Supreme Court Classics

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Separate but Equal Case

Listen to the opinion:

• Part 1 (Opinion of the Court) (28:40 m)
• Part 2 (Justice Harlan's dissent) (29:39 m)

Read the opinion.

Links to other resources:

• Color-Blind Justice: Albion Tourgee and the Quest for Racial Equality from the Civil War to Plessy v. Ferguson by Mark Elliot
• Controlling Identity: Plessy, Privacy, and Racial Defamation by Jonathan D. Kahn
• Judgment of the Supreme Court (document)
• PBS Jim Crow Stories
• The Plessy Case: A Legal-Historical Interpretation by Charles A. Lofgren
• Plessy v. Ferguson - 100 Years Later
• Plessy v. Ferguson: A Brief History with Documents by Brook Thomas
• Separate and Unequal: Homer Plessy and the Supreme Court Decision that Legalized Racism by Harvey Fireside
• Street Law and the Supreme Court Historical Society
• We as Freeman: Plessy v. Ferguson by Keith Weldon Medley

Yick Wo v. Hopkins (1886)

Chinese Laundry Case

Listen to the opinion of the Court (41:28 m).

Read the opinion.

Links to other resources:

• Cartoon
• Lesson Plan
• "Unexplainable on Grounds of Race: Doubts About Yick Wo" by Gabriel J. Chin

Strauder v. West Virginia (1879)

Jury Selection Discrimination Case

Listen to the opinion of the Court (23:04 m).

Read the opinion.

Links to other resources:

• Lesson Plan with questions and answers
• New York Times article from March 1880
• Tolerating Racism in the Selection of Jurors by William E. Martin and Peter N. Thompson

Dred Scott v. Sandford (1856)

Missouri Compromise Decision; Citizenship for Blacks Case

Listen to the opinion of the Court:

• Part 1 (45:50 m)
• Part 2 (51:08 m)
• Part 3 (54:51 m)

Read the opinion.

Links to other resources:

• Dred Scott and the Politics of Slavery by Earl M. Maltz
• Dred Scott and the Problem of Constitutional Evil by Mark A. Graber
• Dred Scott Case reargued in Second Life (video)
• Dred Scott Photograph
• Dred Scott v. Sandford: A Brief History with Documents by Paul Finkelman
• FSN Bay Area Salutes Dred Scott (video)
• Harper's Magazine article from July 1907
• I, Dred Scott: A Fictional Slave Narrative Based on the Life and Legal Precedent of Dred Scott by Sheila P. Moses
• June 26, 1857, Speech by Abraham Lincoln
• The Library of Congress
• May 14, 1857, Speech by Frederick Douglass (read by Ossie Davis)
• New York Daily Times article
• Origins of the Dred Scott Case: Jacksonian Jurisprudence and the Supreme Court, 1837-1857 by Austin Allen
• Reconsideration of Dred Scott v. Sandford (video)
• Slavery, Law, and Politics: The Dred Scott Case in Historical Perspective by Don E. Fehrenbacher
• Street Law and the Supreme Court Historical Society
• Washington University in St. Louis Dred Scott Case Collection