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Essay On Homer Plessy

1088 Words5 Pages

Arrest of a Determined Traveler Was separate really equal under the law? In 1896, Homer Plessy forever changed the racial atmosphere in the United States with his arrest for breaking a local Jim Crow law. The legacy of Plessy’s arrest would be felt throughout the 20th Century due to the legalization of segregation in the United States under Plessy v. Ferguson which led to lasting racial tensions. Homer Plessy became known for his involvement in the court case Plessy v. Ferguson. Plessy, who was a 30 year old Creole man from New Orleans, could pass for a white man due to his light skin tone. Under the Louisiana law system, if a person was not fully white you were considered an African-American. On June 7, 1898, Plessy was arrested for sitting in the all white train cars. Louisiana had passed the Separate Car Act in 1890, which made it legal to separate passenger cars by race. The train conductor noticed Plessy on the train car and kindly asked him if he was white. Plessy answered that he was black, and as a result, he was arrested. According to an article entitled, “Another Jim Crow Car Case” in a local newspaper, The Daily Picayune, on June 9, 1892, Homer Plessy violated Louisiana's Separate Car Act in an effort to test the law. Private Detective Cain arrested Plessy on …show more content…

These laws were passed by Southern states during Reconstruction. A few examples of Jim Crow laws included the following: Any African-American found intoxicated would pay a fine or be required to work a sum of five days as a construction worker. No African-American who was not in the service of a white person would be allowed to have any weapons, without any permission. No African-American could exclaim the word of Christ to colored people. If any colored person went against the black code laws, they were punished by being whipped or branded. (“Black Code and Jim Crow Law examples-Black codes and Jim

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Homer Plessy's Case Summary Of The Abbott Case

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The Abbott case however didn't apply to intrastate commerce, travel that is entirely inside the borders of Louisiana, so Martimet and Tourgée began to look for yet another lighter skinned black to test the law. In the end they found Homer Plessy, a member of the citizens' committee that raised the money for the original case. Plessy walked into Press Street Depot on June 7, 1892 and bought a first class ticket to Covington, he boarded the East Louisiana Railroad train. As the train preceded to pull away a conductor approached Plessy and asked if he was a colored man. Plessy told the man he was and was asked to move to the colored car, but Plessy refused to do so.

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548 Words | 3 Pages

Plessy v Fergusen was yet another court case where “separate but equal” was not implementing equality. It showed that they still thought of Black men and women as being less and not deserving the same rights as the White men. Homer Plessy was a free man, that was mainly White and because of a percentage he had of being Black he was treated as a Black man. He tried to sit in the train car of the White men and much like Rosa Parks was asked to go to the back where the Black men belonged in a different car. This case resulted in the Supreme Court defending the decision of the East Louisiana Railroad stating that they weren't violating any law by the ruling they had.

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661 Words | 3 Pages

Plesssy v. Ferguson, Brown v. Board of education both dealt with one of America 's biggest problems segregation. Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education both delt with segregation, Plessy v. Ferguson was on the Louisiana rail road act, Brown v. Board of Education was on the separate but equal clause, and they were both related. In Plessy v. Ferguson was a dispute between on Louisiana rail road act which made it illegal for whites and blacks to sit together in a rail car. Homer Plessy was a man who severed as the vice president for the Justice, Protective, Educational and Social Club in New Orleans.

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Plessy Vs Ferguson Case Study

1002 Words | 5 Pages

The petitioner of the case was Homer Plessy, and the respondent of the case was John H. Ferguson. The hearing began on April 13th, 1896, and came to a conclusion on May 18th, 1896. This case was one of the beginning cases for Separate but Equal, and is still remembered to this day. This case all started when Plessy, who was seven eighths white, sat down in the “white” train car and was asked to leave and sit in the “colored” train car.

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416 Words | 2 Pages

To understand the question, focusing on the court cases of Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education, we must first understand each court case on its own. Plessy v. Ferguson resulted in the year 1896. The case involved the 1890s Louisiana law that basically stated that there were separate railway carriages that were specifically labeled for blacks only and whites only. Plessy v. Ferguson involved Homer Plessy, who was seven-eighths white and one-eighth black and appeared to look like a white man. Plessy took an open seat in a white only railway car.

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Plessy v Ferguson, 1892, a cornerstone in racial discrimination, dictated that public places, including railway cars, were considered separate but equal. This ushered in the Jim Crow laws that pushed the separate but equal laws at an alarming pace, causing further oppression for the African Americans. Between 1887 and 1950, nearly 5,000 African Americans were lynched all because of the color of their skin. The war may have been over for the states, but in the hearts of the black person, it had only just

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1483 Words | 6 Pages

The new era declared a new level of showing arrogance. The involuntary laws were unreasonable and unfair to anyone of that race. The laws continued for a long while. Plessy vs. Ferguson claimed one of the major cases that broke out May 18, 1896. In Homer's earlier days of growing up, he had endured his father dying and his widowed mother marrying soon after.

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665 Words | 3 Pages

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