Plessy v. Ferguson Quiz

In 1892 Homer Plessy took a seat in the “Whites Only” car of a train and refused to move. He was arrested, tried, and convicted in the District Court of New Orleans for breaking Louisiana’s 

________________.

• segregation law
• zoning regulation
• noise ordinance
• immigration laws

Plessy claimed that segregation violated his right to _________. Moreover, he claimed that, being “of mixed descent,” he was entitled to “every recognition, right, privilege and immunity secured to the citizens of the United States of the white race.”

• equal protection under the law

• a fair and impartial jury

• freedom of assembly

• freedom of speech

Justice Henry B. Brown, writing for the _________, ruled: Laws permitting, and even requiring, their separation in places where they are liable to be brought into contact do not necessarily imply the inferiority of either race to the other.

• majority opinion

• dissenting opinion

• concurring opinion

In truth, segregation laws did perpetrate an unequal and inferior status for African Americans. Justice John Marshall Harlan understood this fact and _______ the majority opinion.

• concurred with

• approved
• dissented from

The Black Codes of the 1860s, and later _______ laws, were intended to deprive African Americans of their newly won political and social rights granted during Reconstruction.

• Commerce

• Jim Crow
• Real Estate

• Emancipation

Plessy was one of several Supreme Court cases brought by African Americans to protect their rights against segregation. In these cases, the Court regularly ignored the ___________.

• 14th Amendment

• State Courts

• Bill of Rights

• President

During the first half of the 20th century, the __________ led the legal fight to overturn Plessy. Although they won a few cases over the years, it was not until 1954 that the Court overturned any part of Plessy v Ferguson.

• NAACP

• US Congress

• Supreme Court

• KKK

In Brown v Board of Education, the Supreme Court said that separate-but-equal was unconstitutional in public education, but it did not completely overturn the _________ doctrine.

• Eisenhower

• Monroe

• segregation

• separate-but-equal

 In 1955 _________ was convicted for violating a Montgomery, Alabama, law for segregated seating on buses. A federal court overturned the conviction, finding such segregation unconstitutional.

• Martin Luther King Jr.
• Rosa Parks
• Susan B. Anthony

• Harriet Tubman