Brown v. Board of Education
The Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, which ruled segregation of public facilities constitution, established a precedent of "separate but equal" within the United States, leading to the establishment of Jim Crow Laws and thus the Civil Rights movements of the 1950s and 1960s. The ruling stated that segregation was constitutional if both blacks and whites had facilities that were equal to each other, thus allowing for varying definitions of "equal". Some saw equal as both races having facilities, but others, more specifically African Americans, saw equal more as the same quality, rather than just the same types of facilities. Unfortunately, African Americans did not see equality in facilities, as represented in the difference between the education of black and white students. The lower quality education that black children received led to the Supreme Court case known as Brown v. Board of Education of 1954, in which NAACP lawyers filed a lawsuit against the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. Oliver Brown, the representative filing against the school board, made the claim that the segregation occurring in the schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution, since the white schools and black schools in Topeka were not, and never would be equal. This Supreme Court case ruled that segregation in schools was unconstitutional, overturning rulings made in Plessy v. Ferguson 58 years before. This was a significant success in the Civil Rights movement, showing African Americans that the government was on their side, and allowing for a legal recognition that segregation, at least in public schools, was unconstitutional.
McBride, Alex. "Brown v. Board of Education (1954)." PBS. Public Broadcasting Service, Dec. 2006. Web. 07 Apr. 2017.
Liptak, Adam. "Brown v. Board of Education, Second Round." The New York Times. The New York Times, 09 Dec. 2006. Web. 07 Apr. 2017.
Mapp v. Ohio
The Mapp v. Ohio Supreme Court case occurred in 1961 after the police illegally searched the home of Dollree Mapp, suspected of protecting a fugitive accused of aiding in a bombing. While searching her house without a search warrant for the fugitive, the police found other illegal materials, which they confiscated and used to charge, and convict her of illegal possession. However, the police also did not have a warrant for those materials and thus her lawyer argued that the police should not have been able to charge her with a crime. After taking it to the Supreme Court, the Court established the exclusionary rule, which states that evidence that was obtained in the violation of the Constitution, and therefore in violation of a suspect's rights, is not admissible in court. This ruling is an expansion of the fourth amendment which protects citizens against unlawful search and seizure, and significantly changed the way police could operate and what evidence they could use to convict a person, leading to greater privacy and protection of citizens' rights.
"Mapp v. Ohio." Landmark Cases. Street Law, Inc. n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2017.
"Mapp v. Ohio, 1961." Tarlton Law Library. Texas Law, n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2017.
The Fourteenth Amendment
The American Civil War lasted from 1861-1865, and resulted in the eventual rejoining of confederate states into the union, as well as drastic changes in civil rights. During the years following the end of the Civil War, known as the Reconstruction Era, President Abraham Lincoln passed several key Amendments, reshaping civil rights in the U.S. In 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment was passed, granting citizenship to everyone born or naturalized in the United States. The ratification of this Amendment also considered newly freed slaves as having been born or naturalized in the United States, thus giving them citizenship and equal protection under the law. This was clearly a significant change from before when they were counted as 3/5 of a person for population purposes.
History.com Staff. "Fourteenth Amendment." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 07 Apr. 2017.
The Fifteenth Amendment
The Fifteenth Amendment, ratified in 1870, was the third Civil Rights Amendment to be passed during the Reconstruction Era, under president Abraham Lincoln. The preceding 13th and 14th Amendments, abolishing slavery, and grating all born or naturalized in the U.S. citizenship and therefore equal protection under the law, drastically affected the lives of previously oppressed groups, particularly African Americans. The Fifteenth Amendment further expands the rights of blacks, granting Universal suffrage for African American men. Although white and black women were still seen as inferior, the Fifteenth Amendment provided black men with the ability, and the right to vote, putting them equal to white men. African Americans went from being non-human slaves, to citizens in the span of 5 years, with black men now being able to vote. Unfortunately, due to continued prejudice against African Americans in the south, many were not able to exercise their full rights as citizens and their right to vote until the 1960s.
"Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution." Primary Documents in American History. The Library of Congress, 20 Dec. 2016. Web. 07 Apr. 2017.
