What it is: The US constitution was created to establish the principles that the citizens of the US wanted to be established in the government It lays out the structure of the government along with stating the power for political sections.

When: The constitution was created in 1787 by our founding fathers

Significance: The founding fathers’ beliefs influenced the constitution. The constitution united Americans under one set of laws, and is supposed to protect the citizens from harmful situations

1) Restrictions for Government Branches Checks and Balances

-Constitution lays out all the power the government has, there are 3 branches in government (Legislative, Executive, Judicial)

2) Federalism-Idea that the state and federal

government shared powers so that the national government doesn’t have complete control

3) Popular Sovereignty -States that government is to base

their decisions on what the people want and if this power is abused they can be removed from office

The most important words used in the constitution include States/State because the founding fathers wanted to make sure to include the US citizens. Using words like United, Representatives and President make it seem as though the citizens are under one rule and should unite. Words like office, section, and senate demonstrate to the citizens that their government will make sure to have separate powers. Also the continuous uses of time and year/years shows that the constitution will be used for years. Treason, power, and law are also used continuous and this shows the firm hand that and beliefs that these founding fathers had.

Plessy v. Ferguson Brown v. Board of Education

Dred Scott Case

On June 7, 1892, a colored man Homer Plessy was arrested for sitting in the “white” section of a train car. In the court case Homer Adolph Plessy B The State of Louisiana, Plessy argued that the Separate Car Act was a violation against the constitution’s 13th and 14th amendments. The judge, John Howard Ferguson found Plessy guilty based on the fact that the state could choose to regulate railroad companies that only operated within the state. Plessy appealed the verdict continuously but in 1896 the Supreme Court of the US found him guilty again. Because of this case, the “Separate but equal” law was extended to cover all public life,

Though racial segregation in public schools was normal in America in the 1950s, Oliver Brown felt that his daughter having to walk one mile to her black elementary school when there was a white elementary school seven blocks away was unjust. With the help of the NAACP Brown and other black parents filed an ban of segregation in Topeka’s public schools. Though the judge agreed with the Browns he ruled against it because of the ideas brought up in Plessey V. Ferguson. On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court agreed that the “separate but equal” doctrine was unfit when dealing with public education. The Supreme Court ruled on the desegregation of schools across America.

On April 6th, 1846 Dred Scott filed a lawsuit against Mrs. .Emerson had abused him. In the lawsuit Dred also claimed that he was free because the Supreme Court of Missouri had freed slaves who traveled with their masters. However Mrs. Emerson won the first trial due to technicalities, and again in 1850 when facing the Missouri Supreme Court who did not want to anger their citizens by freeing a slave. Northerners realized that they had to put an end to slavery before the south got out of hand and because of this both sides realized that with opposing ideas they could not coexist. All these actions and beliefs fueled the Civil War.

http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/links/constitution.jpg

http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/post-civilwar/plessy.html

http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/scott/casebackground.html

http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/early-civilrights/brown.html

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