The United States’ founding documents—the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights—lay out the ideals that our nation is built upon. While many have aspired to live up to these throughout our history and into the modern-day, we often have fallen short. These principles, however, do form a common language for Americans to use when discussing and debating questions related to our politics and society. Even so, different conclusions relating to equality have been handed down by the courts throughout American history.
Two landmark Supreme Court cases addressing the principle of equality were Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and Brown v. Board of Education (1954). This lesson explores how the Supreme Court came to two very different rulings on the principle of equality.
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