supreme Court

Two key court cases in American history reveal different snapshots of how the Supreme Court felt about the constitutionality of state segregation laws. The two cases are Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 and Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. Although the Constitution did not change on the issue of race during the years between these cases, the Supreme Court’s interpretation did. The difference between the two is simple. In Plessy v. Ferguson they insist that being segregated does not technically take away any rights given by the constitution so long as conditions are equal. The Supreme Court of Brown v. Board of Education believes the same thing; however, they actually put effort into determining whether or not conditions really are equal rather than stating that they are, which results in the formation of a very different opinion.
To fully understand the Supreme Court’s position regarding Plessy, the details of the case must be examined. The court rejects Plessy’s defense on several points. The first and most simple was the fact that he was only 1/8 black and he believed that he should have been guaranteed every right that any other white man has. The court decided that the official complaint was to debate the constitutionality of the segregation law, not decide what percentage of colored blood constitutes classification as a colored person. Plessy’s defense also argued that he was denied the intangible property of being represented as a white man. The court rejected that defense saying if he is considered a colored man, then he has the property of being represented as a colored man.
The next point brought forth by Plessy’s defense, which of course was discarded, was to question how far legislation could take segregation laws. The Supreme Court’s same argument could be used to “…require separate [rail] cars to be provided for people whose hair is of...