Objective:
Students will examine Supreme Court cases in order to understand the concept separate but equal..
Procedure:
Divide the class into two groups. One group will be assigned the case Plessy v. Ferguson and the other Brown v. the Board of Education. It will be necessary to provide library time for the students so they may research the facts of the cases( dates, plaintiffs, defendants and legal issues) and the Supreme Court decisions(vote, majority opinion and dissenting opinion. Students within each group should then be assigned the roles of the key players. They will present their findings back to the class by taking on the personality of the key players. It might be useful to have one person in each group act as a narrator and present the background of each case. The key players for Plessy v. Ferguson are Homer Plessy, Judge John Ferguson, Attorney Albion Tourgee, Justice Henry Brown and Justice John Marshall Harlan. The key players for Brown v. the Board of Education are Oliver Brown, Linda Brown, Attorney Charles Hamilton Houston. Attorney Thurgood Marshall, and Chief Justice Earl Warren.
Questions to Consider
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1. Explain the phrase “separate but equal” as first used in the Plessy case.
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2. What do you think Justice Brown meant when he said the Constitution would not “put people on the same plane?”
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3. How did Justice Harlan oppose Brown’s opinion?
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4. “Separate but equal” became the law of the land in 1896. In practice the separation was enforced, but the equality was not. Comment
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5. How did Plessy v. Ferguson affect the civil rights of African Americans?
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6. What was the central issue raised in Brown v. Board of Education?
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7. Explain the reasoning behind the Brown decision.
