Plessy+v.+Ferguson

=__Plessy vs. Ferguson__= toc On June 7, 1892, Homer Plessy, a thirty year old colored shoemaker, was put in jail for sitting in the "White" car on the East Louisiana Railroad. Plessy was but 1/8 black and 7/8 white, but under Louisiana law, he was considered black and was supposed to be sitting in the "colored" car. This was important to history because it showed how truly stingy americans were when it came to discrimination against different races and ethnicities. They could be very very judge mental and unfair.

What Happened?
Homer Plessy's arrest was part of a planned challenged towards the Louisiana Seperate car act. This was planned by the Citizen's committee, they wanted to test the constitutionality of the Separate Car Law. After it's orginization in 1891, they appointed Albion Tourgee as their legal representative. After leading a successful test case, in which the Louisiana district court agreed that segregation in railroad cars traveling through states was unconstitutional, they decided to test the constitutionality of segregation in railroads operating in only one state. The strategy is that they would decide on a person, who was of mixed blood, to violate the law. Then their legal representative, Albion Tourgee, could question the laws arbitrariness. Homer Plessy volunteered to be part of this experiment.

About Plessy
Plessy was born with the (strange and confusing) name Homère Patrice Plessy in New Orleans, Louisiana, on St. Patrick's Day 1863, not quite three months after the issue of Abe Lincolns's emancipation proclomation. Plessy's parents were free peopole of color, or creoles, as they had a background of African and French. Plessy's father died when he was only seven, and later on Plessy became a shoemaker, just like his father. In the 1880's he worked at Patricio Brito’s shoe making business. New Orleans city directories from 1886-1924 list his occupations as shoemaker, laborer, clerk, and insurance agent. Plessy worked hard for his living and was a very disciplined and hard working man who deserved every cent he made and more respect than he got.

About Ferguson
John Howard Ferguson was a lawyer and judge at the criminal district for the parish for Orleans. Later he presided over the case of Homer Adolph Plessy vs. The State of Louisiana. Judge Ferguson had recently declared that the seperate car act, a law that stated that louisiana railroad companies had to provide seperate but equal accommodations for whites and blacks, was unconstitutional on railroads who traveled through out states. In Plessy's case he decided that the state could choose to regulate railroad companies that ran only in that state. Ferguson found Plessy guilty of not leaving the white car to go into the black car. He also decided that the Seperate Car Act was constitutional.

In Court


Plessy took his case to court, and he made the argument that the separate car act was a violation of the thirteenth and fourteenth amendments to the constitution. The judge was John Howard Ferguson, who was a lawyer from Massachusetts and had previously declared the Separate Car Act "unconstitutional on trains that traveled through several states" In Plessy's case, he ruled that the state could choose to regulate railroad companies that operated only within Louisianna. Plessy went to the supreme court of Louisianna, but they upheld Ferguson's decision. Finally in 1896, the supreme court of the U.S heard Plessy's case, but he was found guilty once again. Speaking for a seven-person majority, Justice Henry Brown wrote: "That [the Separate Car Act] does not conflict with the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery...is too clear for argument...A statute which implies merely a legal distinction between the white and colored races."

The Impact
The outcome of this case had the potential to change America. If Ferguson had ruled in favor of Plessy, it could have showed the U.S that segregation was wrong, and it wasn't possible for something to be "seperate but equal". Segregation is segregation, no matter what. The outcome could have been the end of segregation. It would have started with the citizens of Louisiana and moved on across america, the news that in Louisiana (a largely southern and rebel) state, had sided with a black person. If the most SOUTHERN of all of the states had come to the realization that segregation was wrong, so could the rest of the south, and America. Instead, Ferguson deemed Plessy guilty and he was sent to jail. This sent out the complete wrong message. It was understood that segregation was a good thing, and that if you tried to deny it or side against it, you would be punished. This could have hindered some early american revolutionaries from progressing. This also brought the end to the citizen's commitee, discouraged by this unfair and harsh decision. How would america have been changed if Ferguson had made the RIGHT decision? We'll never know.