Regents of University of California at Davis v. Bakke Mock Trial

In this mock trial of Regents of the University of California. Davis v Bakke, Bakke believed that the university had violated his fourteenth amendment. This goes back into history which had happened to African-Americans, not white people. Even though Bakke was slightly older than the other candidates by being in his late thirties. 

He wasn’t able to get into medical school right away because his service in the military delayed his starting time to go into medical school which he couldn’t help that this happened to him. The system didn’t understand that his military service caused him to be away and not finish school on time. 

The admissions people did violate Title IV in the fourteenth amendment for denying his admission to the school which goes back to the hard times for African-Americans before they got their rights. Plus Allan Bakke had to overcome being in the military by surviving through boot camp and fighting in dangerous times. Some other applicants don’t understand that Bakke has been through a lot more than which makes him different from other people. 

Also, the court thought he didn’t deserve it because they were trying to make the school more diverse with their quota system to accept certain others. Everyone should deserve a chance of wanting to accomplish their dreams at any time in life. Bakke was considered a well-rounded student for his service in the military and a great academic career. He had some better qualities than some other applicants who were younger than him and had more maturity. 

Reference

Professor Smith's Academic Paper

The writer was talking about the shield law in Maryland that is pointed towards journalists. The ideas of this law protect the writers from using certain disclosures have caused many of them to get into trouble. This concept was later adapted into other states as history went on over time. 

The idea behind the law is to get the people to understand the meaning of it. It had to work on some possibilities towards believing that law had some other ways in that position.  In the paper it said, “Conseverly, debates and  lawmaking in the statutory realm can influence the development of constitutional law”,  (Smith  8). 

The judicial principles are reasoning towards the beliefs in that law. There are some other efforts on this law that made the journalists have a hard time. The non-judicial actors were trying to determine to get the point of making the privilege get passed into something important. 

While the Maryland shield law had some other standards that had been taken into consideration by the. According to the academic paper. “The non-judicial precedents we're doing four things at the time”, (Smith 12). It has been noticed that for some writers on those that had to work making sure their work was correct and not stolen from someone else.  

The First Shield Law

March on Washington

I learned many interesting facts from watching that documentary in class which I thought was really cool to do. A lot of famous people were a part of the March on Washington at that time and wanted African Americans to have equal rights like white people do. Oprah Winfrey was there on that day for the march. 

President Kennedy was reluctant at first to join in the movement because he believed communism was included in this movement, and no it was not at all. His administration wanted to help get a bill passed in Congress for a Civil Rights Act. He told his advisors he wanted the bill to go through in one night not have to wait on it being discussed and other procedures. The people were getting tired of them waiting for Congress to do something about it. 

The city of Birmingham was one of the reasons that the March on Washington had happened in history. The city was considered one of the most segregated cities in the United States during that time. The white people would just hurt the black intentionally without any reason because they enjoyed doing it as a pleasure. The African Americans were pushing for fairness like with Vivian Malone Jones became the black student at the University of Alabama to register for classes. 

Martin Luther King Jr. did give a good speech at the March On Washington which had spoken to everyone at the march. The crowd was screaming for him when he finished giving his speech to them. 

Reference

Klansville, USA

In this documentary, it talks about the Ku Klux Klan spreading all over the state of North Carolina at the heights of segregation. It had become one of the largest charters for the Ku Klux 

Klan in the United States at the time. Bob Jones had wanted his message of not wanting to integrate in North Carolina and had many events speaking his points on it. 

Jones was well known with the klan since his parents were both parts of it and influenced him to believe those ideas. He became the grand dragon of the klan in 1963. They had done a march on Washington to spread their word to everyone in the country while dawning those white robes and hoods. Some of the people interviewed for the documentary had believed that Bob did this because he really had nothing else doing for him in life, so he decided to take this path. 

The African Americans were standing up for themselves wanting their voices to be heard by the people. The Civil Rights movement was really big at the time with Martin Luther King Jr. speaking up for them. The members of the klan started doing some things to the African-Americans which turned into violence. They would torture them to death in many hurtful ways. 

Bob Jones wanted the people to know that he was in charge of his way of speaking at rallies. His perspective had caused many people to join him on the klan and be part of the charter in North Carolina.

Ku Klux Klan Reference 

EOTO Team 2 10/21/2020

In my team, we did the harm that was done to the African Americans during that time period. It had due to many deaths and tortures that were trauma onto them later on in life. Lynching was a major topic on the harm that was done to African Americans. It had led to many deaths in the south which was where most of the killings had happened. It turns out that white and black were both being lynched by people who believe they deserve punishment. 

