Which case denied citizenship to Black people by ruling that Black individuals could not be citizens of the United States?

• A. Plessy v. Ferguson
• B. Brown v. Board of Education
• C. Dred Scott v. Sandford
• D. Marbury v. Madison

Answer: (C)

The essential idea is understanding how citizenship and legal status for Black people were defined in the early United States. In Dred Scott v. Sandford, the Supreme Court ruled that Black individuals, whether enslaved or free, could not be citizens of the United States and thus had no right to sue in federal courts. The decision also held that Congress had no authority to prohibit slavery in new territories, reinforcing that slavery was a protected institution and undermining federal power to regulate it in those areas. This ruling effectively denied citizenship to Black people and intensified sectional tensions on the eve of the Civil War. The other cases don’t fit because they address different issues: Plessy v. Ferguson dealt with segregation in public accommodations; Brown v. Board of Education challenged school segregation; Marbury v. Madison established judicial review.