Separate But Equal Equality

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.

On June 7, 1892, Homer Plessy, a thirty year-old shoemaker bought a first class ticket preparing to travel from New Orleans to Covington, Louisiana. Homer Plessy was something called a “Creole of Color” a phrase used to describe black people in New Orleans that trace their ancestry to the French, the Spanish and the Caribbean settlers. He had a very light colored skin tone and was only one eighth black. Even so, he was required by law to sit in the black section of the train. He boarded the train and sat in the “white” car. (Wormser) The conductor questioned him, and after refusing to move he was arrested and charged with not following state law. He went first to the Criminal District Court for the Parish of Orleans, and Tourgee, the hired lawyer, brought his case that the “separate but equal” rules were unconstitutional. Judge John H. Ferguson ruled against him, but that did not stop Homer Plessy. Instead, he applied to the State Supreme Court for the ability to go on to the United States Supreme Court. (Wormser)

In 1890, the Separate Car Act was enacted in the state of Louisiana requiring whites and non-white Americans to travel in separate railway cars. As a result, a passenger, Homer Adolph Plessy took a seat in a “whites only” car in one of the Louisiana trains and refused to move to the “blacks only” car and was subsequently arrested despite being only a eighth black.

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.

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.

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;

In 1890, the state of Louisiana passed the Separate Car Act that required separate carts on the railroad for African-Americans and whites. Plessy was born a free man and was seven-eighth Caucasian and one-eighth African-American. However, under Louisiana law, he was classified as African-American. Thus was required to sit in the "colored" car. On June 7, 1892, Plessy bought a first-class ticket and boarded the "whites only" car of the East Louisiana Railroad in Louisiana. He was immediately asked to move to the “colored” car, and he refused to move. Upon refusal he was arrested for violating the Separate Car Act.

The trial stemmed from an incident in 1892 where Homer Plessy took a seat in the whites only railway car after being asked to move and sit instead in the blacks only car, he refused and was arrested immediately. In his case his lawyers argued that his Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated. Judge John Howard Ferguson ruled that the State of Louisiana has the right to regulate railway companies while the operated within state lines. Therefore, Plessy lost the case and was ordered to pay a fine.

The small southern state of Louisiana enacted the Separate Car Act in 1890. The law required separate train cars for whites and blacks and the condition they were equal. This was not such an unusual law for the 1890’s though some Northern states even had similar laws. The exact accounts of the event seem to differ from the newspapers to the actual arrest record. But Homer Plessy was hired to purchase a ticket in violation of the law. The hired detective arrested Plessy before he even entered the car, and that is collaborated by to the arrest record too. The Daily Picayune reported on the arrest on June 7, 1892 and illustrated Plessy as seated in the car and refusing to move despite several attempts. Either way it made it to the Supreme Court with little resistance. The Supreme Court had already essentially annulled any federal power to guard against racial discrimination. So the ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) was really not out of character for a very conservative Court. With only one dissenting Justice the Court laid down the approval of “separate but equal.” And the majorities’ opinion expressed favorable comments to the Southern law

We live in a world where constant change is commonplace in our lives, shifting views and mindsets lead to conflicts and intricate resolutions. We are a split society, in truth. Opinions often outweigh fact, causing people and ideas to crumble. This is why equality is a topic which has become increasingly more relevant.

Throughout the article, the author takes no time in showing their emphasis on what their main argument is. The author uses their article to speak about the 2012 U.S. presidential campaign, and one of the main focuses that both sides used often throughout their campaigns. The two candidates clearly had their differences, but it was evident that they both agreed on one thing, their support of equal opportunity in our great country. Whether you are white, black, pink, purple, etc. everyone is to have the same equality when it comes to opportunity.