6.5 Landmark Supreme Court Cases

​6.5 Landmark Supreme Court Cases

By John Christiansen

The Wright brothers make the first controlled, powered, heavier-than-air flight in the "Wright Flyer" at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

​​1903

The first episode of the television series The Simpsons, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", airs in the United States

1989

Project Blue Book: The United States Air Force closes its study of UFOs, stating that sightings were generated as a result of "mild hysteria"

1969

​Today in History | Dec. 17

Multiple Select

Do you believe in aliens?

• Yes, how couldn't you?

• Nuh uh

Learners can:

• identify characteristics of racial segregation in the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

• identify legal arguments in Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education

• draw conclusions about segregation based on a museum exhibit

• evaluate why different sets of justices may have formed different conclusions about similar issues

Vocabulary: Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, Jim Crow laws, landmark case, plaintiff, Plessy v. Ferguson

Overview

​Imagine you are living during the 1950s, a time of segregation in the US. Restaurants, public transportation, and schools were segregated. You want to attend a certain school, but they won't let you based on your race. You are forced to travel 2 hours via bus to a school that will accept you. 4 hours of travel time every single school day.

This scenario was reality for many Americans. Black students, as well as other minorities, had limited

​Engage

​Moton High School, pictured here around 1951, was a school for Black students in Virginia during the era of segregation.

Cases that are especially important, have great historical significance, further define the meaning of the Constitution, and affect a large number of people are called landmark cases.

Examples include Marbury v. Madison which established judicial review and McCulloch v. Maryland which established the national bank

Today we are looking at two more: Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) which established segregation was legal under the "Separate but Equal" clause and Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954) which reversed the Plessy decision, outlawing Jim Crow laws.

​

​Landmark Cases

​Justice Henry Billings Brown wrote the majority opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson.

Following the Civil War, Congress would create these Amendments:

13th Amendment outlawed slavery

14th Amendment prohibited states from denying anyone “equal protection of the laws.”

15th Amendment prohibited voting restrictions based on race.

Deep racial inequality continued in the United States. To continue oppression, some states began instituting literacy tests to prevent Black people from voting.

Congress attacked racial discrimination in the Civil Rights Act of 1875. Making it illegal to deny someone access to public places or businesses based on race.

Supreme Court ruled in 1883 (through Judicial Review) that Congress cannot prevent the individual from discrimination

States would impose Jim Crow Laws

Segregation after Civil War

A boy uses a segregated drinking fountain in 1938. The Civil Rights Act of 1875 failed to make a lasting impact against segregation.

Categorize

Options (4)

13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments

Passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1875

Supreme Court's Ruling on the Civil Rights Act of 1875

Jim Crow Laws

Sort the items according to whether the events supported or hindered racial equality.

hindered racial equality

Supported racial equality

​Plessy v. Ferguson

Multiple Select

What legal arguments did Plessy's lawyers use to oppose Louisiana's Separate Car Act? (Select all that apply)

• The law's subjugation based on race violated the 13th Amendment's abolition of slavery.

• The law violated the Civil Rights Act of 1875's guarantee that all races could use public facilities.

  
  

• The law violated the 14th Amendment, which gave equal protection regardless of race.

• The law violated the Declaration of Independence's statement that "all men are created equal."

​the Supreme Court ruled that segregation did not violate the Constitution, reasoning that simply separating people based on race did not mean the races were being treated unequally.

They used strict constructionism to interpret the Constitution, taking a narrow interpretation of “equality under the law.”

The phrase “separate but equal” became a common descriptor of the Court's ruling.

Plessy v. Ferguson

A plaque in New Orleans marking the spot where Homer Adolph Plessy was arrested for violating a segregation law

Segregation was already widespread, but the court's ruling gave the federal government's official approval of the practice and set the precedent that racial segregation was legal.

Businesses owners and public services often put Black people in shoddily built facilities and reserved better facilities for White people.

Opponents of segregation continued to challenge segregation through the courts. Many of their efforts focused especially on schools.

Separate but Equal

The plaintiffs in Brown v. Board of Education used these photographs of a Black school (left) and a White school (right) as evidence of the inequality between the facilities.

​Segregation would continue for nearly another 50 years as activists like MLK continued to fight for equality

In the video, you will hear about the National Association for the Advancement of Colored (was appropriate then) People, or NAACP. The NAACP is a civil rights organization that is still active today.

You will also hear the word plaintiff, which is the party pursuing legal action against another party in a court case.

Brown v. Board of Education

Brown v. Board of Education

The Supreme Court justices unanimously agreed that segregation of schools was unconstitutional.

They applied loose constructionism to their interpretation of the Constitution, reasoning that “equality under the law” stretches further than the Plessy v. Ferguson justices believed.

Brown v. Board of Education

All nine justices in Brown v. Board of Education voted to overturn the Plessy v. Ferguson decision.

Though this was a landmark case during the Civils Rights Movement, the fight was far from over.

Removing Jim Crow laws became difficult and removing discrimination sentiment from people was even more challenging

Brown v. Board set the legal precedent to dismantle Jim Crow laws, but each would come with a legal battle

Effects of Brown v. Board of Education

Multiple Choice

Brown v. Board specifically ordered the integration of

• Public schools
• Buses
• The military
• Fire departments

In this lesson you answered the Essential Question:

What were the events surrounding Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education?

You learned:

• Plessy v. Ferguson codified “separate but equal” racial segregation.

• Brown v. Board of Education overturned the earlier ruling and declared racial segregation unconstitutional.

In an upcoming lesson, you will examine the opinions justices had in these two cases.

Summary

Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park in Topeka, Kansas commemorates the Supreme Court case that declared segregation of schools unconstitutional. The park's main building was originally an all-Black school during the era of segregation.

Multiple Select

Do you prefer lessons in Wayground?

• Yes, keep teaching class like this

• No, we like the OG PowerPoint