ipl-logo

Plessy Vs Ferguson

1202 Words5 Pages

Plessy v Ferguson 1896 June 7, 1892 Homer Plessy boarded a Louisiana train and as a black man chose to sit in the whites-only car. This was not the first time a black person broke the law to try to change it nor would it be the last. It was a particularly memorable incident because the term “separate but equal” came about and there was a negative impact on the lives of black Americans for many decades. Plessy was arrested for violating the Separate Car Act of 1890 and with the help of the Comite` des Citoyens, he hoped to change the world for black citizens in the United States. Unfortunately, John Howard Ferguson, then, later the United States Supreme Court got in Plessy’s way. Dred Scott was the case before Homer Plessy. Scott was a slave …show more content…

The Act mandated equal but separate rail travel in Louisiana by forcing the railway to provide separate cars for its black and white citizens. It also gave railway officers the “authority to refuse to carry any passenger that refused to sit within their designated race”. (Medley, 2003) This Act incensed a group of eighteen elite black men and in September 1891 they came together to form the Comite` des Citoyens. The Comite`, also called the Citizens Committee for the Annulment of Act 111, opposed the Separate Car Act of 1890. They raised funds, held rallies, composed legal tactics, and decided to run two test cases. The first test case was thrown out by Judge Ferguson. Daniel Desdunes, a black man, boarded a white-only train car in Louisiana headed for Mobile, Alabama. He was arrested for violating the Separate Car Act of 1890 but the case went nowhere because he was not traveling within Louisiana state lines. Homer Plessy, the second test case, was chosen for his ability to look white enough to gain access to the train but black enough to be arrested and his travel would be within state …show more content…

Linda Brown, a black child, lived only seven blocks from an all-white elementary school and when her father tried to enroll her he was turned away, so he went to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People who agreed to help. The United States Supreme Court reached a unanimous 9-0 decision stating that “separate but equal facilities are inherently unequal and violate the protections of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment”. (Tushnet,

Show More
Related
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.

Read More
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.

Read More
1002 Words | 5 Pages

After his refusal to leave, he was arrested and convicted for not abiding by the Separate Car Act. The Separate Car Act was one of the first acts that had separated any races from another. This sparked many controversies that had occurred in the United States

Read More
270 Words | 2 Pages

In 1890, the state of Louisiana passed a law (the Separate Car Act) that required separate accommodations for blacks and whites on railroads, including separate railway cars.[2] Concerned, a group of prominent black, creole, and white New Orleans residents formed the Comité des Citoyens (Committee of Citizens) dedicated to repeal the law or fight its effect.[3] They persuaded Homer Plessy, a man of mixed race, to participate in an orchestrated test case. Plessy was born a free man and was an "octoroon" (of seven-eighths European descent and one-eighth African descent). However, under Louisiana law, he was classified as black, and thus required to sit in the "colored" car.[4]

Read More
125 Words | 1 Pages

Homer Plessy was a brave man willing to stand up against southern Jim Crow laws, and that is fate in the Supreme Court is unfair. The Separate Car Act dictates that separate races must sit in separate cars, which is segregatory, and passed by the state of Louisiana. This is in direct violation of the 14th, and rightfully deserved to be challenged. African Americans everywhere should be able to use their rights earned by four long years of bloodshed, and not be dampened by the courts. But the court overlooked the fact that it was an state law, and not private policy, and deemed the segregation private and thus legal.

Read More
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
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
552 Words | 3 Pages

The officer of the arrest claimed that Plessy was guilty of violating Louisiana’s state statute that required railroad companies to provide equal but separate passenger cars for different races in which prohibited any person to occupy any passenger coach not assigned to their race.

Read More
466 Words | 2 Pages

Allison Krug English II Ms. Cuddihy January 24th, 2015 Plessy vs. Ferguson It might be hard to imagine but in 1896 people who sat in the wrong part of the passenger train were fined and/or jailed. Plessy vs. Ferguson helped pave the way for many anti racial discrimination laws. This Supreme Court decision helped to uphold the Statue of Louisiana acts of 1890, which required passenger trains to provide “separate but equal” accommodations for whites and colored races on its railroads which changed the rights to make separate facilities for both races to be constitutional as long as they were equal. This truly changed the Civil Rights Era forever.

Read More
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.

Read More
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
946 Words | 4 Pages

On May 18, 1896, the Supreme Court ruled in the Plessy vs. Ferguson law case that separate-but-equal facilities on trains were constitutional.” It is deplorable that such laws were created by Southern Republics to ensure that African Americans would maintain to be treated inferior to them. This includes making segregation a law. Blacks and whites could no longer dine together, sit on the bus together, get an education together,

Read More
478 Words | 2 Pages

The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified on July 9, 1868. It granted citizenship to all persons, born or naturalized in the United States. It forbids states from denying any person "life, liberty, or property, without due process of the law" or to "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." An example of Supreme Court Case involving the Fourteenth Amendment is Plessy v. Ferguson. Homer Adolph Plessy was a successful Louisiana businessman.

Read More
838 Words | 4 Pages

In 1892, Homer Plessy was riding on a train in Louisiana. He sat down in the car reserved for white passengers and refused to move when asked by the conductor. He was arrested and went to court, where he was convicted based on the 1890 Louisiana law stating that railway segregation was legal as long as both cars were equal. He appealed to the state supreme court, who affirmed the decision of the trial court, and it was brought to the Supreme Court. They ruled in an overwhelming 7-1 decision that as long as the cars were equal, segregation was legal.

Read More
537 Words | 3 Pages

Dred Scott was sued for his freedom on the grounds that he had lived for a time in a "free" territory. The Court ruled against him, saying that under the Constitution, he was his master 's property. The people involved with this court case are the Supreme Court,Dred Scott, and Chief Justice Roger B. The final judgment for this case ended up in Dred Scott 's favor.

Read More

More about Plessy Vs Ferguson

Related Topics

Open Document