My Role in the Plessy VS Ferguson Mock Trial
During class we examined the Plessy vs Ferguson case through a mock trial; my team was fighting on the side of Plessy. The case is about a mixed raced man named Plessy who bought a train ticket and encountered resistance while on-board. He meant no harm when he sat in the first class section, and was asked to move seats by the conductor of the train. Plessy refused to move seats because he had purchased a ticket and was not fully African American; he knew he had a right to that seat. Plessy was removed by the conductor with physical violence and put into jail. The case was brought to court under the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment.
https://apprend.io/apush/period-6/plessy-v-ferguson/
For this case, my teammates and I were divided into different roles; some were fighting the case on the legal side, while I was assigned the job of making a powerpoint on the preceding time period. Although I found a plethora of crucial information on the time period, I could not include everything. The three topics I chose for future research were religion, the women's suffrage movement, and the great pain of 1896.
I first examined how 1896 was called the Reconstruction Era; it was the time period following the civil war and centered around how America was rebranding itself.
http://noirehistoir.com/blog/reconstruction-era/
I then began to take a deep dive into religion during 1896, specifically, which religions were the most prominent. During this period there were three main religions I studied. The first one being Protestant, which over half the population identified as. They were known as charitable and extremely religious, and mostly composed of the upper and middle class. The other religion present during this time was Catholicism. People supporting this faith group were mostly immigrants, therefore, this religion was more popular in the United States; it slowly became even more popular in the North. The last religion was Reformed Judaism. This religion was very scattered across the United States, as immigrants settled in different places. America was divided with people practicing different religions in various regions.
http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/Article/m-6630
During 1896, another prominent issue was discrimination towards the female gender. Social reform around women's rights was actively occurring. By 1896, women had fought for the right to vote in four states (Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, and Utah). However, they will still fight for the right to vote in all states. They were also protesting and advocating for fair paying jobs, political power, and to end the idea that women should stay home and take care of their families.
https://ghwcc.org/2020/02/womens-suffrage-timeline/
Something else that occurred during these times was The Pain of 1896. This was a huge financial crisis and economic depression. It was caused because of a decrease in gold and agriculture in the United States. There was unemployment especially among industrial workers and a lot of hunger, pain and anger during these times.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/panic-of-1896/
My partner Skylar and I were able to present the information to the class after the trial occurred, so the class could really understand the case and make a fair ruling. It was an amazing experience to learn about this hallmark case in such an engaging way. It was also really cool to have the job of teaching the class about the world outside of the case as a whole.
Link to powerpoint: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1OKQiT2EmxrcrNp0IWHl9OyeyAcTtIx3f3E8pU29T6o0/edit#slide=id.g35f391192_00
No comments:
Post a Comment