ipl-logo

Jim Crow Law: Plessy Vs. Ferguson

510 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Segregation in the usa 1950-60

Plessy V. Ferguson
From 1877-1954, the United States was enforcing the Jim Crow Laws, which are a series of laws that segregate the blacks from the whites. These laws caused many issues with the African American people, such as Plessy v. Ferguson.

On June 7, 1892, a 30-year-old man, Homer Plessy was arrested for sitting in the white-only train car. Another Person who was involved was John H. Ferguson. John Howard Ferguson was a lawyer and judge from Louisiana. He was most famous as the defendant in the Plessy v. Ferguson case. On June 7, 1892, Homer Plessy purposely sat in the white train car and identified himself as the black man. In 1892, there were the Jim Crow laws which segregated the white from the blacks. Plessy was arrested and was charged $25 by Judge John H. Ferguson. This case went all the way up to the United States Supreme Court. Plessy's lawyer disputed that the Separate Car Act violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth. In 1896, the United States Supreme Court heard Plessy’s case and held the Louisiana …show more content…

A system of laws discriminating against African Americans known as Jim Crow laws, extended all over the United States. At that time, it was legal to separate any organization or public amenity into ‘whites only' and 'blacks only.' For a long time, public transportation, cafeterias, rest areas, entertainment facility, movie houses, and even the United States Army could be legally separated. There were also rules and laws made to forbid the African Americans from casting votes. Often, the equality never existed even though the law stated it. White people always had the privilege to the best amenities, especially in the education system. Protests against this separation from the civil rights activists happened in the 1950s and 1960s. However, these were always negated by the white people who never wanted the law to

Show More
Related

Homer Plessy Case

355 Words | 2 Pages

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.

Read More

Plessy Vs. Ferguson: Supreme Court Case

138 Words | 1 Pages

Plessy v. Ferguson is a Supreme Court case that legalized segregation,”separate but equal”. The Supreme Court said that “separate but equal” did not violate the 14th Amendment. This all happened because an African American man sat in a whites only train car and refused to move. He sued and said that this violated his constitutional right. Case: In 1892 Homer Plessy took a seat in the “whites only” car of the train and refused to move.

Read More

Civil War: The Plessy Vs. Ferguson Case

1024 Words | 5 Pages

The Plessy v. Ferguson case is another example of segregation. In 1892, a black shoemaker named Homer Plessy was jailed for riding in a “white” car in Louisiana. Plessy was considered a Creole of Color because his ancestors traced back to French, Spanish, and Caribbean settlers of Louisiana. The case arose from resentment among black and Creole residents of Louisiana. He went up against the state of Louisiana saying that the Separate Car Act violated the 13th and 14th amendments.

Read More

Jim Crow Law: The Plessy Vs. Ferguson Case

1062 Words | 5 Pages

Plessy vs. Ferguson was a case that attempted to prove that the Jim Crow lawintervened with the fourteenth amendment in May 18, 1896. To give you a brief description about the Fourteenth Amendment, The Fourteenth Amendment was ratified on July 9, 1868 in the US Constitution. The Fourteenth Amendment broad goal was to ensure that the Civil Rights Act passed in 1866 would remain valid ensuring that "all persons born in the United States..." people that are born in the United States of America are given citizenship. Also, born citizenship provides "full and equal benefit of all laws."

Read More

Essay On Plessy V Ferguson

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.

Read More

Polk County Court Case Study

1549 Words | 7 Pages

Plessy V. Ferguson. In 1890, Louisiana passed the Separate Car Act, which required whites and blacks to ride in separate train cars. In 1892, Homer Plessy was arrested for sitting in a “whites only” car. Plessy filed a lawsuit declaring that his constitutional rights had been violated. However, the US Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that separate accommodations were constitutional as long as they were equal.

Read More

Compare And Contrast Plessy V Ferguson And Brown V Board Of Education

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.

Read More

Why Is Plessy V. Ferguson Important

552 Words | 3 Pages

Plessy v. Ferguson The Supreme Court of Plessy v. Ferguson, argued on April 13, 1896, involved a man identified as Homer Adolph Plessy. Plessy was a man of seven - eighths Caucasian and one - eighths of African descent in the State of Louisiana who was denied to sit in a passenger train car reserved for “whites only.” The case questioned the Supreme Court whether Louisiana’s law mandating racial segregation infringes the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Read More

Compare And Contrast Plessy Vs Ferguson

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.

Read More

How Did Anna Julia Cooper Challenge The Status Quo?

1043 Words | 5 Pages

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

Read More

Plessy V. Ferguson's Theory Of Civil Rights

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

Read More

Plessy Vs Ferguson Essay

414 Words | 2 Pages

Plessy v. Ferguson-The Plessy v. Ferguson trial initially began when the state of Louisiana passed the Separate Car Act in 1890 which made it legal to separate common train carriers. Homer Plessy (a Black man) purposely sat in the Whites- only section in 1892. Homer was shortly arrested and the Plessy v. Ferguson case began. Plessy v. Ferguson was the Supreme Court case that established the “Separate But Equal” laws in the United States in 1896. This decision set the standard that separate facilities (i.e. restrooms, public transportation etc.), for blacks and whites were in fact legal, as long as they were equal in accommodations.

Read More

Examples Of Discrimination In Huck Finn

731 Words | 3 Pages

Plessy then took this case to the Supreme Court, where their ruling set up a distinction between the Blacks and the White, who were supposedly equal (Bagwell, Jason). The Supreme Court ruled that even though the Fourteenth Amendment said that the two races were equal, those rights only went so far, and even went further on to say that the Fourteenth Amendment only applied to slavery (McBride,

Read More

Jim Crow Laws: Plessy Vs. Ferguson

763 Words | 4 Pages

When the Plessy case was heard, all the southern states had passed laws that required segregation on at least some of their railroads. The Facilities assigned to blacks were inferior to those that were set aside for the whites. The motivating force behind the Jim Crow Laws was white supremacy. Jim Crow Laws were rigidly enforced to keep blacks in a position of inferiority. African Americans who broke or tried to break the laws faced the possibility of arrest, lynching, and public punishment at the hands of the

Read More

Plessy V Ferguson Analysis

1056 Words | 5 Pages

With the withdrawal of federal troops from the south in 1877, southern white authorities banded together with impoverished whites below the banner of white supremacy, and instituted a new gadget of racial subordination. Normally referred to as Jim Crow, this system enforced by using regulation and custom the absolute separation of blacks and whites within the administrative center, schools, and genuinely all phases of public lifestyles within the South. The organization of Jim Crow country and local legal guidelines in the course of the South received the sanction of the federal authorities with the landmark best courtroom decision in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which used the cause “separate but equal” to uphold a Louisiana statute mandating

Read More

More about Jim Crow Law: Plessy Vs. Ferguson

Related Topics

Open Document