ShmoopTube

Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.

Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos


Exam Videos 129 videos

AP U.S. History Exam 1.47
194 Views

AP U.S. History Exam 1.47. Which of the following was a legislative decision that secured the advancement of the civil rights addressed by the judi...

AP U.S. History Diagnostic 1
424 Views

AP U.S. History Diagnostic 1. Relationships like the one shown in the image resulted in the development of...what?

AP U.S. History Diagnostic 15
260 Views

AP U.S. History Diagnostic 15. How did groups like the ones represented by the image influence industry in America?

See All

AP U.S. History Exam 1.32 183 Views


Share It!


Description:

Take a look at this sweet question about Equal rights. ...Oh. It's not about the sweetener? Gotcha. Check it out anyway and see if you can find out which amendment was addressed in the Plessy v. Ferguson case. 

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:00

[ musical flourish ]

00:03

And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by equal protection,

00:07

Sweet N Low's least favorite part of the Sugar Act.

00:10

All right, here's the excerpt.

00:11

[ mumbles ]

00:17

All right, and the question:

00:18

Which Constitutional amendment was addressed in

00:21

the Plessy v. Ferguson case?

00:23

And here are your potential answers.

00:27

Supreme court cases like Plessy v. Ferguson showed that

00:30

even after a civil war and changes to the Constitution,

00:33

African Americans still had a long way to go for some

00:36

not-so-separate equality.

00:38

Well, in Plessy v. Ferguson, were lawyers arguing

00:41

over rights outlined in A - the First Amendment?

00:44

Well, Homer Plessy claimed that his rights were

00:46

violated when a conductor asked him to sit in a segregated

00:49

railroad car. But the First Amendment?

00:52

Well, that guarantees freedom of religion, speech,

00:54

press, assembly, and petition.

00:57

And while we're on the Bill of Rights, the Fifth Amendment

00:59

guarantees the right to due process of law.

01:02

Well, in this case, all of these rights are wrong.

01:05

Did Plessy v. Ferguson concern a possible violation of

01:08

D - the Fifteenth Amendment?

01:10

Well, the Fifteenth Amendment prohibits the federal government

01:13

from denying a citizen the right to vote

01:15

based on race. So that prohibits D, as well.

01:17

Which means that the Plessy v. Ferguson case addressed

01:20

C - the Fourteenth Amendment.

01:22

Well, the Fourteenth Amendment not only guaranteed citizenship for slaves,

01:25

it also afforded them equal protection under the law.

01:28

Plessy's lawyers argued that being forced to sit

01:30

in a separate railroad car violated Plessy's right to that

01:34

equal protection.

01:35

The Supreme Court, however, disagreed, claiming that so long

01:38

as the cars were separate but equal,

01:40

everything was hunky dory. So C is the correct answer.

01:43

Sixty years later, Plessy v. Ferguson was overturned

01:46

by Brown v. Board of Education, which

01:48

schooled the country on just how unequal that

01:51

"separate but equal" business really was.

01:55

[ children giggling ]

Related Videos

Why Does the Constitution Still Work for Us?
5723 Views

Ever heard of a "living document"? They eat and breathe just like the rest of us! They even walk around on their own two legs. Okay, fine—maybe t...

The Puritans and the Division of Church and State
1280 Views

If the Puritans had gotten their way, religion would play a much larger role in lawmaking these days. Want to know more? Watch the video for all th...

Shays' Rebellion
6479 Views

What happened between the creation of the Articles of Confederation and the ratification of the current U.S. Constitution? This video analyzes the...

There's More Than One Way to Crack a Modernist Egg
539 Views

The Modernists thought the world had a lot of problems, and they were intent on fixing them—or at least talking about fixing them. Unfortunately,...

Federalism
2533 Views

This video explains Federalism and the quest for a fair balance between state and national power. It covers the progression and compromises of Fede...