Liberty, Equality, and Power - Essay Example

Essay, History and Political Science Question Landmark Case Evaluations This section will evaluate a total of six landmark cases in the United States, all of which have been of focus of the class. The evaluation will include an explanation of the cases’ importance, brief facts, outcomes, and historical significance. Plessy vs. Ferguson 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson is a historical, landmark case that highlighted the plight of colored Americans on the issues of racism. The case was considered an important trial of the century as it was a litmus test to the racism issues that some US citizens still experienced a few years just after the implementation of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the US Constitution. The Thirteenth Amendment, adopted on the 6th of December, 1865, abolished slavery and involuntary servitude except on a special scenario when such was done as punishment for criminal activities while the Fourteenth Amendment, adopted on the 9th of July, 1868, addressed rights of US citizens and protection of the laws at an equal level of the citizens (Linder). Justified by a 1890 state of Louisiana law of Separate Car Act under the US’s numerous state laws that championed racial segregation under a policy of “separate but equal”, Homer Plessy was arrested and tried for an act of violation of the stated law. Plessy’s act of defiance happened when he boarded a ‘whites only’ railroad car instead of the ‘blacks only’ railroad car. Plessy was of mixed race and was categorized as colored under the current state laws. The ruling made in 1892 in Orleans Parish under John Howard Ferguson, the presiding judge, upheld Plessy’s conviction that violated Louisiana’s state laws and charged him with a $25 fine. Subsequent rulings after Plessy’s writ of prohibition by the Supreme Court of Louisiana and the United States Supreme Court upheld Ferguson’s ruling (Linder). Plessy vs. Ferguson’s historical significance centered on the laws of segregation, termed as ‘separate but equal’ that were still viewed as oppressive by the victims. Although the quality on the railroad cars involved in Plessy vs. Ferguson was of equal measure, other amenities that included schools, social amenities, and schooling institution experienced a great disparity on quality. There was need then for the laws to be amended in order to ensure adherence to the Thirteenth and Fourteenth amendments that many violated, US citizens felt were disregarded. The state of Tennessee vs. John scopes The state of Tennessee vs. John scopes was a landmark case in the US that happened in 1925 in the state of Tennessee. The trial was of significance as it pointed out the right to liberty of association and knowledge, especially on matters concerning spirituality, after the enactment of the Butler Act in Tennessee that prohibited teaching of the evolution theory in educational institutions within the state (Linder). On the 7th of May, 1925, John scopes was arrested for defying Butler’s Act for teaching the theory of evolution. Given American Civil Liberties Union’s commitment to protect any person that would be brought to trial for defying Butler’s Act, it utilized the services of Clarence Darrow, an exceptional and experienced criminal defense attorney back then to defend Scope. Despite exemplary defense by the attorney and a weak performance by Bryan, the prosecutor, the obvious discrimination right from the religiously pious judge led to a charge of guilt to Scope, with a fine of $100. An appeal to the state supreme court reversed the previous charge and granted ACLU and Scope victory (Linder). The outcomes of the case after appeal was an offset of the liberties that US citizens gained in religious alignment. After the trial, it was reported that a total of 22 cases in different other states shared the same fate and the laws defining the Bible as the main book for truths for the US citizens were eased to accommodate more religious liberty and affiliation to either the scientific teachings or the religious teachings. The trail of the Hollywood 10(1947) The trail of the Hollywood 10 in 1947 marked a great political tide and transition in the US that was against the Communist Party. This trial was significant as it brought forth the issues associated with the right to political parties and ideologies association by US citizens (Linder). Ten Hollywood producers, namely, Robert Adrian Scott, Dalton Trumbo, Samuel Ornitz, , Alvah Bessie, John Howard Lawson, Ring Lardner, Jr., Herbert Biberman, Albert Maltz, Edward Dmytryk, and Lester Cole, were each sentenced to a one year jail term by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) that found them guilty of Communist alignment in some of their productions. This sentence was passed after defiance by the ten producers to answer questions from the committee that sought to inquire of their association with the communist party, citing violation of their rights under the First Amendment rights (Linder). The case was of great historical significance as it exposed the firm and unmovable stand by the US government on political freedom and affiliation. In 1960, 13 years after the much publicized trail of the Hollywood 10, there was a complete lift of the Hollywood Blacklist in the movie scene and a reduction on the tough stand by the US government on political affiliation. Court Martial of Sergeant William Calley (1972) Sergeant William Calley’s trial that spanned slightly to three years from 1969 to 1972 was a landmark case that exposed the negligence exercised by US soldiers in the Vietnam War and the corresponding inhuman leniency that was exercised by witnesses, US citizens, and the US government in abstracting justice (Olson and Randy 34). On the 5th of September, 1969, Calley was charged with premeditated murder of 104 Vietnamese unarmed civilians in My Lai village. This was despite previous details that cited a number