Also, the Second Ku Klux Klan happened again, and they started to make some messages known to everyone about how they feel about African-Americans living in their country. This group was the one to dawn the white robes and hoods which became significant that’s still part of the Ku Klux Klan to this day. They did do some violent things to African Americans involving torturing them to death and killing them by the riverbed method. They weren't really into trouble with the law in this situation because the authorities were fine with it and let them keep doing it. 

The poll tax was another issue that the African Americans were dealing with since it was violating one of their rights which was the right to vote. It required them to pay a fee to vote or take a test to see if they could vote, which was a disadvantage for black people at the time very much so. They took this problem to court and showed that the states were violating their rights on the African Americans which caused them to change that policy on poll taxing. They changed it for federal elections mostly. 

Black History Timeline

EOTO Team 1 10/21/2020

This EOTO team had talked about the good things of the African Americans. They showed their information on a PowerPoint that did slides on the jazz age. The jazz music times were popular with everyone. 

They covered the NAACP who had fought for the rights of African Americans through the law system. Thurgood Marshall was involved in this before becoming supreme court justice on the Supreme Court. They had made their movement become very popular all over the United States.

The Harlem Renaissance had come into New York which caused a change in culture and the neighborhood of Harlem as well. They did it in art and literature, so it helped put them on the map in that way for their culture to become something to be part of. Their creativity has inspired many people today to do something different from everyone. 

The U.S. military had started to let in African-Americans as soldiers to be with the white soldiers during that time. The official integration didn’t start until June 1941 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt had ordered it. Some of them got the highest honors for their bravery and courage during the times of war. It showed changes that were going in the way of African Americans which was finally happening for them. It was making some standard for them along the way to changing history at this time of segregation. 

They had also brought about Jackie Robinson who changed the game of baseball by being the first colored player to player to play in a game. He led the way for African Americans to be able to play in Major League Baseball for the rest of the time. 

Harlem Renaissance

Brown v. Board of Education Mock Trial

In this trial, the people are arguing over the case of Brown v. Board of Education to see if colored children deserved to be in the white schools. The people on the side of Brown believed that African-Americans are still mistreated even after they developed the separate, but equal doctrine. Oliver Brown’s daughter was still denied to be in the white school which had violated the 14th amendment for his daughter. 

They had believed that children deserved to get to know the other race and would make the world a better place instead of being segregated. This keeps hurting African-American kids more and works on fixing certain things. 

While on the stateside, they think that segregation should keep on going, and don’t need to change anything. They want to keep it balanced with a good ratio that isn’t unbalanced for them which will make the white people upset that the black people are getting better treatment than them in certain ideals. It will lead to society crumbling in a bad way if this happens to allow less segregation in the states. Their opinion is pointing towards that the states should decide if they want to keep having segregation laws against African-Americans since it’s not a federal problem to them. 

It has wanted the African Americans to be held back during this time, and not to keep breaking through no more. The Board believed that it is following the laws even under the separate, but equal doctrine at this time. They are still arguing over this even after Plessy’ trial which has not gotten better nor made progress. This is mostly a state’s right issue not needing the federal government to get involved in this situation. The verdict had decided that the Board of Education had won the court case. 

Reference

Plessy Post Prompt

Justice Harlan wanted to speak out his dissenting opinion by showing that this was wrong for black people to deal with. Harlan thought that it was wrong for the law to take away the rights of the African Americans and that shouldn’t stand in their way. He was using the 14th amendment as evidence to show that the rules don’t fall in line with the amendment at one bit. It said in the amendment that no discrimination shall be made against them by law because of their color. 

He didn’t want to keep it to himself during that time, since he wanted to say his own opinion and not agree with the majority opinion of the other justices. He did make a good argument by having evidence to back up his claim and speaking facts on the topic. While the people in 1896 didn’t like that the Justice went against the majority opinion. They probably would have wanted him to be not justice anymore for them in that way. 

While in the time we live in now, I think people would have reacted differently saying that Justice Harlan is speaking up for the African Americans in a good way. He believed that the Jim Crow laws were wrong and holding back black people while white people get more freedom. It did lead to some changes after the trial’s verdict which helped black people to gain freedom.  Though there are still problems today in this country in discrimination that have gone in the past couple of months. 

Harlan's Great Dissent

EOTO Team 2

The EOTO team did the Reconstruction era which each member did a different topic to do research on and explain it to the class.  I found it interesting that the black codes were a way to limit African Americans to do things they were allowed to do since they are free. Though some of them were able to find loopholes which gave them a chance to vote, unlike others who couldn’t do it. 

