Interpretations of Politcal and Social Equality Under the 14th Amendment
Text Version

[Visual Description - image of Justice Henry Brown] Let’s take a look at the excerpt from Justice Henry Brown in Plessy v. Ferguson.

He explicitly stated the “absolute equality of the two races before the law.”

He then stated what the Fourteenth Amendment was not intended do:

“It could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social, as distinguished from political, equality, or a commingling of the two races upon terms unsatisfactory to either." 

Justice Brown expressed a point of view that the Fourteenth Amendment only guarantees equal political rights.

[Visual Description - image of Justice Earl Warren] Let’s compare this to what Justice Earl Warren wrote for the unanimous opinion in Brown v. Board of Education.

He stated that “education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments….it is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms…”

Justice Warren believed that the Fourteenth Amendment applies to both political and social equality.