Unit Two: Equal Protection and Affirmative Action

Congress attempted to protect the rights of former slaves with the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868. The Supreme Court's interpretation of the Equal Protection Clause evolved over time. In 1896, the Court held that the state-mandated segregation was compatible with the Clause; that decision was overturned in 1954 when segregation in public schools was declared unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education. Almost a hundred years after Plessy v. Ferguson, the Court held that the Equal Protection Clause protected not only minorities from state-sponsored discrimination, but whites as well.