Legal Cases I: Reading Questions

Plessy v. Ferguson (pp. vii-viii and 1-29)

1. When was Plessy v. Ferguson decided (vii)?

2. Homer Plessy had 1/8th African blood. He was intentionally picked to challenge the separate but equal law. Why pick a person of mixed blood to do so (4-5)?

3. What were the two stages of Reconstruction (6-9)? When did Reconstruction end? Why (10)?

4. What right does Amendment XV address (11)?

5. What does Amendment XIII forbid? What is a "badge of servitude" (11-12)?

6. Distinguish between social, political, and civil rights (12-13).

7. What are the four important clauses of Amendment XIV? Which two refer to “citizens” and which two refer to “any person” (14-16)?

8. Why did the Supreme Courts declare most of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional? What was the basis of Justice Harlan's dissent (23-26)?

“The Freedman’s Case in Equity”

1. What, according to Cable, is the greatest social problem in America (252)?

2. Who or what does Cable hold responsible for solving the problem (252)?

3. Equity, according to Aristotle, is that sense of justice that transcends written law. Why, in 1885, does Cable have to make the case for freedmen through an appeal to equity (252)?

4. Why do many white people in the South persist in thinking of African Americans as aliens (254)?

5. Why are African Americans considered menials (255)?

6. “Are the freedman’s liberties suffering any real abridgment” (258)?

7. What is the point of view of the “outraged intelligence of the South” in terms of the freedman (260)?

8. Why does segregation lead to “social equality” (265)?

9. What does Cable think about the existence of a “race instinct” (265)?

10. Is the freedman free (266)?

“In Plain Black and White”

1. Why is Grady’s title effective (268, 270)?

2. Does Cable speak for the South (269)?

3. Where does Grady summarize Cable’s argument?

4. What three events brought about a “revolution” in the status of the African American? Which event failed (270)?

5. What are the “demands of the hour” in terms of the race “problem” (270)?

6. What does Grady believe about the existence of a “race instinct” (271)?

7. What, according to Grady, is the South’s position about the “assortment of the races” (271)?

8. How does Grady describe the relation between blacks and whites in “all the avenues of business” (276)?

9. Why is the South better prepared to deal with the race “problem” than the North?

10. Can the nation trust the South to solve the “problem” in an equitable fashion (281)?

11. Does Grady ever use the “N-word” or other explicitly racists words to describe African Americans? Does he ever call them fellow citizens?

Discussion Questions

See the Plessy book (190-2).

1. Consider questions 1, 2 and 4 in the Plessy book.

2. If you were Cable, how would you mount a counter-argument to Grady’s “In Plain Black and White?” What rhetorical strategies would you employ? What premises would you challenge? What evidence would you use?

3. Cable and Grady disagree on the existence of a “race instinct.” How would you prove one or the other correct?

4. Distinguish between different types of rights. What would be the advantage, if any, of campaigning for civil and political rights as opposed to campaigning for human rights?