Lesson 4
1
POST-RECONSTRUCTION, MIGRATION, & URBANIZATION UNIT
Plessy v. Ferguson: Can Separate be Equal?
Adapted from www.landmarkcases.org
LESSON OVERVIEW
Students engage in a case study of the U.S. Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson and the
court’s assertion that Jim Crow segregation laws are constitutional by arguing that
“separate but equal” is constitutional.
OBJECTIVES
In this lesson students will:
• Identify and describe the events leading up to the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court case
• Identify and describe the main impact of the “separate but equal” rule created by the Plessy
ruling.
• Describe how the Plessy ruling further impacted African Americans in the South and extended
or even expanded de jure segregation.
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
• How did the ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson impact African Americans in the United States?
• How did Plessy prolong and even expand de jure segregation?
KEY CONCEPTS
segregation
disenfranchisement
equal protection
VOCABULARY
de jure segregation
precedent
GROUPING
Whole class, individual, pairs
MATERIALS
Teacher Resources:
Projector
4A Examples of Jim Crow Laws
Copy of 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments
Student Handouts
4.1-4.3 Plessy v. Ferguson Background Reading and Questions
4.4 Plessy v. Ferguson Court Majority Ruling
Funded under Jacob K. Javits Gifted & Talented Students Education Act, Institute of
Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education
Lesson 4
2
Goal 1
Goal 2
Goal 3
Goal 4
Goal 5
Conflict
Democratic
Citizenship
Historical
Inquiry &
Historiography
Historical
Empathy
Discussion &
Deliberation
X
X
Procedures
X
Teacher Notes
INTRODUCTION/HOOK
Ask students to recall the examples of Jim Crow laws
they learned about in the last lesson and then ask,
Does treating people equally mean treating them the same?
Have students share their ideas with a partner and
then have several students report out their ideas to
the class.
Note:
Materials and activities for this lesson
are adapted from landmarkcases.org, a
site sponsored by Street Law, Inc. and
the U.S. Supreme Court Historical
Society.
Say: In today’s lesson we will examine a court case
that deals with the issue of equality and segregation.
Learning Activities
On your board or your projector/smartboard,
project the examples of Jim Crow laws (Teacher
Resource 4A) that relate to segregation (e.g., separate
facilities, schools). Ask students to point out sections
of each law which discriminate against African
Americans.
After students discuss the laws ask the first question
again: Does treating people equally mean treating
them the same?
Then explain to them that when courts consider
cases of discrimination, they look at the equal
protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to
determine whether that alleged discrimination is
reasonable and legal or whether it violates the
Constitution.
✓Project laws on the overhead or
smartboard and read each aloud or
have students read them aloud.
✓Go back to the 14th Amendment
language from the previous lessons and
ask students what the equal protection
clause is.
Funded under Jacob K. Javits Gifted & Talented Students Education Act, Institute of
Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education
Lesson 4
3
LEARNING ACTIVITIES (continued)
Say:
Today we are going to examine a case that is related to the
equal protection clause and was the first time that the court
ruled on whether or not being treated equally also meant being
treated the same. The U.S. Supreme Court also ruled on
whether being separate can ever be equal – that is whether or
not segregation is constitutional.
The case is titled Plessy v. Ferguson and was ruled on in
1896 by the United States Supreme Court. We are going to
examine the case and its impact on the Jim Crow laws in the
south and discrimination against African Americans.
✓At this point you may need to review
what the Supreme Court is and what
its role is in the U.S. Government and
in the constitutional system of checks
and balances (e.g., the role of the court
is to determine whether legislation and
government actions are constitutional
or not – in particular to protect the
rights of U.S. citizens).
✓You may want to visit
Hand out the background summary reading (4.1-4.3, www.landmarkcases.org website for
multiple reading levels are provided). Have students
more information on the court and its
read the summary alone or in pairs, or, if you use
role.
only one level of reading, you can have students take
turns reading the summary aloud as well. Then
discuss the case together as a class. Ask if there are
any terms the students do not know and answer or
have students answer each others’ questions about
the case. Have students work in pairs or individually
on the case questions:
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
1. What law did Homer Plessy violate? How did
Plessy violate this law?
2. What rights do the Thirteenth and Fourteenth
Amendments provide? Why did Plessy believe that
the Separate Car Act violated these rights?
3. Judge Ferguson decided that the state could
make laws for railroad companies that traveled
within the state but not for those that traveled
between states. On what basis can Judge Ferguson
treat these two situations differently?
