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Plessy vs. Fergusson
Train passenger Homer Plessy refused to sit in a Jim Crow car. He was brought before judge John H. Fergusson of the criminal court of New Orleans, and he upheld the state law about seperate but equal accomidations on the railroads. The law was challenged in the Supreme Court on the grounds that it conflicted with the 13th and 14th amendments. The vote was 7-1 saying that the state law "implies mearly a legal distinction". -
Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas
Most schools ignored the seperate but equal requirement from Plessy vs. Fergusson, and the colored schools were far from equal to the white schools. Brown brought this point up, and the court made a unanimous decision to reject Plessys doctrine, declaring that seperate educational facilities where not equal -
The Murder of Emit Till
14 year old Emit Till, an african american boy from Chicago, was brutally killed on August 28th 1955 for allegedly flirting with a white woman. Two men beat him nearly to death, gouged his eye out, shot him in the head, and threw him in the river. His corpse was recovered 3 days later, and his mother wanted an open-casket funeral, so the world could see what the killers did. The all white jurry found the killers not guilty because they had no proof the body was Emit's. -
Murder of Medgar Evers
African American civil rights leader, Medgar Evans, was shot and killed outside his house in Jackson, Mississippi by white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith. 2 all white jurrys failed to reach a decission, so De Le Beckwit was set free. The case was reopened in 1994 because of preassure from civil rights leaters and Evers family. The racially mixed jury foud De La Beckwit guilty and the 73 year old was sentenced to life in prison.
