Plessy V. Ferguson Case Study

In June 1892 Homer A. Plessy bought a first-class ticket on the East Louisiana Railroad and sat in the car designated for whites only. Plessy was of mixed African and European ancestry, and he looked white. Because the Citizens Committee wanted to challenge the segregation law in court, it alerted railroad officials that Plessy would be sitting in the whites only car, even though he was partly of African descent. Plessy was arrested and brought to court for arraignment before Judge John H. Ferguson of the U.S. District Court in Louisiana. Plessy then attempted to halt the trial by suing Ferguson on the grounds that the segregation law was unconstitutional.

On June 7, 1892, the law was tested again, when Homer Adolph Plessey, an “octoroon”, a very fair person with white features, purchased a ticket and boarded the Louisiana railroad with the consent of the Citizens Committee with the express purpose of violating the Separate Car Act. He sat in the “whites- only section” and when his ticket was collected by the conductor, Homer Adolph Plessey informed the conductor that he was 7/8 white and was not going to sit in the “black-only car.” Arrested and jailed, Plessey as released on $500 bail the next day. A White New York lawyer, Albion Winegar Tourgee, was retained. Plessey’s case was heard one month later before John Howard Ferguson. Tourgee argued the violation of the 13th and 14th amendments before Justice Ferguson. Tourgee’s argument was for absolute equality of all races. However, on May 18, 1896, Justice Brown, by a vote of 7 to 1, ruled in favor of the State of Louisiana upholding the constitutionality of state laws under the doctrine of “separate but equal" that justified a system of

The "Separate Car Act" was a law passed in 1890, which prevented blacks from sitting with the whites. A man named Homer Adolph Plessy, who was one eighth black, was part of a group, formed in 1891, called the "New Orleans Citizens Committee to Test the Constitutionality of the Separate Car Law." Plessy was chosen to represent this group by taking action and testing the law. He took action on June 7, 1892, when Plessy bought a ticket to New Orleans on the Louisiana Railroad to go to New Orleans. Once he boarded the train, he was asked to go to the "coloreds only" car, but refused to go. He was later fined and jailed for this, and soon was taken to court. When his case was brought up at the Supreme Court, he unfortunately

On June 7, 1892, Plessy boarded a New Orleans train and sat in the “whites only” car.  Plessy then informed the conductor that he was black and the railroad officials, following through on the arrangement, arrested Plessy and charged him with violating the Separate Car Act. Tourgée’s plan was officially in motion.  In the Criminal District Court for the Parish of Orleans, Tourgée argued that the law requiring “separate but equal accommodations” was unconstitutional as it violated the 13th & 14th Amendments. Further, as illustrated by Plessy’s arrest, there was no way for railroad companies to enforce the law. (Had Plessy not announced himself, no one would have ever known he was black.)  As Tourgée anticipated, Judge John H. Ferguson ruled

In 1890, the Supreme Court passed a Louisiana law that stated that all passenger railways provided separated cars for blacks and whites. They separated whites and blacks and punish passengers or employees for violating this law. On June 7, 1892 Homer Plessy took a vacant seat in a white only car on his trip between New Orleans and Los Angeles. Plessy was arrested because he was mixed, but was preferred as black and was put to trial for violating a law that was passed by the Supreme Court in 1890. Plessy felt that the Supreme Court was treating blacks unequal, so he filed an authority against the judge, Hon John H. Ferguson.

The case between Homer Plessy and Judge John H. Ferguson began when “Louisiana enacted the Separate Car Act, which required separate railway cars for blacks and whites,” according to the article “Plessy v. Ferguson” by Oyez. Plessy’s reaction towards this act was to challenge it. Encyclopedia Britannica’s article “Plessy v. Ferguson” states that, like Plessy, there was “a group of Creole professionals in New Orleans [who] formed the Citizens’ Committee to Test the Constitutionality of the Separate Car Law.” Plessy was approached by this committee and asked to sit in a white’s only railcar. Even though Plessy “was seven-eighths white and one-eighth black, and had the appearance of a white man,” according to the article

Plessy v. Ferguson This was a petition filed in the supreme court of Louisiana in 1896, by Homer Plessy, the plaintiff. He filed this petition against the Honorable John H. Ferguson, judge of The petitioner was a citizen of the United States and a descent meaning he had both white and African American ethnic backgrounds. Keep in mind that at this time Blacks were not considered equal to whites.