4. What claim did Plessy make to the Louisiana
State Supreme Court? How did his claim reflect on
his argument that his Fourteenth Amendment
rights were violated?
Funded under Jacob K. Javits Gifted & Talented Students Education Act, Institute of
Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education
Lesson 4
4
LEARNING ACTIVITIES (continued)
Go through the answers together. Ask for any
questions that students might have. Then ask
whether they think the court ruled in favor of Plessy
or Ferguson.
Ask students to examine the excerpt
like other historical evidence using
questions such as:
✓What does the excerpt tell us about
Once students have voted, show them the diagram of the views of the judges?
✓Why might they have been
the case from the Street Law / Landmark Cases
influenced to rule this way?
website: http://www.streetlaw.org//en/
✓What does this tell us about the
Page.Landmark.Plessy.diagram.aspx
different societal views at the time?
✓What things are written very
Have a student read the ruling and look at how the
explicitly?
case worked its way through the system. Ask students ✓What things are left more open to
to explain why they think the court ruled the way it
interpretation?
did, then show the excerpt from the majority ruling
✓What are the potential implications
(4.4) that explains that separate can be equal
for the “separate but equal” clause the
according to the majority justices.
ruling created?
✓What does this ruling provide
Emphasize the separate but equal phrase. Ask
evidence of ?
students to think about the potential impact the
ruling could have on the United States and the
Southern States with African Americans in
particular.
Funded under Jacob K. Javits Gifted & Talented Students Education Act, Institute of
Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education
Lesson 4
5
Optional Extension Lesson: Analyzing the
Impact of the Case
Although not specifically written in the decision,
Plessy 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.
The Supreme Court of the United States
determined that if legislation makes distinctions
based on race, but does not deprive anyone of rights
or privileges, it is constitutional.
✓The Court seemed to believe that the
common practice of separation was an
inconvenience, not something that
abridged the rights of African
Americans. The Court also presumed
that legislation was powerless to do
away with racial instincts or to abolish
distinctions based on physical
differences.
Tell Students:
Think about the following situations and record your reasons
for your responses. Each situation offers separate
accommodations for the people involved. Are those
accommodations equal? Do you think the Supreme Court of the
United States considered all possible situations when they
rendered their decision in Plessy v. Ferguson?
Scenarios:
1.A black man has been traveling for many hours.
He stops at a diner to eat and use the restroom.
This diner only serves whites. In order to eat, the
black man must travel another two hours to
another diner that serves blacks. The black man
cannot wait two hours to use the restroom, so he
uses the diner's restroom despite the posted signs.
2.A white man is not allowed to have his colored
attendant with him in the same train coach even
though the white man's health condition requires
constant supervision. The colored attendant
ignores the rules and sits beside his employer in the
coach for white passengers.
✓These scenarios can be displayed via
your overhead projector, digital
projector, or on your smartboard. For
example, you could copy each scenario
to a slide in PowerPoint or other
presentation software and show one
scenario at a time for students to
discuss. You could also provide
handouts to students if you want to use
them as an optional homework as well
for some or all students.
3.A black seven-year-old girl must walk two miles to
the nearest school for blacks even though there is a
school two blocks away. The school two blocks
away is only for white students. The girl's parents
worry about their daughter walking such a long
distance to and from school everyday.
Funded under Jacob K. Javits Gifted & Talented Students Education Act, Institute of
Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education
Lesson 4
6
HOMEWORK (Select One)
A. Journaling Assignment
Ask students to respond to the following questions in their journals:
1. Can separate be equal?
2. Do you think it is possible for blacks and whites to be separate and equal? Why or why not? If
so, describe a situation where people can be separate, but equal.
This should be a journal response in their notebooks or binders. Instruct them to try to use
examples or evidence from the opinion to support their answers.
B. Write your ideas about what it would mean to treat people equally in the following situations.
1. A man and a woman apply for a job in a shoe store as salesperson. What would the employer
have to do to treat these two applicants equally?
2. Two patients come to a doctor with a headache. The doctor determines that one patient has a
brain tumor and the other patient has a run-of-the mill headache. What would the doctor have
to do to treat these two patients equally?
3. Two students try to enter a school that has stairs leading to the entrance. One student is
handicapped and the other is not. What would the school have to do to treat these two
students equally?
4. Two students live in the same school district. The students are the same age, but they are
different races. What does the school district have to do to treat these two students equally?
Funded under Jacob K. Javits Gifted & Talented Students Education Act, Institute of
Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education