Separate But Equal Equality

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

In the case of Plessy V Ferguson, a man named “Homer Plessy, who was one eighth black, purchased a first class ticket and sat in an all whites only railroad car.” At the time Louisiana had a law put in place that stated any and every railing company in Louisiana carrying passengers must have separate cars for the whites and the colored. Plessy was arrested and he argued that the Act conflicted with the thirteenth and fourteenth amendments but lost

The trial stemmed from an incident in 1892 where Homer Plessy took a seat in the whites only railway car after being asked to move and sit instead in the blacks only car, he refused and was arrested immediately. In his case his lawyers argued that his Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated. Judge John Howard Ferguson ruled that the State of Louisiana has the right to regulate railway companies while the operated within state lines. Therefore, Plessy lost the case and was ordered to pay a fine.

In 1890, the state of Louisiana passed the Separate Car Act that required separate carts on the railroad for African-Americans and whites. Plessy was born a free man and was seven-eighth Caucasian and one-eighth African-American. However, under Louisiana law, he was classified as African-American. Thus was required to sit in the "colored" car. On June 7, 1892, Plessy bought a first-class ticket and boarded the "whites only" car of the East Louisiana Railroad in Louisiana. He was immediately asked to move to the “colored” car, and he refused to move. Upon refusal he was arrested for violating the Separate Car Act.

In 1892, the Plessy v. Ferguson case had emerged from a conflict from Louisiana’s Separate Car Act. The law required that railroads have “separate but equal accommodations,” prohibiting African American and White passengers from entering besides the one they were assigned to based on race. Homer Plessy, a seven-eighths White and one-eighth African American bought a rail travel ticket in Louisiana for the White car and took a seat. He was later told to move to the African American car, after refusing to move he was arrested and charged for not complying with the Separate Car Act.

In 1890, the Separate Car Act was enacted in the state of Louisiana requiring whites and non-white Americans to travel in separate railway cars. As a result, a passenger, Homer Adolph Plessy took a seat in a “whites only” car in one of the Louisiana trains and refused to move to the “blacks only” car and was subsequently arrested despite being only a eighth black.

This case from Louisiana which comprised of Plessy refusing to sit in a Jim Crow Car in which in 1890, adopted the law of “equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races” on its railroads. Brought Plessy in 1892 before Judge John H. Ferguson, a judge of the Criminal Court in New Orleans, who was in support of the state law. Eventually this law was then challenged in the Supreme Court on the premises that it did conflict with the 13th and 14th amendment.

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.

In 1892, Homer Plessy sought a seat in a “white” train car. Plessy was only 1/8 black, and appeared to be a Caucasian man. Even after being belittled and threatened, Plessy refused to transfer to a “colored” car. Violating the Separate Car Act, Plessy was arrested. He stated that this act violated his 13th and 14th amendment constitutional rights. His statements entailed that the act stripped away his 13th amendment right opposing slavery and his 14th amendment right for equal protection under the law. These arguments were revoked twice in lower courts until he decided he would take his plea to the Louisiana Supreme Court. (pbs.org)

The Plessy versus Ferguson case started with an incident where an African American passenger on a train, Homer Plessy, broke Louisiana law by refusing to sit in a Jim Crow car, a separate cart on the train where African Americans had to sit. This

Plessey boarded a car of the East Louisiana Railroad that was designated by whites for use by white patrons only. Although Plessey was one-eighth black and seven-eighths white, under Louisiana state law he was classified as an African-American, and thus required to sit in the "colored" car. When Plessey refused to leave the white car and move to the colored car, he was arrested and jailed. The Court rejected Plessey's arguments based on the Thirteenth Amendment, seeing no way in which the Louisiana statute violated it. In addition, the majority of the Court rejected the view that the Louisiana law implied any inferiority of blacks, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Instead, it contended that the law separated the two races as a matter of public policy.

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.

Throughout the article, the author takes no time in showing their emphasis on what their main argument is. The author uses their article to speak about the 2012 U.S. presidential campaign, and one of the main focuses that both sides used often throughout their campaigns. The two candidates clearly had their differences, but it was evident that they both agreed on one thing, their support of equal opportunity in our great country. Whether you are white, black, pink, purple, etc. everyone is to have the same equality when it comes to opportunity.