Core 102

The Idea of Democracy

Roger Williams University

Section 01 LLC TTH 09:30AM 10:50AM GHH 108

Section 18 ELI TTH  12:30PM   1:50PM  GHH 108

Spring Semester, 2015

Michael R. H. Swanson, Ph. D.

Office: GHH 215

Hours: M 2:00-3:20  T,  Th: 11:00-12:00 

Or By Appointment

Phone:  ext 3230

E-mail:  mswanson@rwu.edu

For Tuesday,  April 28

For Thursday, April 30                      

The Civil War may have resulted in the abolition of legal slavery but it did not create a world of respect and equality among the races. By the last years of the 19th century legal separation of the races (segregation) became the practice in much of the country, including wide areas outside the area which attempted to secede from the Union in 1860. Plessy v. Ferguson was a landmark Supreme Court Case which declared segregation to be Constitutional.

• Note that the reading from the text has two distinct parts. In the first, the majority opinion of the court is given, and it was this which established the context for determining the constitutionality of segregation laws for the next fifty years and more.
  

• The second part, the dissent by Justice John Marshall Harlan, bore no force of law at the time it was written.   Make sure you keep these two parts of the text separate in your own mind.
  

In Plessy v. Ferguson,  Justice Harlan responds directly to a number of the assertions made by Justice Brown.  You might to this by a color marking system, or just refer to previous sticky notes.   As you mark the document up, try to relate the arguments and counter-arguments to each other. 

Pay some particular consideration to the way Harlan responds to this assertion in the majority opinion, “We consider the underlying fallacy of the plaintiff's argument to consist in the assumption that the enforced separation of the two races stamps the colored race with a badge of inferiority. If this be so, it is not by reason of anything found in the act, but solely because the colored race chooses to put that construction upon it.”(p. 7).  Find the Harlan Response to this and make sure it is easy to find when we have occasion to refer to it in class.  We’ll consider it in detail .  Which argument do you find more convincing, and why?  Write some reflections about this in your journal

The authors of the two opposing opinions in Plessy v. Ferguson.  Click on the pictures for brief biographical information.

Before reading Plessy v. Ferguson, visit the PBS background to this case.  Homer Plessy was an “Octoroon,” capable of “passing” for white.  Yet he identified himself as black to the train conductor.  Why?

Download, Read, Mark Up, and place in your dropbox, from The Core Canon:

# 41. Plessy v. Ferguson (Justices Brown and Harlan) 1896

For those who made it this far. here's a little something extra.  Miriam Makeba with Paul Simon singing in South Africa.  Ms. Makeba was a fighter in the struggle against Apartheid.  Hope you enjoy the singing.

Download, Read, Mark Up, and place in your dropbox, from The Core Canon:

#51.  Brown v. Board of Education (1954) (Warren)

• We won’t need to spend a lot of time on Brown v. Board of Education, which celebrates its Sixtieth anniversary last spring. Our primary objective is to see what the court’s reasoning is.   Earl Warren, the author of the Opinion, reverses the decision of the court in the case Plessy v. Ferguson, which had stood for nearly 60 years. The Supreme court rarely reverses a decision.  This is one of those rare times.when the court declares that a previous court got it wrong.
  

• Look  for evidence that the court is now relying on science (particularly the social sciences) in coming to a decision
  

• Reflect on these in your sticky notes.
  

Thinking back to what you read for Tuesday, some have argued that Justice Harlan was the "tenth member of the Warren Court".  Why might they make this argument?  Ghosts???