"In Plessy v. Ferguson the Supreme Court held that the state of Louisiana did not violate

the Fourteenth Amendment by establishing and enforcing a policy of racial segregation in

its railway system. Justice John Marshall Harlan wrote a memorable dissent to that

decision."

Source: McKenna, George, ed. A Guide to the Constitution That Delicate Balance (New

York, 1984), pp. 384-386. ~ chnm.gmu.edu

Judge Harlan's dissent

...It was said in argument that the statute of Louisiana does not discriminate against

either race but prescribes a rule applicable alike to white and colored citizens. But this

argument does not meet the difficulty. Everyone knows that the statues in question had its

origin in the purpose, not so much to exclude white persons from railroad cars occupied by

blacks, as to exclude colored people from coaches occupied by or assigned to white persons.

Railroad corporations of Louisiana did not make discrimination among whites in the

matter of accommodation for travellers. The thing to accomplish was, under the guise of

giving equal accommodations for whites and blacks, to compel the latter to keep to

themselves while travelling in railroad passenger coaches. No one would be so wanting in

candor as to assert the contrary. The fundamental objection, therefore, to the statues is

that it interferes with the personal freedom of citizens....If a white man and a black man

choose to occupy the same public conveyance on a public highway, it is their right to do so,

and no government, proceeding alone on grounds of race, can prevent it without infringing

the personal liberty of each....

The white race deems itself to be the dominant race in this country. And so it is, in

prestige, in achievements, in education, in wealth, and in power. So, I doubt not, it will

continue to be for all time, if it remains true to its great heritage and holds fast to the

principles of constitutional liberty. But in the view of the Constitution, in the eye of the

law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no

caste here. Our Constitution in color-blind and neither knows nor tolerates classes among

citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the

peer of the most powerful. The law regards man as man and takes no account of his

surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the

land are involved...

The arbitrary separation of citizens, on the basis of race, while they are on a public

highway, is a badge of servitude wholly inconsistent with the civil freedom and the equality

before the law established by the Constitution. It cannot be justified upon any legal

grounds."

Questions:

1- What does Judge Harlan believe is the basis for Louisiana's segregation?

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2- What is the fundamental objection to the Louisiana statue?

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3- What does Judge Harlan mean when he writes that the Constitution is color-blind?

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4- What is Judge Harlan's conclusion about "the arbitrary separation of citizens"?

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5- Explain your position on this issue.

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A Professor's Perspective on Teaching about Jim Crow Segregation:

"Displaying photos of segregated water fountains utterly fails to convey how Jim Crow's

long reign shaped life for generations of African American and white Southerners.

Whether in neighborhood stores or on public sidewalks, segregation established an

intricate set of rules to govern every kind of interracial contact that were reinforced by its

repeated daily humiliations. Laws and practices that assigned African American laborers

the most menial and lowest-paying jobs and kept them out of labor unions ensured their

economic subordination.

White newspapers stirred fears of black criminality and white police often arrested black

people for the most minor infractions. As the primary source from the Cleveland Advocate

in 1918 suggests, all-white juries and white judges punished African Americans more

severely than whites, even when whites had committed the greater crime...More broadly,

Southern courts sentenced a disproportionate number of African Americans to chain gangs

and prison.

Segregation literally rendered African American life less valuable than white life. Black

Southerners had higher mortality rates, for example, because they lived in areas where

white officials did not invest in improving sanitation and because the lack of public

spending on health services for black people typically meant fewer hospitals and treatment

options. An untold number of black adults and black children died as a result."

~ Katherine Mellen Charron [Associate Professor of History at North Carolina State

University]; teachinghistory.org

Questions:

1- Why does Professor Charron believe that "displaying photographs of segregated

water fountains utterly fail to convey how Jim Crow's long reign shaped life for

generations of African Americans"?

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2- What examples does Professor Charron provide that demonstrate the oppression of

African Americans under Jim Crow segregation?

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3- How does this reading passage increase your understanding of Jim Crow

segregation?

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4- What then might be a more effective way to teach the effects of Jim Crow

segregation on African Americans? Explain your answer.

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