In the Strauder case, Strauder, a Black man, was charged with murder. Since the laws in West Virginia did not allow Blacks to serve on Juries, Strauder petitioned the Supreme Court to have his case moved to a federal court. The Supreme Court accepted his petition based on the intent of the Fourteenth Amendment. They felt this amendment afforded African-Americans the right to be exempt from unfriendly legislation against them as well as exemption from legal distinctions that imply inferiority. These legal distinctions were used to deny people of color rights others enjoyed.
According to Justice Strong, the fact that African-Americans were singled out and not allowed to serve as jurors, was “practically a brand upon them, affixed by the law, an assertion of their inferiority and a stimulant to that race prejudice which is an impediment to securing to individuals of that race that equal justice which the law aims to secure to all others.” (2)
Although the justices saw and fought against the inequity evident in the Strauder case, they did not allow the Strauder decision to set a legal precedent in the conviction of Plessy.
