Rebecca Dasema Ms. Houghton Dual Credit American History 08 September 2017 The Beginning of “Separate BUT Equal” Introduction On June 7th, 1892, Homer Plessy paid for and rode the East Louisiana Railway from New Orleans to Covington. He paid for first class and was riding alongside white counterparts. This may seem like a harmless ordeal to some, but a key fact is missing. Homer Plessy was an “octoroon”, meaning he was one-eighth black. Under Louisiana law, people of color were forced to sit separately from whites due to the Separate Car Act. Even though Plessy was only one-eighth black, he was still considered a “person of color” and was forced to move into a separate accommodation. Homer Plessy,outraged, refused to comply and was imprisoned. Plessy then filed a complaint against the state of Louisiana claiming that the reason for his arrest went against the Fourteenth Amendment. While on trial, Judge John Howard Ferguson decided that the state of Louisiana “could choose to regulate railroad companies that operated only within the state”, thus finding Plessy guilty of his refusal to leave the white accommodation. Homer Plessy's case Plessy v. Ferguson eventually reached the Supreme Court where they found Homer guilty once again. This case can best be understood by the legitimacy of Homer Plessy’s standing in court , the idea of equality, and the Fourteenth Amendment. `Legitimacy of Standing The fact that the Supreme Court
There was no clarification on what race would be considered white or what would be considered black. During this incident, “Homer Plessy, who was seven-eighths white and one-eighth African American, purchased a rail ticket for travel within Louisiana and took a seat in a car reserved for white passengers. (The state Supreme Court had ruled earlier that the law could not be applied to interstate travel.) After refusing to move to a car for African Americans, he was arrested and charged with violating the Separate Car Act.”(Duignan 2017). Judge Ferguson ruled that the separation was fair and did not violate the fourteenth amendment. The state Supreme Court also backed up this decision. The case was brought to the Supreme Court and "The law was challenged in the Supreme Court on grounds that it conflicted with the 13th and 14th Amendments. By a 7-1 vote, the Court said that a state law that “implies merely a legal distinction” between the two races did not conflict with the 13th Amendment forbidding involuntary servitude, nor did it tend to reestablish such a condition." (History.com Staff 2009). This decision set the key precedent of Separate but Equal in the United States. Racial segregation kept growing.
In June 1892 Homer A. Plessy bought a first-class ticket on the East Louisiana Railroad and sat in the car designated for whites only. Plessy was of mixed African and European ancestry, and he looked white. Because the Citizens Committee wanted to challenge the segregation law in court, it alerted railroad officials that Plessy would be sitting in the whites only car, even though he was partly of African descent. Plessy was arrested and brought to court for arraignment before Judge John H. Ferguson of the U.S. District Court in Louisiana. Plessy then attempted to halt the trial by suing Ferguson on the grounds that the segregation law was unconstitutional.
In 1892, Homer Plessy sought a seat in a “white” train car. Plessy was only 1/8 black, and appeared to be a Caucasian man. Even after being belittled and threatened, Plessy refused to transfer to a “colored” car. Violating the Separate Car Act, Plessy was arrested. He stated that this act violated his 13th and 14th amendment constitutional rights. His statements entailed that the act stripped away his 13th amendment right opposing slavery and his 14th amendment right for equal protection under the law. These arguments were revoked twice in lower courts until he decided he would take his plea to the Louisiana Supreme Court. (pbs.org)
African Americans were never treated the same as other Americans. One day a black man who looked white named Homer Plessy got sick of sitting in a Jim Crow car so he decided to purchase a first class ticket in the white’s only section on the train. Plessy told the conductor that he was 1/8 black and he refused to move from the car. Removed from the train Plessy was in jail overnight and was released on a 500 dollar bond. Homer Plessy protested that his 13th and his 14th amendments rights were violated. This case became known as Plessy v. Ferguson. This case upheld the constitutionality of segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine.
First off, Plessy v Ferguson is a prime example for the use of the fourteenth amendment’s equal protection clause protecting Homer Plessy, enforcing a “separate but equal” mindset among the people touched by this court case, and demonstrated the strength of the equal protection clause. Homer Plessy In the 1892 incident, Plessy refused to sit in Jim Crow car (expression meaning Negro, racial segregation directed toward African Americans), breaking Louisiana law. At first the Supreme Court didn’t believe his constitutional rights were violated. Their reason behind this is that it was a state law that “implies merely a legal distinction” between whites and people of color. To them, it did not violate the 13th or 14th amendment. This state law was Louisiana's, the law was about providing “separate but equal accommodations for the
1) How did the majority opinion in the Supreme Court’s 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision legally shape race
The next critical Supreme Court ruling on the issue of civil rights was in 1892 with the Plessy v. Ferguson case. Homer Adolph Plessy was a shoemaker from the state of Louisiana. Although Plessy was seven eighths white and only one eighth black. According to the law in Louisiana, he was still required to use the facilities designated as "colored". In an attempt to challenge the law, Plessy, with the support of civil rights activists, bought a ticket for the first class coach on the East Louisiana Rail Road. Plessy boarded and sat down in the first class coach. Just after the train departed the station the conductor confronted Plessy. The conductor asked him if he was black, Plessy told him he was and that he refused to leave the coach. The train was stopped; Plessy was arrested and formally charged at the fifth street police station.
