Final Blog Post

One thing I really wanted to talk about from this semester was the note taking style we used in this class. Professor Smith, you had us take notes word for word, exactly as you wrote them or said them, because that's what would be on the quizzes. And honestly, at first I thought it was pretty strict, I thought Why would he make us take these notes word for word, letter for letter. I didn't truly understand, but then I took the first quiz and realized that whatever was in my notes was the exact answer to the question. I talked to Professor Smith about this, and he told me that in law, everything is word for word, and one different word can change the meaning of the entire phrase.

As a pre-law student who wants to be a lawyer, I realized this is actually really valuable preparation. In law, everything has to be exact. You can't just paraphrase a contract or a statute because changing even one word can completely change the meaning. Like, legal documents are super specific for a reason, and if you're off by even a little bit, it can mean something totally different than what was intended.

Thats the thing about legal documents is that they are written the way they are for a reason. Every word is written the way it is and in the place it is in for a reason.  Lawyers have to quote cases accurately, draft documents where every word matters, and if you misquote something in court or in a brief, that can be a serious problem. You could lose a case or even face ethical consequences.

When having to write these notes down exactly as they were said or written, it not only allows me to get a good grade on the quiz, but it also prepares me for my future in law. Lawyers quote cases all the time, and when they do this, these quotes have to be accurate word for word, just like the notes we took in class. 

Learning this as a freshman is a big advantage, I'm building this habit now, early on. Most people don't develop this level of precision until law school, so I'm getting a head start on what will be expected of me professionally. Having this advantage going into Law school gives me one less step of the hard process that law school is. 

There were points this semester where I didn't see the point of the word for word notes and just wanted to write down the main points. But now I see that something I thought was annoying and tedious is now something that is going to give me a huge advantage and have a very good effect in my future. 

So I just wanted to say thank you, Professor Smith, for making the notes we took have to be word for word. But also for an amazing semester, this class has taught me so much more than I thought it would. This class and specifically the note taing has built habits and brought things to my attention that will help me tremendously in my future, not only as a lawyer but also as a person. 

Also im gonna need to start investing in some silver and gold rather than stocks. Maybe that will help me the most.

EOTO Post Brown v Board

Massive Resistance in Virginia

Image from Resistance in Virginia

The Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 declared school segregation unconstitutional, but the battle for integration had only just begun. Virginia's Massive Resistance campaign, led by Senator Harry F. Bar, resulted in laws that closed integrating public schools and funded private segregation academies instead. By 1958, multiple Virginia schools shut down rather than admit Black students, and while courts eventually struck down these measures, the resistance delayed integration for years.

Stand in the Schoolhouse Door

The Stand in the Schoolhouse Door at the University of Alabama on June 11, 1963, brought national attention to the ongoing struggle. Governor George Wallace physically blocked the entrance to Foster Auditorium to prevent Vivian Malone and James Hood from enrolling despite a federal court order. President Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard to force Wallace aside, demonstrating that federal enforcement was essential for civil rights progress.

The 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing

Image from the Bombing on 16th Street

The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham on September 15, 1963, revealed the brutal violence underlying segregationist resistance. A KKK bomb exploded during Sunday service preparation at 10:22 AM, killing four young girls instantly—Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carol Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley, ages 11-14. Over 20 others were injured in the attack, and 8,000+ people attended the
girls' funerals, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered moving eulogies calling them martyrs. Justice came slowly, with Robert Chambliss convicted in 1977 and Thomas Benton and Bobby Frank Cherry not convicted until 2001-2002.

Legislative Victories

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 finally provided comprehensive legal tools to combat discrimination. The 1964 Act prohibited discrimination in public accommodations, authorized desegregation lawsuits, and created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The 1965 Act banned discriminatory voting practices like literacy tests and poll taxes while requiring federal preclearance for voting law changes in states with discrimination history. These measures increased Black voter registration from 23% to 61%, fundamentally reshaping American democracy.

AI Disclosure- Claude AI was used to transform my notes from the EOTO presentations into a readable blog post. 

Brown v. Board The Constitutional Case Against School Segregation

In one of the most consequential arguments ever presented before the Supreme Court, attorneys challenging school segregation confronted a fundamental question: Can the government force children apart by race and still claim to offer equal protection under law? The answer, rooted in constitutional principle and supported by the Court's own precedents, was an emphatic no.

The Fatal Flaw in "Separate But Equal"

State-mandated segregation in public schools violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Even Plessy v. Ferguson, the 1896 decision that established the "separate but equal" doctrine, acknowledged that laws cannot create systems marking one race as inferior. Yet segregated schools do exactly that—in function, in message, and in effect.

