The following quotes are taken from the class 13 folder on vista

Quote 1- "Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), is a landmark United States Supreme Court decision in the jurisprudence of the United States, upholding the constitutionality of state laws requiring racial segregation in private businesses (particularly railroads), under the doctrine of "separate but equal"."

I enjoyed reading this section on Plessy v. Ferguson.  I didn't know much about this supreme court decision, but I found it to be very important to later decisions especially brown vs. the board of education.  I can't believe the fact that they would instill these laws and fight for the segregation of private businesses.  Nowadays, people can't get enough business in their stores and need to shut down.  

Quote 2- "On June 7, 1892, Homer Plessy boarded a car of the East Louisiana Railroad that was designated for use by white patrons only, as mandated by state law. Although Plessy was born a free person and was one-eighth black and seven-eighths white, under a Louisiana law enacted in 1890, he was classified as Black, and thus required to sit in the "colored" car. When, in an act of planned disobedience, Plessy refused to leave the white car and move to the colored car, he was arrested and jailed."

I found the story to be very comical although serious in a way.  How can you discriminate against a person who is one-eighth black and seven-eighths white?  This just makes me laugh because it was so wrong for people to think this way and act upon their hatred towards a certain color, especially if someone is barely a person of color.  I understand you can tell the difference in skin tone, but they shouldn't be treated that differently.  I know these cases helped vastly in the desegregation movement.

Quote 3- The named plaintiff, Oliver L. Brown, was a parent, a welder in the shops of the Santa Fe Railroad, an assistant pastor at his local church, and an African American.^[7] He was convinced to join the lawsuit by Scott, a childhood friend. Brown's daughter Linda, a third grader, had to walk six blocks to her school bus stop to ride to Monroe Elementary, her segregated black school one mile (1.6 km) away, while Sumner Elementary, a white school, was seven blocks from her house."

This quote goes along with what we have going on in schools today where students are being sent to schools that are further away from them because they can't afford to go to a school right down the street from them.  They didn't figure it out for a long time back then and we can't figure it out today.  What is it going to take to have our students no matter what race or economic status to go to the same schools and learn from one another?  How long is it going to take for people to understand that we live in a diverse world and we must accept others for who they are?

Quote 4- "Justice Felix Frankfurter demanded that the opinion in 1955's Brown v. Board of Education II order desegregation with the (somewhat contradictory) phrase of "all deliberate speed". The phrase gave the South an excuse to defy the law of the land.  For fifteen years, schools in the South remained segregated, until the Supreme Court's opinion in Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education."

I think it is crazy to see that you can go against a law because of a phrase, but I guess that is how our law system works.  People can find the smallest ways to get around a law or anything in life.  It just makes me sick that they did not have to follow the desegregation and move on and realize that change needed to happen.  What is going to happen in the future of our education?  How are we going to handle issues of diversity and racism in our school systems?

Quote 5- "Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy filed a concurrence that presented a more narrow interpretation, stating that schools may use "race conscious" means to achieve diversity in schools but that the schools at issue in this case did not use a sufficiently narrow tailoring of their plans to sustain

 their goals."

I don't understand how the schools used "race conscious" means to achieve diversity and didn't use sufficiently narrowing tailoring of their plans to sustain their goals.  This is like a two way street where the schools can do one thing and then say another.  It is a contradiction of yourself, rather than an achievement of your ultimate goal.  Once again, this goes with my whole argument of our law system and the justice the law system serves our country.  I understand times have changed and we are receiving a better justice system than the past, but how come we can't change our nation now?  Especially in the education aspect!