Plessy Dissenting Opinion

In this post, I will be discussing the dissenting opinion on a very famous segregation case:Plessy v Ferguson. This case is one that integrated "separate but equal" into society and made it okay for blacks and whites to remain segregated. A dissenting opinion is a statement written by a judge that basically talks about how they disagree with the decision the court has reached and why. The judge writing the dissenting opinion for this particular case is Justice John Marshall Harlan, the only person of the court that disagreed with the decision. If you would like to read the opinion before my analysis, you may find a link below.

http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/nclc375/harlan.html

In the dissent Justice Harlan talks about how each person should be allowed equal pride and liberty and that their race should not affect either of those; he points out that the fourteenth amendment states that blacks and whites should both be treated equally in all circumstances, especially seeing as this law was put into place to specifically keep African Americans from being discriminated against. The judge goes on to say that the decision of the court was not made to keep white people out of the cars/transportation of black people, but the other way around.

Towards the end of the opinion he mentions that he does believe that, in due time, the decision will be overturned; he even compares it to that Dred Scott case in the sense of the long-lasting, harmful affect it his placed not the African American community. Also speaking about how America can not be founded around hatred and that the law cannot be used to fuel inequality and spite when it should be used to bring peace and to further imply freedom and union.

It is important that Justice Harlan wrote out this decision and that it was made public as it shows that someone knew segregation was wrong earlier in time and sets a precedence; it is possible that someone else could use this in defense that other people agree that segregation is discriminatory. If he would have kept this to himself, nobody would have known how he felt and chances are, he drove others to speak up about their opinions also.

The judge forms a great argument in his dissenting opinion however I am sure that the white people of the community were completely outraged by this opinion and I can only imagine the backlash he received because of this; especially in this time period. If he were to release this opinion in today's society, I still feel like it would be an uproar; it is absolutely impossible for anybody to state, and be respected, for their opinions.

This dissenting opinion shows that it only takes one person stepping up to start a change. If he would not have wrote this opinion, it could have taken hundreds of years for someone else to step up, thus dragging out the journey to outlawing segregation.