The 13th amendment only applied to slaves which was not the case for Plessy. The 14th amendment was not intended to give African Americans social equality instead only political and civil. Brown wrote the majority opinion while Harlan was the only dissenting vote. Harlan believed that the inequality and segregation had gone too far, becoming natural and socially acceptable. Although Harlan was conservative from Kentucky, a border state during the Civil War, he realized the harm segregation was causing. Harlan stated, "Our Constitution in color-blind and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens." Although conservatives thought they were acting according to the law, they were only twisting it in order to stay at the center of power. On May 18, 1896 the 7-1 decision was reached. The law under the 14th amendment of separate but equal was constitutional. Since there were car accommodations for both races, it was equal. Although Plessy lost the case, the separate but equal law was overturned in Brown Vs. Board of Education in

The State of Louisiana passed a law “that all railway companies carrying passengers in their coaches in this State shall provide equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races by providing two or more passenger coaches for each passenger train … No person or persons, shall be admitted to occupy seats in coaches other than the ones assigned to them on account of the race they belong to.” The Plessy v. Ferguson case was brought before the high court to decide if Mr. Plessy civil rights under the Thirteenth and Fourteenth was violated when Plessy was assigned a seat in the black car and when he refused was subsequently arrested for violating the law. The court felt the Thirteenth Amendment was about abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude which the court proved was not applicable to apply to this case. Since the case Roberts v. Boston, 59 Mass. (5 Cush.) 198 (1850) the states had widely accepted the concept of separate but equal education system, and the separation of races in places of entertainment have become widely approved throughout the country. Based on these examples, the court felt no infringement of equal rights was inflicted on Mr. Plessy as stated in the Fourteenth Amendment. The Supreme Court affirms the lower courts ruling that Mr. Plessy civil rights were not

In Plessy v. Ferguson, (1896) 163 U.S. 537, 16 S. Ct. 1138, 41 L. Ed. 256 the courts ruled in favor of the Respondent, Ferguson, finding that since the trains accommodated black passenger’s with equal accommodations,

There was no clarification on what race would be considered white or what would be considered black. During this incident, “Homer Plessy, who was seven-eighths white and one-eighth African American, purchased a rail ticket for travel within Louisiana and took a seat in a car reserved for white passengers. (The state Supreme Court had ruled earlier that the law could not be applied to interstate travel.) After refusing to move to a car for African Americans, he was arrested and charged with violating the Separate Car Act.”(Duignan 2017). Judge Ferguson ruled that the separation was fair and did not violate the fourteenth amendment. The state Supreme Court also backed up this decision. The case was brought to the Supreme Court and "The law was challenged in the Supreme Court on grounds that it conflicted with the 13th and 14th Amendments. By a 7-1 vote, the Court said that a state law that “implies merely a legal distinction” between the two races did not conflict with the 13th Amendment forbidding involuntary servitude, nor did it tend to reestablish such a condition." (History.com Staff 2009). This decision set the key precedent of Separate but Equal in the United States. Racial segregation kept growing.

Somewhat ironically, while Brown, a Northerner, justified the segregation of the races, Justice John Marshall Harlan, a Southerner from Kentucky, made a lone, resounding, and prophetic dissent. “The Thirteenth Amendment…struck down the institution of slavery [and]…decreed universal civil freedom,” Harlan declared. “Our Constitution is color-blind and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.” Harlan's dissent became the main theme of the unanimous decision of the Court in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.

Associate Justice John Marshall Harlan, the lone vote against the ruling, gave the dissenting opinion of the court. Harlan “insisted that the court had ignored the obvious purpose of the Separate Car Act, which was, under the guise of giving equal accommodation for whites and blacks, to compel the latter to keep to themselves while traveling in railroad passenger coaches. Because it presupposed—and was universally understood to presuppose—the inferiority of African Americans, the act imposed a badge of servitude upon them in violation of the Thirteenth Amendment.” (Duignan). He also stated, “The sure guaranty of the peace and security of each race is the clear, distinct, unconditional recognition by our governments, national and state, of every right that inheres in civil freedom, and of the equality before the law of all citizens of the United States, without regard to race. State enactments regulating the enjoyment of civil rights upon the basis of race, and cunningly devised to defeat legitimate results of the war, under the pretense of recognizing equality of rights, can have no other result than to render permanent peace impossible, and to keep alive a conflict of races, the continuance of which must do harm to all concerned” (Quotes from Plessy v. Fergusun). Harlan further explained what the constitution says by stating “Our Constitution is colorblind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In

The Supreme Court, in a 7-1 decision, favored Ferguson. The majority rejected Plessy’s argument about violating his 13th and 14th Amendment rights. Plessy’s 14th Amendment argument was rejected because the Supreme Court states that races could be separate and equal to each other. This set a precedent stating that separate but equal was lawful and constitutional. Justice Henry Brown wrote the majority opinion, which rejected Plessy’s argument that the Louisiana law conflicted with

The next critical Supreme Court ruling on the issue of civil rights was in 1892 with the Plessy v. Ferguson case. Homer Adolph Plessy was a shoemaker from the state of Louisiana. Although Plessy was seven eighths white and only one eighth black. According to the law in Louisiana, he was still required to use the facilities designated as "colored". In an attempt to challenge the law, Plessy, with the support of civil rights activists, bought a ticket for the first class coach on the East Louisiana Rail Road. Plessy boarded and sat down in the first class coach. Just after the train departed the station the conductor confronted Plessy. The conductor asked him if he was black, Plessy told him he was and that he refused to leave the coach. The train was stopped; Plessy was arrested and formally charged at the fifth street police station.