Government Paper, Spring 2010

[serenemiss]

So I did what I promised myself I wouldn't- delayed starting on my government paper until it was due. I wrote most of this yesterday (Monday) and just now finished it. Hooray! :D Don't judge this paper too harshly... I wrote it all in about six hours, maybe less considering the breaks I took. I got the required five pages, and it's not completely

Comments

[ayeellelleye]

just as a disclaimer, these are all just my opinions. you don't have to use this or...just don't feel obligated to like be all up into what i'm saying. i'm just gonna be responding to your paper as a reader and not as a fellow writer [: my thoughts will be bold and in parentheses throughout.

In 1954, the United States Supreme Court heard the groundbreaking case Brown v. Board of Education. This case yielded not only the vote that would dismantle the legal basis for segregated schools and public facilities; it also provided a foundation for the modern civil rights movement ((for this sentence, i would try to drop the semi-colon and just use a comma because the first sentence is not really a complete though--or not as complete as it should be. instead, you should try something like: "This case not only yielded the vote that would dismantle the legal basis for segregated schools and public facilities but provided a foundation for the modern civil rights movement.")). Brown was, without a doubt, a highly controversial ruling, and the

[ayeellelleye]

As a result of the failure of the plaintiffs to win in the District Court, the case was taken to the Supreme Court. There it was combined with four other cases: Briggs v. Elliot (South Carolina), Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County (Virginia), Gebhart v. Belton (Delaware), and Bolling v. Sharpe (Washington, D.C.). Brown challenged ((the word "challenged" is a little awkward...maybe asserted? something like that?)) that segregation in schools was unconstitutional based on the fourteenth amendment, and that segregation violated the Equal Protection clause of said amendment, which said “no state shall... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws”- essentially, that all persons within a state should be treated equally and fairly. Conversely, since Bolling v. Sharpe was filed in Washington D.C., it couldn’t ((just a thought: make sure contractions are okay to use in a paper)) use the fourteenth amendment as a foundation for its case since that amendment applies to the states and not to the

[ayeellelleye]

There are several cases related to Brown v. Board of Education, as it wasn’t the first attempt to eliminate school segregation; neither was the ruling the end of prejudice and racism, which caused further issues. In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), “separate but equal” facilities were ruled as constitutional under the Equal Protection Clause. The Supreme Court had ruled in 1883 that the fourteenth amendment applied only to the actions of the government, not private individuals. In the Plessy case, a man by the name of Homer Plessy, who was by far more white than black, chose to sit in a train car reserved for whites. In an act of civil disobedience, he refused to move to the ‘colored’ car, and was subsequently arrested and jailed. His case went from the local court, to the Louisiana Supreme Court, and then to the U.S. Supreme Court. He argument that his rights were denied under the thirteenth and fourteenth amendments was ruled against every time. In Brown, of course, the fourteenth amendment came to be viewed as applying to every person

[ayeellelleye]

As for my own opinion; I think that Brown v. Board of Education was very important in paving the way for the future civil rights movement ((you do not need to say "as for my opinion" or anything like that. it's a hesitance in writing; we know it's your opinion, so you need to stand firm with it. say "I think" and just go on with it [:)). Who knows how long integration would have taken without Brown, or if it would have ever happened ((is this a question?)). It is possible that without Brown II occurring, integration would have happened. One can make the argument that more peaceable and longer-lasting harmony between races can happen if the barriers between them are removed and laws that force mixing are not applied ((are you making the argument? this paragraph is your opinion...don't forget that [:)). Brown I was definitely the right step, but in some ways, Brown II and Swann were not required. Full integration would’ve taken longer, but it might’ve been more peacefully done. But a counter-argument to that viewpoint would be the