After the Separate Car Act of 1890 passed in the State of Louisiana which required separate railway cars for blacks and whites a man of mixed race who was seven eighths of European decent and of one eighth African descent purchased a first class ticket, and upon taking his seat was once asked to move to the black only car, then was arrested for violating the separate car act, Plessy’s side argued that the Seperate Car Act had violated his thirteenth and fourteenth amendment rights. Judge Ferguson found Plessy to be guilty, and the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld his decision with the intention that it was the rights of the state to regulate railroad companies within the state.
Plessey boarded a car of the East Louisiana Railroad that was designated by whites for use by white patrons only. Although Plessey was one-eighth black and seven-eighths white, under Louisiana state law he was classified as an African-American, and thus required to sit in the "colored" car. When Plessey refused to leave the white car and move to the colored car, he was arrested and jailed. The Court rejected Plessey's arguments based on the Thirteenth Amendment, seeing no way in which the Louisiana statute violated it. In addition, the majority of the Court rejected the view that the Louisiana law implied any inferiority of blacks, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Instead, it contended that the law separated the two races as a matter of public policy.
He sat in the white's section and purposely stated to the conducted that he was one eight African American. This was all a test backed up by the Citizen's Committee. The conductor told him to leave but Plessy refused. He was kicked off the train and jailed overnight. The bond to release him was $500. Plessy was protesting for the 13th and 14th amendment rights. He wanted to bring awareness to the fact that African Americans were not treated equally due to the color of their skin. Plessy pressed charges against the state of Louisiana for restricting and limiting the Equal Protection Clause which is under the 14th amendment. This implies that no state can limit the equal protection of laws to any individual. No African American should be denied any rights that a white person has. Ferguson countered Plessy's points by stating that each state has the right to make rules in order to maintain public safety. Keeping races from intermixing would lessen the violence for everyone. Judge Ferguson found Plessy guilty at the Louisiana state court. Plessy kept fighting and after bringing attention to the trial and suing Ferguson for a wrong interpretation of the case it made its way to the Supreme
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The Plessy versus Ferguson case started with an incident where an African American passenger on a train, Homer Plessy, broke Louisiana law by refusing to sit in a Jim Crow car, a separate cart on the train where African Americans had to sit. This
In 1892, Homer Plessy was a passenger in a railroad and who refused to sit in a Jim Crow car. He brought before Judge John H. Ferguson of the Criminal Court from New Orleans, who upheld the state law. The law was challenged in the Supreme Court on grounds that it conflicted with the 13th and 14th Amendments. Although, the Supreme Court had ruled in 1896, Plessy v Ferguson inculcated the “separate but equal” doctrine and passed laws entailing the segregation of races, arguing that Jim Crow laws were constitutional. The case was devastating for African Americans allowing the oppression of an entire race. The Supreme Court system in practice was separate and unequal;
Homer A. Plessy was an African American cobbler (shoemaker) who was riding the Louisiana train. He sat in the Railroad car reserved for whites and was arrested when he revealed to the conductor that he was African American. When Plessy stated his plea that the Louisiana Jim Crow Railroad Car Law was unconstitutional, it was overruled by John H. Ferguson, a judge of the criminal court for New Orleans. There were challenges with their law in their Supreme Court; the problem was that it was conflicting with their Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendment. The Thirteenth amendment was meant to prohibit slavery and the Fourteenth amendment stated that any human born or naturalized in the US of any race are american citizens. When the case was brought
In the Plessy v. Ferguson case, the statute of Louisiana, acts of 1890, c. 111 requires train companies to provide separate but equal usage for colored and white races. Plessy was a resident in the state of Louisiana which he was of mixed race as he was seven eighths caucasian and one eighth black. He tried to use the whites only train section and was arrested. Plessy then sued Louisiana State Supreme Justice, the Hon. John H. Ferguson for violating his 13th Amendment which prevents slavery and his 14th Amendment which is equal protection under US laws. (“Plessy v. Ferguson”, 1).