It said that the 13th amendment didn’t really apply to the states in the south which is where the slaves were. It still held them back from being able to move forward in the Union at the time. President Johnson was really holding them by vetoing certain bills that were supposed to help African Americans after the end of the Civil War. Though Congress still let those bills become laws even Johnson vetoed which showed that Johnson wasn’t huge of ending slavery nor letting free black people have rights. 

This was going to take some time to get it on track for America to understand African Americans are now equals like them. The Ten Percent Plan helped out balancing the rights of the freed people who were from slavery at the time. Congress wanted to get the order for the Union when some of the southern states were rejoining the union at the time. I believe that African Americans should be treated right no matter what the situation is and not deny their rights at all.  

https://www.ushistory.org/us/35.asp

Plessy v. Ferguson

 

In the mock trial, the people on both teams had interesting ideas on how to handle the situation very much. Plessy v. Ferguson's trial talks about when Homer Plessy broke the law of boarding a first-class train cart since he was African-American. The defendant team had pointed out that the 14th amendment had been violated by this act of discrimination. 

In the state of Louisiana, they had talked about having fear towards African-Americans which do not want to have much violence happening. Ferguson thinks that this arrest doesn’t violate any of their rights and there are train carts for blacks and whites to sit in which it is how it is. The points they had used were saying it doesn’t take away any of their rights for them. 

The Louisiana law does violate everyone’s rights even the white people it shows that intent in the wording. This law can’t work well for society since it doesn’t make sense to have this way and be that way towards Homer Plessy who’s only ⅛ black which makes them considered a colored person even though he’s not a full-colored person. Even though he still broke the law and committed a crime which is wrongdoing. 

The team that had won the verdict was by the state who had stronger points, but mostly the court supported them in that way because in that time period. It did teach me some ideals that people believed made a difference to that trial. 

The Picture 

https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/plessy-v-ferguson

Reconstruction America after the Civil War Part #1

The Reconstruction era had many interesting events that happened after the end of the Civil War. The slaves were able to get freedom though many of them had problems being able to support their families which caused some of the families to be split up. The white people would take in their children and put them to work as apprentices. The African American parents didn’t like this idea which made them upset, but it was the best for the children to be able to support. 

The black codes were initiated to limit African Americans do not have many rights, so they were still held back. These laws started to cause some black people to move away so that those codes don’t apply them. They had to move to the city to get an opportunity to get a job and a better life for their family. Though the city got more crowded which made it difficult for them to get some work done. 

President Johnson didn’t think that African Americans were always gonna be slaves no matter what. Congress had to start to reorganize the South to make sure they follow the laws and since they ratified the amendment. They had told that Congress is in charge now not the Confederate anymore so that everything can run smoothly for them. Some white people were supporting the rights of the African Americans and helped out some former slaves to get to a better place. The 14th amendment was passed which helped make progress. 

Reconstruction Picture

Reconstruction America After Civil War Part #1

Post #7

The public and private rights have seemed to change over the years and have loopholes in them. The civil rights acts have had some interesting consequences along the way when making them become bills. It’s that people don’t get it and what is going on behind the scenes of the process. 

There are certain problems with this amendment. While they are trying to explain to the others about the problems of certain things going to happen very much so. The Reconstruction Era was a turning point in history for America within the involvement of slavery going on still. It had to make some progress even there wasn’t going any more discrimination against African Americans. 

The civil rights acts were being passed still, but the white people were able to find loopholes to make sure the black people can’t have those rights. They started to use Jim Crow laws which made the situation get out of hand and upset the African Americans. It made them have the idea of believing that white people will never treat them right. As they see this going on until they will be making changes soon. 

While it is taking their time to get things moving along the way so that everyone can be equal in each other. Though the rights have gotten there now in the time period we are living in while it took some time in the 19th century. They helped change America for the better, and it became a better place for some time till the 20th century came along. 

https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/reconstructionhttps://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/reconstruction

Post # 6

The team had explained to the class about the changes that were going on to help end slavery at the hardest times in history. I did the understanding of the why underground railroad is a such huge key of leading to the end of slavery. It helped get more of the majority to join along in the abolition movement mostly. 

I learned that there were so many conductors helping the slaves escape by using routes to get to the north. Harriet Tubman was mostly the leader of the operations and she did the most trips out of all the conductors during the operations of the underground railroad. Tubman wanted to make sure that slaves got their freedom which many of them did thanks to her.

