Roberts v. Boston
Overview
Case citation
Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past court cases, either in special series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a 'neutral' form which will identify a decision wherever it was reported...
(1850), was a lawsuit seeking to end racial discrimination in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
public schools. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The SJC has the distinction of being the oldest continuously functioning appellate court in the Western Hemisphere.-History:...
ruled in favor of Boston, finding no constitutional basis for the suit. The case was later cited by the US Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
in Plessy v. Ferguson
Plessy v. Ferguson
Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 , is a landmark United States Supreme Court decision in the jurisprudence of the United States, upholding the constitutionality of state laws requiring racial segregation in private businesses , under the doctrine of "separate but equal".The decision was handed...
, which established the "separate but equal
Separate but equal
Separate but equal was a legal doctrine in United States constitutional law that justified systems of segregation. Under this doctrine, services, facilities and public accommodations were allowed to be separated by race, on the condition that the quality of each group's public facilities was to...
" standard.
The 2004 book, Sarah's Long Walk: The Free Blacks of Boston and How Their Struggle for Equality Changed America, co-authored by Stephen and Paul Kendrick
Paul Kendrick
Paul Kendrick is an author of popular history. With his father, Stephen Kendrick, Paul co-authored Sarah's Long Walk: The Free Blacks of Boston and How Their Struggle for Equality Changed America, which describes the legal case, Roberts v...
, explores this case, along with its social and political context.
Roberts vs. Boston (1848–1849) is a case about a five year old African-American girl, Sarah Roberts.
Unanswered Questions
