Berea College v. Kentucky 211 U.S. 45 (1908) was a noteworthy if unhappy milestone in the United States civil rights struggle, and while somewhat less prominent than the infamous Plessy v. Ferguson 163 U.S. 537 (1896) case, was also marked by a strongly worded dissent by John Marshall Harlan. The ruling also is a minor landmark on the nature of corporate personhood. 1908 is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Civil rights or positive rights are those legal rights retained by citizens and protected by the government. ... Plessy v. ... 1896 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... John Marshall Harlan John Marshall Harlan (June 1, 1833 – October 14, 1911) was an American Supreme Court associate justice. ... Corporate personhood is a term used to describe the legal fiction used within United States law that a corporation has a limited number or subset of the same constitutional rights as does a human being. ...

The Case

Berea College was a coeducational and desegregated school founded in 1855, admitting both black and white students and treating them without discrimination. In 1904, the "Day Law" was passed by the Kentucky legislature, prohibiting any person, group of people, or corporation from the teaching of black and white students in the same school, or from running separate branches of a school for the teaching black and white students within twenty-five miles of each other. Since at the time Berea was the only such integrated school in Kentucky (and the only such college in the South), it was clearly the target of this law. After Berea College's challenge to the law failed before the Kentucky Supreme Court (although the distance provision was struck down), the case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Berea College is a small liberal arts work college in Berea, Kentucky, south of Lexington, Kentucky with a full-time enrollment of about 1500 students. ... A school is most commonly a place designated for learning. ... 1855 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... The term Blacks is often used in the West to denote race for persons whose progenitors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Sub-Saharan Africa. ... For other uses, see White (disambiguation). ... Students attending a lecture at the Helsinki University of Technology Etymologically derived through Middle English from the Latin second-type conjugation verb stÅ­dÄ“rÄ•, which means to direct ones zeal at; hence a student is one who directs zeal at a subject. ... To discriminate is to make a distinction. ... 1904 is a leap year starting on a Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... State nickname: Bluegrass State Other U.S. States Capital Frankfort Largest city Louisville Governor Ernie Fletcher (R) Official languages English Area 104,749 km² (37th)  - Land 102,989 km²  - Water 1,760 km² (1. ... Chamber of the Estates-General, the Dutch legislature. ... A mile is any of several units of distance, or, in physics terminology, of length. ... A college (Latin collegium) can be the name of any group of colleagues; originally it meant a group of people living together under a common set of rules (con-, together + leg-, law). As a consequence members of colleges were originally styled fellows and still are in some places. ... The Kentucky Supreme Court was created by a 1975 constitutional amendment. ... Seal of the Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest federal court in the United States of America. ...

The Decision

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the state. Justice Brewer delivered the main opinion that as the corporation in question was chartered under the laws of the state of Kentucky, it was within the rights of the state to make such prohibition to the college. While the state might not have the right to thus restrict the actions of private individuals, that portion of the law was a separate issue, and not under direct consideration; and that the rights and restrictions on individuals were not necessarily the same as for corporations. David Josiah Brewer (January 20, 1837-March 28, 1910), was an American jurist. ... A corporation is a legal entity (distinct from a natural person) that often has similar rights in law to those of a Civil law systems may refer to corporations as moral persons; they may also go by the name AS (anonymous society) or something similar, depending on language (see below). ...

Justice Harlan vigorously dissented, arguing that the formal title of the law, "An Act to Prohibit White and Colored Persons from Attending the Same School," and the nature of its provisions made clear that no such distinction between individual and corporate restriction existed in the intentions of the legislators, and that the separate consideration of those aspects of the law was not appropriate. Harlan furthermore declared that "The capacity to impart instruction to others is given by the Almighty for beneficent purposes and its use may not be forbidden or interfered with by Government -- certainly not, unless such instruction is, in its nature, harmful to the public morals or imperils the public safety. The right to impart instruction, harmless in itself or beneficial to those who receive it, is a substantial right of property -- especially, where the services are rendered for compensation. But even if such right be not strictly a property right, it is, beyond question, part of one's liberty as guaranteed against hostile state action by the Constitution of the United States." John Marshall Harlan John Marshall Harlan (June 1, 1833 – October 14, 1911) was an American Supreme Court associate justice. ...

Aftermath

The result of the ruling was to allow states to prohibit integrated schooling in private institutions, as well as in public schools. Kentucky eventually amended the Day Law in 1950 to allow voluntary integration, shortly prior to the Brown v. Board of Education case struck down segregation. Private schools, in the United States, Australia, Scotland, and other English-speaking countries, are schools not administered by local or national government, which retain the right to select their student body and are funded in whole or in part by charging their students tuition rather than with public funds. ... The term public school has two contrary meanings: In England, one of a small number of prestigious historic schools open to the public which normally charge fees and are financed by bodies other than the state, commonly as private charitable trusts; here the word public is used much as in... 1950 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Integration may be any of the following: In the most general sense, integration may be any bringing together of things: the integration of two or more economies, cultures, religions (usually called syncretism), etc. ... In Topeka, Kansas, a black third-grader named Linda Brown had to walk one mile through a railroad switchyard to get to her black elementary school, even though a white elementary school was only seven blocks away. ... Segregation means separation. ...

See also

• List of United States Supreme Court Cases
• Civil Rights Cases, 109 U.S. 3 (1886)
• Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954)