Waubonsee Community College

Supreme Court decisions that changed the nation, video director, Patrick Fitzsimmons ; [produced by Guidance Associates]

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videorecording

Supreme Court decisions that changed the nation

950267776

video director, Patrick Fitzsimmons ; [produced by Guidance Associates]

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During the period following the Civil War, the United States gave legal justification to racial segregation -- revealing that although the country was ready to abolish slavery, it was not prepared to accept the concept of equal rights for blacks; the Supreme Court's decision in Plessy vs. Ferguson underscored this fact. After Lincoln's death, the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution were passed in order to provide 'equal protection of the law' for all U.S. citizens. These amendments, however, were largely undermined by the passage of state laws discriminating against blacks and other minority groups. The principle of 'separate but equal' -- invoked in the case of Plessy vs. Ferguson -- set a precedent for the ruling of segregation cases over the next sixty years

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