of approximately 500 civilians that included children, infants, women, and the elderly. After several fruitless witnesses, Paul Meadlo’s and Dennis Conti’s witnesses resulted to Calley’s life sentence on the 31st of March, 1971. After reactions that had resulted from pretrial arguments and confrontations outside the court, many were against Calley’s sentence from reasons that varied from stern sentence to scapegoat allegations. Contrary to the initial sentence, Calley ended up serving three and a half years of house arrest and later released. The significance of the case was to the level that the then President Richard Nixon was also involved (Linder). California vs. Powell et al. (1992) The California vs. Powell et al. (1992) was a landmark case that exposed America’s police misconduct in brutality and racism. The expose was a key factor in the implementation of laws by the US government to deal with excessive misconduct by law enforcement officers. The night of 2nd March, 1991 witnessed merciless use of force and brutality in the arrest of Rodney King after a police chase. The brutality was exercised by officers Laurence Powel and other colleagues that were involved in the police chase. Despite video footage of the partaking that showed the brutality that was involved in King’s arrest by Powell and other officers, the largely white jury of 260 that involved only six African-Americans acquitted all the involved officers including Powell in the verdict, equating what happened during King’s arrest as not a crime. This verdict obviously drew anger from many citizens in the US as it derived the entrenchment of racism in the American Society. As a result, there were massive riots in Los Angeles and other parts of the US opposing the final verdict that was reached (Linder). President William Clinton’s Impeachment Trial (1999) On the 2nd of February, 1999, President William Clinton’s Impeachment trial that was the second Impeachment trial of a sitting president was concluded with an acquittal of the president from charges by the House of Representatives of obstruction of justice and perjury. These charges arose from the previous charges of sexual harassment claims by one Paula jones and sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky (Linder). The significance of the case in the American history brought forth how the influence of politics and its power trappings could determine the direction of the way justice was administered. Even though the senate might have done the right thing to acquit President William Clinton as the charges were a distraction of his more important administrative duties, there seemed to have been a great influence from the position the president held in determining the direction of the case (Linder). Question 2 2A) Discuss Twilight/Los Angeles in relation to the case of Rodney King. Describe the events surrounding the trial itself as well as Anna Deveare Smith’s project of writing and performing history. (Use specific examples.) How does her technique work differently than traditional forms of documentary and history to represent this series of events? In a bid to revisit the ongoing of the trial of police officers following Rodney King’s brutal beating before arrest, Anna Deavere Smith wrote Twilight: Los Angeles, a play that has one woman as the only cast, but relaying numerous, transformational representations of participants in the trial. The transformational representation is depicted through the duplicated voices, clothing, attitudes and mannerisms Smith portrayed of various witnesses, victims, observers, jury members, and eyewitnesses (Smith 45). The unique way that Smith uses to bring out the characters clearly exhibits the ongoing of the flawed trial that resulted to some of the worst riots in Los Angeles ever experienced. In a bid to sway the trial to a direction that would favor the police who were coincidentally white, the collection of stakeholders that took place in the trial were a multifaceted collection of non-partisans and uninterested parties that had no regard to the ongoing. These collection of individuals that included a heavily white jury watered down the evidence that was portrayed by the video footage openly displaying the brutality that King faced during his arrest. The falsified assumptions that the police involved put across including King’s PCP usage and that of being an ex-con seem to take precedence over the more concrete eyewitness and video footage obvious narration of the happenings. The final verdict was completely flawed after all the officers were acquitted citing inadequate evidence to categorize the brutality in the arrest as unlawful (Smith 76). Through the transformative role that Smith plays, the style used, and the name use for the play, she seeks to put across the societal negligence in matters pertaining racism and the blind ye that most seem to have put on it. Most US citizens appear to be in an unclear position on perceptions of racism, a location meant to represent the twilight when there is an onset of darkness from the sun’s position at the horizon (Smith 102). Her unique way of representation including the happenings of the trail seek to urge the public to develop a multifaceted perception on vital societal issues including and not limited to racism. The writer aims at presenting a challenge to the audience to be the change needed in the society by collaboratively participating in activities that will foster humanness on an equal platform. Smith’s other participations in Fires in the Mirror and Merry Wives of Windsor that portrayed transformational abilities still work on similar themes that championed for humanness among ourselves. 