Sunday, May 18, 2008

Today in History - Plessy v. Ferguson

...was decided upon by the Supreme Court of the United States of America thereby upholding the legality of the policy of Separate but Equal between the races, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plessy_v._Ferguson. It is an irony that Abraham Lincoln, who would later pen the Emancipation Proclamation, was nominated to run for the presidency on this date only 9 years earlier. Of course he won the presidential race, with slavery as a hot issue of the day, the southern states seceded from the union, the states were joined in war against one another, and out of that bloody fray was born freedom for all Americans whether black, white or otherwise. It was an irony indeed that said liberty was one assuring equality, yet it was deemed that equality could somehow be doled out separately for different people. Some of each race continued hating the other, and it was soon apparent that just because all men were freemen, it did not mean they had to be seen as acceptable in the eyes of those who had hatred in their hearts (and this worked and still does work both ways).

All the best,
Glenn B