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Example research essay topic: Separate But Equal Doctrine Citizens Of The United States - 1,622 words

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Equal Protection of the Laws For a long time equality has been one of the main principles of a democratic society. Those problems were number one for American government. The principals on which equality was based in America were signed in the Constitution. John Adams said about equality in education, Education for every class and rank of people down to the lowest and the poorest. It proves that from the very beginning education in the country is considered to be for all. But was it really so?

Everybody understood that the increase of the number of educated people leads to the growth of a countrys economy. Education is closely connected with political, economical and cultural life of a country. So, education and the problems, it had faced, changed with the development of the state. "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. (Thomas Jefferson, 1816) But racial desegregation has always been one of the main problems in America. For sure, today America is moving towards the ideals of equality and justice in all spheres of life, declared in its Declaration of Independence and Constitution. But it is difficult to change the attitudes of some Americans in respect to race relations, as racial segregation has been extended across the country for many years. The author of the words about equality of all citizens in the eyes of our creator was Thomas Jefferson, but he did not consider black slaves equal citizens in culture.

His attitude towards his slaves was contradictory. On one side he saw the institution of slavery as an evil. On the other side he continued the practice of slave ownership. The nation had to suffer a bloody Civil War and over one hundred years of racial discrimination to come at a time when more equal education became available to all Americans. After the Civil War millions of formally enslaved African-Americans wanted to be full and equal citizens of the large society. They began to realize their significance as citizens of their country and started protesting.

For example, in 1872, Susan B. Anthony went to the polls in Rochester, NY but she was arrested and fined 1000 $. She refused to pay them citing the Fourteenth Amendments about equal rights of citizens of the United States which was adopted in 1868. Lets take another example when Homer Plessy refused to move from a seat for whites, so he was arrested too. On June 7, 1892, a 30 -year-old colored shoemaker named Homer Plessy was jailed for sitting in the "White" car of the East Louisiana Railroad.

Plessy was only one-eighths black and seven-eighths white, but under Louisiana law, he was considered black and therefore required to sit in the "Colored" car. Plessy went to court and argued, in Homer Adolph Plessy v. The State of Louisiana, that the Separate Car Act violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. The judge at the trial was John Howard Ferguson, a lawyer from Massachusetts who had previously declared the Separate Car Act "unconstitutional on trains that traveled through several states." In Plessy's case, however, he decided that the state could choose to regulate railroad companies that operated only within Louisiana.

He found Plessy guilty of refusing to leave the white car. Plessy appealed to the Supreme Court of Louisiana, which upheld Ferguson's decision. In 1896, the Supreme Court of the United States heard Plessy's case and found him guilty once again. Speaking for a seven-person majority, Justice Henry Brown wrote: "That [the Separate Car Act] does not conflict with the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery... is too clear for argument... A statute which implies merely a legal distinction between the white and colored races -- a distinction which is founded in the color of the two races, and which must always exist so long as white men are distinguished from the other race by color -- has no tendency to destroy the legal equality of the two races...

The object of the Fourteenth Amendment was undoubtedly to enforce the absolute equality of the two races before the law, but in the nature of things it could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social, as distinguished from political equality, or a commingling of the two races upon terms unsatisfactory to either. " The lone dissenter, Justice John Harlan, showed incredible foresight when he wrote "Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law... In my opinion, the judgment this day rendered will, in time, prove to be quite as pernicious as the decision made by this tribunal in the Dred Scott case... The present decision, it may well be apprehended, will not only stimulate aggressions, more or less brutal and irritating, upon the admitted rights of colored citizens, but will encourage the belief that it is possible, by means of state enactments, to defeat the beneficent purposes which the people of the United States had in view when they adopted the recent amendments of the Constitution. " Over time, the words of Justice Harlan rang true.

The Plessy decision set the precedent that "separate" facilities for blacks and whites were constitutional as long as they were "equal. " The "separate but equal" doctrine was quickly extended to cover many areas of public life, such as restaurants, theaters, restrooms, and public schools. Not until 1954, in the equally important Brown v. Board of Education decision, would the "separate but equal" doctrine be struck down. The case was moved up to the Supreme Court which ruled that segregation in America was constitutional. After the hearing of Homer Plessy case Justice John Harlan wrote: Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of Civil Rights, all citizens are equal before the law. (Knapp man, 467) Racial segregation included all spheres of life: school education, voting and the right to be elected...

At that time white people got all benefits. Negroes had no access to education, voting, etc. Practically, all of the race was illiterate; and even they were forbidden to get education in some states by law. In 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted where it was written that: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. ; but the effect of the Amendment on the states was generally ignored. It seems to me the framers conception of equality is achievable; but today, trying to achieve equality, Americans forget the original meaning of it.

It has become a goal, a moral virtue for them to which American society aspires. They forget that Thomas Jefferson did not speak of differences between individuals. As for me I think it was unjust because we are equal on the level of persons essential humanity, we are equal in the eyes of our Creator. It goes without saying that humans perception of surroundings and the value of life have changed. Since the early times in Primeval times physical abilities of human beings played an important role in their lives. They determined a position to others.

Later the value of life was estimated with power and wealth. A person who had more wealth or were more powerful had an advantage of others. But nowadays we considered ourselves human beings of highly developed moral value. Our perception of life is complicated. Though in a modern society wealth, power and physical abilities are also important but are not (or should not be) the reason for superiority one man of others.

That happened, may be, because we began to take more care about our soul not only about the needs of our body. A modern person has a lot of moral obligations and limitations. They come from our inner world and under them we act. For sure people are different. Some are brighter, more talented and more beautiful than others. Denying our difference has no morality.

It is immoral to pretend that we are all equal. People are not equal physically and mentally. Some of us were born retarded; but on the level of basic humanity we are equal. All of us have an equal right to a safe and peaceful work, and an equal right to life, liberty and happiness. That is morality because it does not allow for abuse. What we need is not to focus on achieving equality and virtue in life but pursue a universal value universal because it includes all people and applies to all humankind at all times.

These universal values mean that all people were created to serve God. So, equality lies in value not in the people. When we understand it then our individual qualities and differences will not make us uncomfortable. A society that lives under universal principles of morality will respect the life of each individual.

Many years have passed since the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States were adopted; but looking back more than hundreds years ago Americans constantly think on brief assertion in them: all men are created equal, and all the time they want to understand what they mean. Bibliography: Thomas Zimmerman Plessy v. Ferguson ACS course, Spring, 1997 web web v. Ferguson


Free research essays on topics related to: declaration of independence, separate but equal doctrine, racial segregation, citizens of the united states, fourteenth amendments

Research essay sample on Separate But Equal Doctrine Citizens Of The United States

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