Supreme Court (1877-1915)

Question 1

The Civil Rights Cases 1883

Answer 1

• a collection of case brought by black lawyers against the use of segregation in southern states
• led to the ruling that the 1875 Civil Rights Act that had protected equal access to public amenities regardless of a person’s race, was unconstitutional
• only one of the judges voted against the decision - the 1975 act was repealed as a result

Question 2

Plessy vs Ferguson

Answer 2

• 1896
• Homer Plessy who was mixed race (7/8 Caucasian) flouted a state law requiring him to sit in the ‘coloured’ carriage by sitting in the ‘white only’ carriage
• once prosecuted his case was taken by appeal to the Supreme Court
• Plessy claimed the 14th amendment made it unconstitutional for states to impose segregation

Question 3

Why was the Plessy vs Ferguson case significant?

Answer 3

• it was ruled that individual states did have the right to impose segregation, as long as blacks were provided an equal service
• the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’

Question 4

Mississippi vs Williams

Answer 4

• 1898
• black defendant Henry Williams argued the jury that had convicted him was unconstitutionally selected since blacks had been excluded from electoral register from which the jury was selected
• the court ruled against Williams on the grounds that exclusion from voting and from juries was the effect but not intention of state legislation + that state measures that restricted enfranchisement were not unconstitutional as they did apply on the grounds of colour + applied to white as well as blacks

Question 5

Cumming vs. Board of Education

Answer 5

• 1899
• in a ruling over the levying of state tax for the provision of schools in Georgia, black citizens claimed the tax was unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment as it was used solely for the provision of white only schools
• the court upheld the doctrine of separate but equal + extended it to schools in judging that the state had not acted unconstitutional as long as it provided schools for black children too
• there was compulsion to ensure equal funding for black and white schools