Sociology

Following the American Civil War of 1865, the period of Reconstruction was begun.  During this period, the federal government had decided to protect the civil rights of slaves who had been newly freed.  As the Reconstruction phase ended, however, state governments of the South began to pass Jim Crow laws which prohibited African Americans from sharing public accommodation with the whites (Plessy v. Ferguson). 
   
Act 111 passed by the State of Louisiana in the year 1890 prohibited blacks from sharing public accommodation of the whites on railroads.  Whites and blacks were required to use different railway cars, despite the fact that the law had specified the use of equal accommodation (Historic Trial  Plessy v. Ferguson).  Consequently, a number of black men in New Orleans formed the Citizens Committee to Test the Constitutionality of the Separate Car Act for repealing the law.  Homer Plessy, a partly black man, was enlisted as the plaintiff (Plessy v. Ferguson).  Albion W. Tourgee, a famous author and jurist, was enlisted as the lead counsel for the test case (Landmark Supreme Court Cases).  The case has been described as follows

On June 7, 1892, Homer A. Plessy boarded a car of the East Louisiana Railroad that was designated by whites for use by white patrons only. Although Plessy was one-eighth Black and seven-eighths white, under Louisiana state law he was classified as an African American, and thus required to sit in the colored car. When Plessy refused to leave the white car and move to the colored car, he was arrested and jailed. In his case, Homer Adolph Plessy v. The State of Louisiana, Plessy argued that the East Louisiana Railroad had denied him his constitutional rights under the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States. However, the judge presiding over his case, John Howard Ferguson, ruled that Louisiana had the right to regulate railroad companies as long as they operated within state boundaries     Plessy took his case all the way to the Supreme Court of Louisiana where he again found an unreceptive ear, as the state Supreme Court upheld Judge Fergusons ruling. Undaunted, Plessy appealed to the United States Supreme Court in 1896  It would become one of the most famous decisions in American history. (Ceremony Marks Site of Homer Plessys Stand for Freedom, Dignity in New Orleans)

The Thirteenth Amendment had been responsible for abolishing slavery in addition to involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime (Plessy v. Ferguson  Supreme Court of the United States).  The Fourteenth Amendment, on the other hand, had declared that all individuals born or naturalized in the U.S. would be considered citizens of the nation and of the states where they reside (Plessy v. Ferguson  Supreme Court of the United States).  Moreover, the Fourteenth Amendment had prohibited the states of America from formulating or enforcing laws that would abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, or shall deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law, or deny to any person within their jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws (Plessy v. Ferguson  Supreme Court of the United States).  Nevertheless, the Supreme Court decided in the Plessy v. Ferguson case that Act 111 passed by the State of Lousiana did not violate the Thirteenth and the Fourteenth Amendments, seeing that the law neither overturned the abolishment of slavery, nor entailed the inferiority of African Americans.  Rather, separation of the races was considered public policy under the law (Zimmerman).
   
Although the Fourteenth Amendment had clearly stated that there shall be no law abridging the privileges of citizens of the United States  including the privilege of sharing public accommodation  the Supreme Court had legitimized segregation by rejecting the arguments of Plessy.  Furthermore, the Fourteenth Amendment had clearly enforced the equality of races.  The decision made by the Supreme Court for Plessy v. Ferguson nevertheless showed that color distinctions had not been abolished by the Constitution (Plessy v. Ferguson  1896).  Hence, the decision turned out to be a source of confusion for people.  Segregation was practiced in the United States until another case  Brown v. Board of Education  forced the Supreme Court to reinterpret the Constitution in favor of desegregation during the twentieth century (Cozzens).
   
The legitimization of segregation by way of constitutional interpretation in Plessy v. Ferguson and the legitimization of desegregation in Brown v. Board of Education reveal how different interpretations of the Constitution have changed the course of history in the United States.  Legitimization of segregation was accompanied by riots and violence in the nation for a long time.  Desegregation, on the contrary, resulted in racial peace.  Perhaps many of the modern-day problems are tied to misinterpretations of the Constitution.  Therefore, one of the lessons to be learned from the Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson is that laws must be reanalyzed so as to grant equal and perfect justice to all.

Constitution