Plessy vs. Ferguson :: essays research papers

Plessy went to court and argued that the Separate Car Act violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. The judge, a Massachusetts lawyer, was John Howard Ferguson. He had previously declared the Separate Car Act "unconstitutional on trains that traveled through several states." However, in regards to the Plessy trial, he stated that Louisiana could regulate railroad companies that all operated within its state. Ferguson found Plessy blameable of refusing to leave the white car.Plessy decided to appeal the decision to the Supreme court of justice of Louisiana, but that court upheld Fergusons opinion. Plessy then decided to take his case to the United States Supreme Court. In 1896, The Supreme Court of the United States found Homer Plessy guilty once again. Justice Henry Brown, the speaker for the eight-person majority, wrote "That the Separate Car Act does not conflict with the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery...is too clear for a rgument...A statute which implies merely a levelheaded distinction between the white and colored races -- a distinction which is founded in the color of the two races and which must always exist so long as white men are distinguished from the other race by color -- has no tendency to destroy the legal equality of the two races...The reject of the Fourteenth Amendment was undoubtedly to enforce the absolute equality of the two races before the law, but in the nature of things it could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social, as distinguished from political equality, or a commingling of the two races upon terms unsatisfactory to either."The one lone dissenter, who argued in favor of Plessys case, and seemed to be the only one with a real understanding of equality, was Justice John Harlan. He wrote his own speech regarding the case and its decision."Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among cit izens. In respect of elegant rights, all citizens are equal before the law...In my opinion, the judgment this day rendered will, in time, prove to be quite as pernicious as the decision make by this tribunal in the Dred Scott case...The present decision, it may well be apprehended, will not only stimulate aggressions, more or less cruel and irritating, upon the admitted rights of colored citizens, but will encourage the belief that it is possible, by means of state enactments, to adopted the recent amendments of the Constitution.

Psychoanalysis Essay -- Essays Papers

Psychoanalysis When people think of psychoanalysis, usually one name comes to mind. This would be Sigmund Freud. Freud, along with Carl G. Jung and Alfred Adler, has wedge the history of psychoanalysis. Further, he has influenced the lives of the men and women during the early 1900s. In todays society, the history of psychoanalysis is continually being discussed among many scholars. Paul Roazen, author of Encountering Freud The Politics and Histories of Psychoanalysis, has dedicated his master key career to researching the impact of Freud and his followers not only on politics but on the cultural and intellectual life of this century (Chodoff 132). One primary(prenominal) theme that Roazen emphasizes is the relationship between history and psychoanalysis. In the United States, the term psychohistory has become increasingly usual since about 1945. Psychohistory is the blending of history with the psychoanalytical theories (Gilderhus 129). This theme has raised many q uestions among scholars and is still a controversial discussion piece at this time. Sigmund Freud One may question Freuds ideas and wonder what made him so popular during the early 1900s. Many attribute this to the idea that Freud, along with Charles Darwin, is viewed as a critical contributor to our concepts of present day man. Freud saw man as am incomplete product of nature. Further, he proposed that man at his best and man at his worst is subject to a common set of explanations that good and corruptive grow from a common process (Roazen 24). Many scholars feel that Western society was ready for something to fill the gap that had been form between religion and the sciences at that time. During the late 1800s, there was extreme controversy o... ...world. Lastly, by 1926, there were psychoanalytic societies in Vienna, Berlin, Budapest, London, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Moscow, Calcutta, and two in the United States. At the same time, three journals had been formed tha t focused on psychoanalysis. Works Cited - Brill, A.A., ed. The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud. New York Random House, 1938. - Chodoff, Paul. Psychoanalysis Encountering Freud The Politics and Histories of Psychoanalysis by Paul Roazen. American Journal of abnormal psychology 149.1 (1992) 132- 133. - Gilderhus, Mark T. History and Historians A Historiographical Introduction. 3rd ed. New Jersey Prentice Hall, 1996. - Lauzun, Gerard. Sigmund Freud The Man and His Theories. Trans. Patrick Evans. New York Fawcett, 1962. - Roazen, Paul, ed. Sigmund Freud. New Jersey Prentice Hall, 1973.