Ji, Mary
8East, Humanities
April 12, 2003
Final Draft
Separate but Equal?
No State shall
deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;
nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the
laws.
- 14th Amendment
[1868]
White Americans’
obviously hide the truth of how there were actually no due process and certain
freedoms that Blacks and Whites get unequally. During the Great Migration of
the Negro in the first half of the twentieth century, that would make America,
our supposed “free country,” look unjust and racially prejudiced against
Blacks. Many Laws and Cases between the African Americans’ and the White
Americans’ showed unequal and disturbing forms of entertainment that satisfied,
the phrase that “separate but equal,” does not exist. Their struggles and
determination for freedom and equality proved the non due process the Blacks
intentionally faced with the biased perspectives of the White Americans’.
Blacks living in the “free country” should study the history and emulate
leaders’ to prove if America is a “free country,” after all.
Constantly, Jim
Crow Laws reminded of the racist issues of the Blacks although White Americans’
made it into a form of entertainment, influencing the society to believe that
it’s appropriate, especially since it denies Blacks rights. The Jim Crow Law was laws that enforce racial segregation
and discrimination between Blacks and White Americans’. “The County Board of
Education shall provide schools of two kinds; those for white children and
those for colored children.” Texas. This law in Texas should never have
been passed because it shows the separation between Whites and Blacks, which
agrees with “separate but equal,” because they imagined that Blacks and Whites
will be learning the same material although they were separated, but that’s not
the case and was later to be said not true. Laws such as this not only enforce
racial segregation and discrimination between the Blacks and Whites, it also
showed how it was entertaining them.
The Constitution is
color-blind and although it’s true, the dominate White race deems that it’s
false and say that “separate but equal,” is reality and that African Americans’
do get due process. The Whites are overarching that although they lynch Blacks,
they do it because they have committed a crime that’s offensive towards the
public, basically Whites, so they had a right to do it, and that it was right
of them to do so, although there were clearly innocent Blacks. The Supreme
Court’s decision in the Plessy v. Ferguson case (1896) promoted racial
segregation between Blacks and White Americans’. Although in the court’s
decision, Justice John Marshall Harlan pointed out that “the constitution is
color-blind,” undoubtedly, the Justices besides Justice Harlan wouldn’t want to
admit the truth that America isn’t being fair towards Blacks and their rights.
Justice John Marshall Harlan answered The
Plessy v. Ferguson case [1896] is:
The white race
deems itself to be the dominant race in this country. And so it is, in
prestige, in achievements, in education, in wealth and in power. So, I doubt
not, it will continue to be for all time, if it remains true to its great
heritage and holds fast to the principles of constitutional liberty. But in
view of the Constitution, in the eye of the law, there is no superior,
dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. Our Constitution is
color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens…
This part of the
case indeed point out the Constitution itself is color-blind so it won’t be
able to choose a dominant race to rule with. This proves that “separate but
equal,” does not exist and that the White Court Justices are being bias about
what is right 
and what is 
wrong.
Postcards were
evidence that presented lynching as appropriate and shouldn’t be used as forms
of entertainment that occupy Whites. On your right, you see a postcard that
furthers the idea of lynching of Blacks by Whites. This postcard was from
Dallas, Texas in 1910, where Whites had enormous lynching of Blacks for doing
the crime, and even if they were innocent, the Whites only lynched Black to see
them suffer, how amusing. This is similar to what Ida B. Wells a renowned
writer and speaker, whose close friend was lynched because he was said to have
“done something bad.” She considered lynching to be normal at first, but she
knew that he didn’t do the crime, and finally figured out that Blacks don’t
only lynched for doing the crime, sometimes the Blacks were innocent which made
her speak out against lynching by writing books and articles. On the back of
this lynching postcard it states, “Well John - This is a token of a great day
we had in Dallas, March 3, a Negro was hung for an assault on a three year old
girl. I saw this on my noon hour. I was very much in the bunch. You can see the
Negro hanging on a telephone pole.” This White American who has written this
postcard and has sent it to another White Man talks about how it was a “great
day,” which infers that he was entertained by the lynching of a “Negro” for “an
assault on a three year old girl.” This type of treatment aimed at the Blacks
shows just how “un-free” America is and that the “separate but equal” statement
just hides the fact that everyone is in reality treated differently. Postcards definitely show how the Whites’ find
it amusing and at the same time getting entertained by the lynching of innocent
Blacks. Whites collect and send them to one another to spread that another
Black has been lynched. This lynching crisis is similar to the murder of eight
Black boys. “The Scottsboro Case involved nine black youths who, on March 31,
1931, were indicted in Scottsboro, Alabama, for raping two white girls. Eight
of them were sentenced to death, but after years of appeals and retrials,
spearheaded by the Scottsboro Defense Committee, some were released, some
remained in prison for years, and one escaped. The case was one of the most
sensational of the time, and, as might be expected in the political hotbed of
the thirties, became a centerpiece for charges and countercharges of radical
communist involvement.” This case just shows how Blacks even children were
being treated in White America. Blacks shouldn’t have been killed and when
killed, Whites would tear and rip off parts of their body to remember the
slaughter of them. This is so unjust and violent, but either way, the
government wouldn’t bother to do anything to change it.
Even
to this day, there are plenty of Whites who are still racially prejudice and
while Blacks don’t speak out against the Whites, they will always be prejudice
and treat the Blacks with unjust manners and give them no due process. Blacks
didn’t and should have never received the rights they were given because it
just caused more tribulations which made it harder to resolve the problems. The
treatment that the Whites aimed towards the Blacks proves how the term
“separate but equal” is false in society. It leads America the so-called “free
country,” to be known as having a false-face which was lies aimed at different
racial groups. The eventual faults of the Whites should have been spoken out
against by more, not just one justice who was willing to prove that “separate
but equal” does not exist and that “our constitution is color-blind,” and
Blacks only get disciplined if they do things that seem unlawful to the
dominant Whites. The majority of Whites should have been lynched and accused of
not following the phrase “All men are created equal,” from the Constitution.
Today,
in the twenty-first century, many individuals are still being treated with
unconstitutional rights that go against the Constitution and certain laws in
America. History shouldn’t be repeated, and still rights have been taken, life
has been taken, and freedom has been taken. Still not “All men are created
equal,” especially musicians who expressed controversial ideas through forms of
music such as Eminem. He’s twenty-first century rappers who have been treated
unfairly by Congress and his songs were getting banned. Where individuals who
have spoken out against the biased laws should persuade you into confronting
how racial groups have been aimed at by groups of society. You should question
if the Laws and Cases between the Blacks’ and the White Americans’ during the
first half of the twentieth century really expose the life of Blacks and their
“equality” with Whites in America the “free country,” and question if the
Constitution is being followed in American societies, which have been in denial
from the past.
Bibliography:
Cox, Major
W. “Race Still Wraps American Reality.” Major W. Cox and Montgomery Advertiser. 1992-2002.
http://www.majorcox.com/columns/plessey.htm
“Jim Crow
Laws.” Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site Interpretive Staff. January 5, 1998.
http://www.nps.gov/malu/documents/jim_crow_laws.htm
Schultz,
Stanley K.; Tishler, William P. “The Great Migration: Blacks in White America.”
Board of Regents of the University of
Wisconsin System. 1999.
http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/lectures/lecture09.html
“African
American Mosaic.” Library of Congress.
January 21, 2003.
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam008.html
Picture Credits:
www.journale.com/withoutsanctuary/pics_07.html