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Homer Plessy Case

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Homer Plessy was seven-eighths white and one-eighth black and agreed to test the constitution parts of the Separate Car Law. In 1892, Homer Plessy was arrested because he bought a ticket for a trip and sat down in an empty seat in a white-only train car. Hon. John H. Ferguson of the U.S. District Court dismissed Homer’s claims that his arrest was unconstitutional. Homer Plessy then sued the judge of his trial, Hon. John H. Ferguson at the Louisiana Supreme Court because he felt like his rights of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments had been violated. The lawsuit was going to be a challenge because they were trying to prove that the state of Louisiana denied Homer Plessy equal protection of the laws. On May 18,1896 the U.S Supreme
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265 Words | 2 Pages

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

He decided that the railroad had the right to implement their own laws and that those laws would need to be followed. The court case ended in that Plessy was convicted and had to pay a fine of $25.00. After being trialed he attempted a writ of prohibition but the Supreme Court sustained the verdict Judge Fergusen had decided on. The Supreme Court decided that the East Louisiana Railroad had not broken any laws by dividing the cars for Black and White men.

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347 Words | 2 Pages

The novel Passing of Nella Larsen held the historical and legal implications which can be seen through the judicial case of Homer Plessy who had one-eighth black and seven- eighths white. Plessy was forcibly jailed for sitting in the whites- only section on the railroad car in Louisiana. In 1896, at the Supreme Court, he argued that his black ancestry was insignificant and he was a white person by all definitions. The Supreme Court said that forcing Plessy to exclude from the whites section was against the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments about equal protection. However, Judge John Howard Ferguson affirmed that treating all people equally did not paralleled with eliminating social distinction based on colors.

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666 Words | 3 Pages

Homer Plessy, angered because of segregation laws in the 1890’s, specifically opposed the Separate Car Act. This allowed for a “whites only” car in trains. As a civil rights activist, Homer believed that the rights granted to him by the 13th and 14th amendments were being violated. Although mostly white, Plessy fought for equality for everyone. The passing of new segregation laws in the South spurred Plessy into action.

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1062 Words | 5 Pages

Homer Plessy did not consider himself black, because he was born an octoroon. In others eyes, Homer Plessy was tinted with black in his blood. This is all the more reason why the Jim Crow law or Separate Car Act Law contradicted the fourteenth Amendment. No one can truly be separated and equal. If the Jim Crow law was plausible, then it will make no sense to arrest Homer Plessy.

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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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799 Words | 4 Pages

Plessy v. Ferguson/Background In 1891 a group of people in New Orleans formed the Citizens’ Committee to test the constitutionality of the Separate Car Law. Homer Adolph Plessy, agreed to be the plaintiff in the case, aimed at testing the law’s constitutionality. On June 7, 1892, Plessy bought a ticket on a train and took a seat in a whites-only car. When he was told he had to sit in the car for blacks, he refused.

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466 Words | 2 Pages

Plessy vs. Ferguson a case that tested the “separate but equal” philosophy, had a negative impact on America. Plessy vs. Ferguson was a famous case that took action in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1896 just after President Abraham Lincoln issued the “Emancipation Proclamation” in 1863 (“Emancipation Proclamation Article”) to free all slaves. Homer Plessy and John Ferguson were the main key players in the case. African American passenger Homer Plessy refused to sit in a Jim Crow car, breaking a Louisiana law and was fined for sitting in the wrong seat/section of the train.

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688 Words | 3 Pages

Plessy vs. Ferguson, one of the bigger cases in the turning point for rights, gave the black community a big boost forward. There was a man named Homer Adoph Plessy that had a problem with the way things were going at the time and he wanted equal rights. But there was another man named John Ferguson who thought that everything was just skippy. They went to court to settle their quarrel.

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209 Words | 1 Pages

In the Lilies of the Field, by William E. Barrett, Homer and Mother Maria both display stubbornness, thoughtfulness and religiousness character traits. The 1st trait that Homer and Mother Maria share is stubbornness. Homer showed stubbornness when building the chapel; he insisted that he lay the bricks by himself. Mother Maria showed stubbornness when she insisted that Homer would build the chapel and that she wouldn’t pay him. The 2nd trait that Homer and Mother Maria share is thoughtfulness.

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1551 Words | 7 Pages

For nearly a century, the United States was occupied by the racial segregation of black and white people. The constitutionality of this “separation of humans into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life” had not been decided until a deliberate provocation to the law was made. The goal of this test was to have a mulatto, someone of mixed blood, defy the segregated train car law and raise a dispute on the fairness of being categorized as colored or not. This test went down in history as Plessy v. Ferguson, a planned challenge to the law during a period ruled by Jim Crow laws and the idea of “separate but equal” without equality for African Americans. This challenge forced the Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of segregation, and in result of the case, caused the nation to have split opinions of support and

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427 Words | 2 Pages

Ferguson was a case of the Supreme Court in 1892 after passenger Homer Plessy traveled on the Louisiana railroad and refused to sit in a car for blacks only. Homer Plessy was brought before Judge John H. Ferguson to a Criminal Court in New Orleans to be trailed for refusing to follow the state law of Louisiana “separate but equal.” Such conflict challenged the violation of the 13th and 14th amendment where they ensure equality for recently emancipated slaves. They stated, “Separate facilities for blacks and whites satisfied the Fourteenth Amendment so long as they were equal.” “In the nature of things it could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social, as distinguished from political equality, or a commingling of the two races unsatisfactory to either.”

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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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1790 Words | 8 Pages

The book, Who Killed Homer? The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom, is written by Victor Davis Hanson, and John Heath. The book is about why the Classics are dying, if it’s not dead already; what actions would need to be taken in order to take the Classics off of life support, and what would need to be done in order to teach newer generations about Classics. Both Hanson, and Heath are Classicist themselves whom worked as professors teaching Classics to students back in the early 1970’s and 1980’s. These two present an argument to the audience that the reason for the fall of Classical Education in modern day is due to the fact of ignorance of Greek wisdom, the demise of Classical learning is real and quantifiable, and the Classicist themselves are the blame for why there aren’t many people majoring in Classics.

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580 Words | 3 Pages

Homer is a well-known name in Greek Mythology, his works The Odyssey and The Iliad being prime examples of his memorable reign in literature. He is noted as Ancient Greece’s most significant author due to his writings being the first of many to introduce themes such as an “epic quests” and “a hero’s journey”. However, despite being an acclaimed and grand poet, numerous mysteries shroud around Homer himself and the aspects of his life. It is unconfirmed whether or not Homer was even a real person, or a group of several different individuals. In brief, not much is known about him.

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