I found it interesting that there are some other things on this topic too that was going on while they were presenting. It was cool to learn about the Kansas and Nebraska Act which caused Bleeding Kansas to happen from the results of Kansas becoming a slave state to help even out the amount of slave and nonslave states. 

I remembered learning about Bleeding Kansas in high school so it’s kind of a review for me learning about this information all over again. It was interesting to see that people would go to vote in another state just so that they could have one state be a slave state for themselves. Their government would be a pro-slavery as well along with wanting to make sure there are slaves working on people’s properties for them. 

https://www.britannica.com/event/Bleeding-Kansas-United-States-history

Post # 5

The idea of slavery comes from many perspectives that either in the south or the north during that time period. While I understand the importance of slavery since it was an essential thing to the south’s economy to maintain afloat. The religious leaders even were favored in slavery at one point then against their beliefs. 

It’s understood from statistics that the majority of America’s population is in the north more than the south. If I live in the north during this time I would definitely be against slavery for sure because it’s an unfair treatment to African Americans. It was known that they didn’t have any slaves in the north; it was outlawed by the state governments up there. 

While it’s my understanding that slavery is wrong while it comes with religion being involved in to very much so. This problem has gone on for many years and it took such a long time for it to come to an end. There are so many commotions with this that this lead to a civil war more than a hundred years later to get slavery to end. 

In my opinion, the court system needs to understand that we have learned from our mistakes very much about being careful with racial problems going on. It needs to be shown for that by understanding people’s opinions basically. I changed the meaning of freedom they want it to be for themselves. Everyone should understand that very much that slavery should be justified in away. 

References

Slavery Picture

https://www.antislavery.org/development-abolitionist-movement-history/

Learned from the Slavery Town Hall

 In the town hall, I learned many interesting facts that were a huge takeaway from the topic that I’m learning about in my class. It surprised that some pro-slavery people would turn to supporting the abolishment of slavery during that time instead of sticking with their roots. Henry Clay started the movement of abolishing slavery while turning away from being a supporter of slavery himself who had slaves. Thomas Jefferson was one of those people too who had slaves then became against slavery. 

I found it interesting that slavery was a way to help you to get more politics by using that practice to get more people to vote for that candidate. Also, not many states in the south didn’t need slavery as much as others because they were able to keep their economy flowing at well. I feel not all states don’t need slavery to support them that well, and can find other ways.

Many of the pro-slavery people thought that having slavery was a way of life and that everyone should have slaves on their plantations so they could be socially accepted. Not everyone needs slaves to fit in with people in the south. Mostly philanthropists helped the abolishments with donating money to their organizations. They wanted to end slavery by doing that with helping the promotion of the message of that across the country with that certainty.

All of the slave owners had so many slaves on their plantations that they had to build small cabins for them to live on the plantation.  Jefferson did that for his slaves so that they can have a place to live and be safe for them. 

Slavery Family

The Frederick Douglas Game Post

 My name is Arthur Tappan of New York and I represent the abolishing of slavery to end in this debate today. My brother, Lewis Tappan, and I have been successful in our business within silk before becoming part of the abolitionist movement. I believe that slavery is something that shouldn’t be practice no more in the society that we live in today.

 I was apart of the American Anti Slavery Society that supported the idea of abolition slavery and spread our message about this to America. The slave owners are hurting the slaves which are not human-like to do that to a person. There is evidence shown of the owners beating their slaves with a whip on their backs which is very wrong. 

 I want the people to know this is something against my beliefs as a follower of Christ in my religion. While the pro-slavery don’t get that this has been an issue for such a long time. In society, I’m part of our message is to spread the wrongful of slavery around America, and some of the north has joined in our movement that is going on right now. There are other ways of getting work done on plantations without the need for slaves. 

Also, I support the underground railroad and their ways of making sure slaves can escape the south to get to the north for their freedom. Those people who escaped want to have the freedom and live a normal life of being treated well with respect. This allows us in America to have more diversity with them working different jobs. I believe that we don’t all have to be the same as each other. It's good to be different and have different ethics all around. Plus these African-Americans worked harder than themselves of white people who really don’t do anything much. 

They’ve done a lot of hard labor which has affected their health, and some have led to deaths. It’s bad that this is going on and they don’t understand the effects of physically and mentally on the slaves. Even young children shouldn’t have to go through this pain at a young age because they don’t deserve this treatment they need to be put in a good home. 