The Court's own decisions had already begun dismantling this framework. In Sweatt v. Painter, the justices recognized that educational equality depends on intangible elements: institutional prestige, the quality and diversity of the student body, and the freedom to engage meaningfully with peers and faculty. These essential advantages cannot exist in a system deliberately built on racial division.

When Separation Itself Becomes the Harm

The Court went even further in McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents. A Black graduate student was admitted to a white institution but forced into isolation—seated apart in classrooms, assigned to separate tables, given segregated library seating. The Court held that this treatment restricted his ability to learn and limited meaningful intellectual exchange, directly violating the Equal Protection Clause. The harm

flowed from the separation itself, regardless of the physical facilities provided.

Together, these cases established an unmistakable principle: segregation creates inequality that no amount of supposedly equal facilities can remedy. Education isn't defined solely by buildings or textbooks—it depends fundamentally on interaction, shared experiences, and equal access to every dimension of school life. Segregated schools deny Black children these essential opportunities by design, which cannot satisfy constitutional requirements of equality.

Dismantling State-Imposed Caste Systems

The Fourteenth Amendment was created to dismantle state-imposed caste systems following the Civil War. School segregation represents exactly that: a legal structure assigning Black children to a separate and lesser category, announcing through state authority that they don't belong. This message carries lasting educational, psychological, and civic consequences—all of which the Equal Protection Clause expressly forbids.

The Court had already rejected Plessy in higher education through Sweatt and McLaurin. The reasoning leads to one unavoidable conclusion: if separate is unequal for adults in universities, it's even more damaging for children. Young students' development, confidence, expectations, and sense of identity are shaped daily in the classroom during their most formative years. Segregated schools harm children precisely when they're most vulnerable to lasting damage.

The Constitutional Standard

When separation limits a child's ability to learn, grow, and participate fully
as a future citizen, the Constitution does not permit the state to enforce it. The Supreme Court ultimately agreed, recognizing that state-mandated racial segregation in public education violates fundamental constitutional guarantees. The principle remains clear: equal protection under law requires more than identical facilities—it demands genuine equality of opportunity, free from government-imposed racial hierarchies that mark any group as inherently inferior.

AI Disclosure- Claude AI was used to transform my script into a well-worded and easily readable blog post. I then read through the post to make sure it was correct and read well.  

In the Heat of the Night

After watching In the Heat of the Night in class, it became obvious that the idea of separate but equal never worked the way people thought it would. At the very beginning of the movie, you see Virgil Tibbs arrested on sight, with no evidence. He was arrested because he was Black and had money in his wallet. This shows how separate but equal wasn't equal at all because had Tibbs been white, he would have never gotten arrested, questioned, or even stopped in the first place.

Another moment in the movie that shows the failure of separate but equal is when Tibbs is questioning Mr. Endicott at his cotton plantation. When Detective Tibbs starts questioning Mr. Endicott, he is shocked and irritated that a black man is speaking to him as if they were equals. Mr. Endicott slaps Tibbs in the face and expects him to just take it, because that's how the system in Sparta worked at the time. When Tibbs slapped him back, it shows how fragile the entire system is. Mr. Endicott tears up after getting slapped, and this shows how he is realizing that the old world of total control he had is starting to fade away. This scene again shows that the idea of separate but equal didn't work as people thought, and that it
also wasn't equal at all. 

The changing relationship of Detective Tibbs and Chief Gillespie continues to show the problems with this separate but equal idea, but also shows the changes happening in society during this time. At the start of the movie, Gillespie wants absolutely nothing to do with Tibbs; he doubts and mocks Tibbs and even almost sends him out of town. But as the investigation goes on, they are forced to work together, and this causes Gillespie to realize that Tibbs is the smartest in the room and also the best detective in the room. A key moment that shows Gillespie starting to realize this is at the diner when he steps in to protect Tibbs from the men who were at the diner. This shows his views toward Tibbs starting to change, and while their relationship still isn't perfect, it is much better than at the beginning. Their relationship changing shows how society during this time is slowly having to accept that segregation is coming to an end, and they have to start recognizing Black people have abilities and can help society as well.

Overall, In the Heat of the Night makes it clear that the concept of separate but equal was never actually real, and the movie shows this through the characters in the movie and their relationships. From Tibbs being wrongfully arrested, to him going and talking to Mr. Endicott, and his changing relationship with Chief Gillespie. These three examples show the failure of the separate but equal theory, but also Tibbs' relationship with the chief changing, and the scene with Mr. Endicott shows the changes starting to take place, and the old views of black people not being equal starting to change, and whites being forced to accept that. At the end of the movie, it is obvious how separate but equal failed and how change is only going to happen if people challenge the current system.