Today, I stand before you not only as the attorney representing Homer Plessy, but as an advocate for the ethical principles that underlie this case. The Plessy v. Ferguson case has made many people have questions about society and today I will speak on Plessy's behalf to answer them.
I would first like to bring up the fact of equality. My client is suing today because there is a lack of justice and equality in our legal system. The color of your skin should simply not matter when you are going about life. One should not have to think about the effects of drinking out of the wrong water fountain, using the wrong bathroom, or even going on the wrong railroad.
There should not be a matter of segregating people from each other. This system we have in place for our country is doing more harm than good, and I beg you to look deeper into this to understand why we are here today. My client who is an eighth black, not even a quarter was still ridiculed for going on a white railroad.
My client would not even have been shunned away if there were not people who knew of him on this train. Classifying people based on their race is unconstitutional since it subjects individuals to different treatment based solely on their racial heritage. I ask the court to think about how if Plessy did not say no to anyone on that train would there ever have been a question of him being anything other than white?
Plessy would have gone on with his day like all the others on the train. It would not have affected anyone's life proving that it is just the reaction of white people towards black people. Black people are no less than white people therefore there is no reason for separating them based on the color of their skin. All that I have just said shows how Plessy’s equal protection rights were violated.
My client does not deserve to be treated as separate but equal and so do no others deserve this treatment. There is a lot of importance to this case due to the hopes of overturning segregation. This case established the "separate but equal" doctrine, which allowed racial segregation in public facilities and services if they were deemed to be of equal quality. It shows an example of how legal precedents can have significant societal consequences.
The case also shows the limitations that the legal system had in addressing such complex issues. The courage of the people who were involved in this case like Plessy shows their crucial role in looking for the change that was needed.
Although they were unsuccessful it highlights the importance of a case like this. This case will set the ethical precedent for future civil rights activism. The effects of this case will set the tone for the later legal challenges that this country will have to face, and it is important to use this case to show the justice that is needed in this country.
Sources:
https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/plessy-v-ferguson
No comments:
Post a Comment