Class Updates: 3/4/13 and 3/5/13

Yesterday in class (3/4/13) we wrote several journal entries involving the Scottsboro case. We got a timeline that provided a guide to what was happening in the time period of the case. In the Scottsboro case 9 innocent African American Boys were charged with raping and assaulting two white women on a train. The boys were originally sentenced to death but received other sentences after the case was further reviewed. This case showed that African Americans were not treated equally in court, these boys lives were ruined for a crime they never committed. After reviewing the case we wrote journal entries from the point of view of a member from the jury.

Today in class (3/5/13) we first completed a worksheet involving Segregation in the United States. We reviewed the “separate but equal” doctrine of Plessy vs. Ferguson; we also colored in a map representing the southern states that required racial segregation in public schools.  We learned about the Brown vs. Board of Education, this case was a case composed of 5 different cases that went against the segregation of public schools. Although the African Americans were “separate but equal” they had lower quality facilities. After this case went to court the “separate but equal” idea was eliminated in the United States and schools could no longer be segregated.