[ 241 ] Civics and Government GED ® TEST SOCIAL STUDIES FLASH REVIEW • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Which conclusion can most fairly be drawn from the two excerpts? Excerpt from the Majority Decision of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) This case turns upon the constitutionality of an act of the general assembly of the state of Louisiana, passed in 1890, providing for separate railway carriages for the white and colored races. . . . The constitutionality of this act is attacked upon the ground that it conflicts . . . with . . . the Fourteenth Amendment, which prohibits certain restrictive legislation on the part of the states. The object of the [Fourteenth] Amendment was undoubtedly to enforce the absolute equality of the two races before the law, but . . . it could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color . . . Legislation is powerless to eradicate racial instincts or to abolish distinctions based upon physical differences. Excerpt from the Majority Decision of Brown v. Board of Education (1954) To separate [children in grade and high schools] from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely to ever be undone. . . . Whatever may have been the extent of psychological knowledge at the time of Plessy v. Ferguson, this finding is amply supported by modern authority . . . We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of “separate but equal” has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and other similarly situated . . . are . . . deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. —Justice Henry Brown a. The U.S. Supreme Court occasionally changes its mind. b. It is impossible to make laws to eliminate racial instincts. c. Interpretive problems can be solved by returning to the actual words of the Constitution. d. Checks and balances has no effect on the federal system.