2B: Birmingham protest 1963 The photograph was taken in Birmingham, Ala. on the 15th of July, 1963, a year when civil rights groups and African-Americans carried out mass protests to champion for abolishment of racism. The genesis of the consecutive protests dated back to the 2nd of May, 1963, led by renowned civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr.’s. In the photograph, firefighters are seen aiming their high-powered hoses to the protestors in a bid to repulse them from their ongoing protests to eliminate acts of racism that were vast in Birmingham. The protests was among final phases of a series of other struggle against racism that included participants of all ages and gender (Murrin, Johnson, McPherson, Gerstle, Rosenberg, Rosenberg 1098) The Birmingham, Ala. Protest was a landmark protest in the Civil Rights movement that was orchestrated by the black population under Martin Luther King Jr. After many struggles by King in the fight against racism. The initial protest marches saw the utilization of children aged between six and eighteen years to form a protest march in the city in a project dubbed by King as Project C, depicting Project Confrontation. Initial use of adults in protest marches had resulted in violence encounters with the police and, therefore, there was a perception that the use of children and young adults would lead to a peaceful march. Contrary to these viewpoints, in the first day of initial protests on the 2nd of May, 1963, Eugene Connor led Birmingham cops to use powered hoses and brutal dogs to try and interrupt and stop the ongoing protests, resulting to a first day arrest 959 youths (Murrin et al., 1097). The days of protests and imminent Birmingham business breakdown foreseen by prominent businessmen facilitated a compromise in which there was an agreement to hammer a deal that saw the city desegregate initial places that displayed segregation. The reforms included desegregating social amenities, removing “Whites Only” signs from various places, and a promise to hire more African-Americans. Eventually, the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, equipping all US citizens of equal rights. Pictures such as the one shown carried a lot of significance in changing the public perceptions during the era that surrounded the Birmingham Protest and the US at large on matters concerning racism. Circulation of the pictures through the media throughout the country caused widespread protests and concerns that ensured achievement of a goal intended by the various protests. The ultimate result of the numerous protests, circulated pictures, and other aspects that depicted brutality in a bid by Civil Rights activists and African-Americans in fighting for their rights resulted to the passing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964. 2C: The Fall of Saigon The photograph shown was taken on the 29th of April, 1975 on 22 Gia Long Street’s rooftop in Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam. The photo was taken by Hubert van Es and it depicted Air America’s evacuation process of CIA station personnel on the eve of the ultimate takeover of Saigon that would eventually result to the culmination of the Vietnam War. Mass evacuations of American citizens and other friendly population that included Vietnamese were being carried out to ensure low fatalities occurred during the imminent final takeover (Herman, 24). The Vietnam War is one of the longest wars recorded in history that involved North Vietnam and South Vietnam. North Vietnam got support from communist allies and China as the main supporters, while South Vietnam had allies in the United States and countries that were anti-communist. The war lasted for close to two decades, from December 1956 to the 30th of April, 1975 when Saigon was captured, one day just after the date the photograph was taken. The end of the war was a significant time in history that halted deaths and fatalities. Collective estimated numbers totaling to over 1.3 million individuals of Vietnamese service men, Cambodian origin, Lao origin and the US service members were reported dead. Majority of these were the Vietnamese service men that totaled to over 800,000 (Herman, 32). Following North Vietnamese victory, the conclusion of the Vietnam War marked a historical landmark that witnessed an establishment of a provisional government in South Vietnam by Viet Cong, widespread refugee exoduses, and a final reunification of South and North Vietnam into a communist state. The mediated images taken throughout the Vietnam War in Vietnam and other abroad locations of involved parties had a significant value in displaying the way the war was fought. Through the spread of the images take by media and other means, awareness was widespread and Civil Rights Activists and other organizations and countries came to the help of the war to help in the treatment of fatalities and championing for the end of the war. The political scene was also shaped during that period, putting communist supporter countries against anti-communist countries. To this day, there still seems to be a cold war between communist and anti-communist countries. The major anti-communist country that spearheaded the Vietnam War and supported South Vietnam was the United State, while China, a Communist country, supported North Vietnam. Works Cited Herman, Jan K. The Lucky Few: The Fall of Saigon and the Rescue Mission of the USS Kirk, 1st edition. Annapolis, MD.: Naval Institute Press, 2013. Print. Linder, Douglas O. Famous Trials University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) School Of Law. 9 December 2013. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/ftrials.html Murrin, John, Johnson, Paul E., McPherson, James M., Gerstle, Gary, Rosenberg, Emily S., Rosenberg, Norman L. Liberty, Equality, Power: A History of the American People, Volume II: Since 1863, 6th edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2007. Print. Olson, James S. and Randy Roberts. My Lai: A Brief History with Documents, 1st ed. New York: Bedford’s/St. Martin’s, Bedford Series in History and Culture, 1998. Print. Smith, Anna Deavere. Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, 1st ed. New York: Anchor, 1994. Print. Read More