Historic legal decisions have been made in response to cases of racial discrimination, particularly in the United States. Major cases have focused on school segregation, interracial marriage, and voting rights. Plessy v. Ferguson legalized racial segregation, but subsequent cases overturned this precedent. Other nations have also heard similar cases. The continued presence of such cases demonstrates that racial discrimination still exists.
Cases of racial discrimination have led to many historic legal decisions, particularly in the United States, which has spent decades arguing over its Constitution’s definition of “equality.” Major cases of racial discrimination in the United States have focused on school segregation, interracial marriage, and the right to vote. Courts in other nations have heard similar cases of racial discrimination.
One of the most infamous racial discrimination cases in U.S. history is Plessy v. Ferguson, an 1896 case in which the Supreme Court ruled that “separate but equal” structures were legal. This precedent legalized racial segregation in the United States for more than 60 years. During this period, racial minorities were often excluded from the areas and activities enjoyed by white citizens.
Subsequent cases of racial discrimination, such as Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada has successfully challenged the constitutionality of such policies. In the Gaines case, a black student was barred from a law school that did not admit blacks and there was no “equal” institution. The Plessy v. Ferguson was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1938, while the justices were deciding the historic case Brown v. Board of Education. The court ruled that such “separate” facilities for blacks were rarely the same as their white-only counterparts, and that the segregation act itself fostered racist attitudes among citizens of all races.
Although the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution guaranteed the right to vote for black men and other minorities, many states enacted laws designed to discourage minorities from voting. Guinn v. United States invalidated the “grandfather clauses” in 1915 that favored white citizens, while Nixon v. Herndon’s 1927 ruling that a black citizen could not be barred from voting in the Texas Democratic primary. Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections in 1966, eliminated poll taxes that disenfranchised impoverished citizens, many of whom were minorities.
Until 1967, many states banned marriages between mixed-race couples. That year, in Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court declared these laws unconstitutional. This was part of a series of racial discrimination cases, starting with Brown in 1954, that ended most state-sponsored racial discrimination in the United States, although racism itself remained an issue into the 21st century.
Other nations have argued their own important cases of racial discrimination. In Australia, for example, racial hostility against ethnic Aborigines led to laws restricting their activities, just as similar US laws focused on black people. In Koowarta v. Bjelke-Petersen in 1982, the High Court of Australia ruled that the nation’s racial discrimination law overrides any conflicting laws established by individual states. The continued presence of such cases before the highest courts of the world’s nations demonstrates that racial discrimination still exists, even after decades of legal progress.
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