Unit III: Reconstruction through the Great Migration
Unit III: Reconstruction through the Great Migration
Plessy V. Ferguson
Introduction
http://www.streetlaw.org//en/Case.4.aspx
Background Information
http://www.streetlaw.org//en/Page.Landmark.Plessy.background.one.aspx
Impact of Plessy V. Ferguson
http://www.streetlaw.org//en/Page.Landmark.Plessy.activities.impact.aspx
Does Treating People Equally Mean Treating Them the Same?
http://www.streetlaw.org//en/Page.Landmark.Plessy.activities.equal.aspx
Questions to Answer:
I. Introduction
1.Describe Homer Plessy. Who was he and why was he important?
2.Why couldn’t he sit in the seat he bought?
II.Background Information
3. What law did Homer Plessy violate? How did Plessy violate this law? 4.What rights do the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments provide? Why did Plessy
believe that the Separate Car Act violated these rights?
5.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?
6.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?
7.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.
III. Impact of Plessy V. Ferguson
8.Think about the situations listed on this website.
IV.Does Treating People Equally Mean Treating Them the Same?
9. What would it mean to treat people equally in the following situations?
a)A man and a woman apply for a job as a shoe sales person. What would the employer
have to do to treat these two applicants equally?
b)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?
c)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?
d)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.