Another point I think is that the families shouldn’t have to be separated when being sold or traded. Slavery has many those of bad qualities which is why it should be dissolved and voted into law that it’s banned. In my newspapers, I found abolitionist journals to help promote the message of abolishing slavery. I used my journal as a source free of “immortal advertisements” during this time of change going on in this period. All of us as humans in the world need to understand that point on this topic. 

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Amy Tikkanen. “Arthur Tappan.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 19 July 2020, www.britannica.com/biography/Arthur-Tappan. 

Saul, Eric. “American Abolitionists and Antislavery Activists: Conscience of the Nation.” Illustrated List of Abolitionists and Activists, American Abolitionist.com , 4 Apr. 2020, www.americanabolitionists.com/illustrated-list-of-abolitionists-and-activists.html. 

Ohio History Central. “Arthur and Lewis Tappan.” Arthur and Lewis Tappan - Ohio History Central, Ohio History Central Connection , 10 Sept. 2020, ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Arthur_and_Lewis_Tappan. 

Philanthropy Roundtable. “Arthur and Lewis Tappan.” Philanthropy Roundtable, Philanthropy Roundtable , 10 Sept. 2020, www.philanthropyroundtable.org/almanac/people/hall-of-fame/detail/arthur-and-lewis-tappan. 

Post #2 Religion Team Challenge

 

Over the span of time slavery has been a very controversial topic, There has always been someone profiting off of slavery and someone who is being used and abused, Religion has been a source to condone or condemn these two ideas for hundreds of years. To fully understand both sides of the argument one must through the lens of these two conflicting ideas.  

The religion of Christianity has viewed slavery in certain ways. While some of them supported it as a way to live a life. The supporters of this religion believe that slavery is part of Christianity. It says that there are many other ideals involved in this way. 

They have changed over time with the events that have happened in history and the bible. Christian slaveholders always thought slavery was an important part of the bible. Reluctantly, the supporters of it started to see some other options on how to keep slavery alive. 

Christianity has condemned slavery many times when looking back on time. Christian slaveholders did support it through believing it’s the way of life to have slaves. It doesn’t show in the bible about condoning slavery. During the Old Testament, it talks about how the Christians would think otherwise in that phase of what to do in that situation. While it takes on some people to get that point. 

If you want to know how Christianity views slavery, you must look at what the Bible says itself and not what man says about the Bible. The first chapter of Genesis records, "Then God said, Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and overall the creatures that move along the ground." Undeniably, the Bible is stating here that man does not have the authority to dominate another man. Actually, Slavery goes against the very nature of God. As spelled out in Deuteronomy 30:19, God has given man a free will of his own, "Today I give you a choice." This choice demonstrates that God refuses to force a man to do anything against his will. To enslave a person is to take their God-given freedom away from them. Even when looking at the overall theme of the Bible, Jesus came to set prisoners free from the enemy, it is clear that Slavery in the eyes of God is condemned.

Rae, Noel. “How Christian Slaveholders Used the Bible to Justify Slavery.” Time, Time, 23 Feb. 2018, time.com/5171819/christianity-slavery-book-excerpt/. 

Zauzmer, Julie. “The Bible Was Used to Justify Slavery. Then Africans Made It Their Path to Freedom.” The Washington Post , 30 Apr. 2019,

https://www.pikist.com/free-photo-ixsqe



The Washington Post on Slavery

Post #1 - Supreme Court

These videos I watched during the class taught me some ideas about the Supreme Court, what goes into a case, and how they operate them. It seemed very interesting when the justices were talking about how things have evolved over time with changes made in the Constitution-making them have to rethink their decisions on cases. 

Some of them were explaining that certain people don’t understand that they have to wait for people to bring problems to them. They don’t think they’ll there’s a problem and get to work on it. No, it doesn’t operate like that at all. The court doesn’t have to decide on everything until it comes to their attention and they need to make a decision.

The justices have to be ready to handle as many cases at a time since there are so many cases they get a week which is approximately one hundred cases. Most of them are cases where people want to revert the decision that was made on it. Basically, some of them thought the verdict was made unfair on their part. I wonder why it's hard for them to make a decision on the verdict, and what people would think of them for making that decision on it.

During the case, the justices will listen to the oral arguments that are being made on both sides during the session. So they have to develop an opinion to believe which side seems more reasonable and sometimes will write down separately to keep to themselves. They make a decision which takes a long time to make and takes some time four weeks long. Once they finished it they announced to the public at the end of a term. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWRoXYRsaeo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca8qSuWxcG8&t=622s