Background Summary & Questions
In 1890, Louisiana passed a statute called the Separate Car Act. This law declared that all rail companies carrying passengers in Louisiana had to provide separate but equal accommodations for white and non-white passengers. The penalty for sitting in the wrong compartment was a fine of $25 or 20 days in jail.
Two parties wanted to challenge the constitutionality of the Separate Car Act. A group of black citizens who raised money to overturn the law worked together with the East Louisiana Railroad Company, which sought to terminate the Act largely for monetary reasons. They chose a 30-year-old shoemaker named Homer Plessy, a citizen of the United States who was one-eighth black and a resident of the state of Louisiana. On June 7, 1892, Plessy purchased a first-class passage from New Orleans to Covington, Louisiana and sat in the railroad car for "White" passengers. The railroad officials knew Plessy was coming and arrested him for violating the Separate Car Act. Well known advocate for black rights Albion Tourgee, a white lawyer, agreed to argue the case for free.
Plessy argued in court that the Separate Car Act violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. The Thirteenth Amendment banned slavery and the Fourteenth Amendment requires that the government treat people equally. John Howard Ferguson, the judge hearing the case, had stated in a previous court decision that the Separate Car Act was unconstitutional if applied to trains running outside of Louisiana. In this case, however, he declared that the law was constitutional for trains running within the state and found Plessy guilty.
Plessy appealed the case to the Louisiana State Supreme Court, which affirmed the decision that the Louisiana law was constitutional. Plessy then took his case, Plessy v. Ferguson, to the Supreme Court of the United States, the highest court in the country. Judge John Howard Ferguson was named in the case because he had been named in the petition to the Louisiana State Supreme Court, not because he was a party to the initial lawsuit.
1896
The Court issues its infamous decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, upholding a Louisiana statute that requires "equal but separate [railroad] accommodations for the white and colored races."
Writing for an 8-1 majority, Justice Henry Brown states that the segregation law does not "discriminate" among legal rights by race, but merely recognizes a "distinction" between races "which must always exist so long as white men are distinguished from the other race by color."
Justice John Marshall Harlan's famous dissent in the case will become law after the Court's opinion in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
Logging in, please wait...
Commenting period (October 08, 2020 15:37 – October 01, 2021 12:00) is closed
0 General Document comments
0 Sentence and Paragraph comments
0 Image and Video comments
You've made 0 of the 3 requested comments
New Conversation
New Conversation
Hide Thread Detail
New Conversation
New Conversation
Hide Thread Detail
New Conversation
New Conversation
Hide Thread Detail
People cannot be equal but separate, to have equal accommodation and segregate the population would be too expensive to imagine. so whether the majority likes it or not, one side is bound to sadly suffer.
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment
New Conversation
New Conversation
New Conversation
New Conversation
Hide Thread Detail
New Conversation
This is related to the idea of the “one drop rule” which dictates that if someone has any of a certain ancestry the person is categorized with that ancestry. This does not recognize intersectionality of identity (being multi-ethnic)
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment
Where all these trains able to fit all the people who needed to get on and if not and if colored did you get a certain treatment?
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment
New Conversation
Was it ok for white people to break the rules and sit where there not supposed to and not get fined or jail time ?
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment
The separate cars act claims separate but equal is possible yet the very act of putting someone in jail or fining them for sitting on the wrong train car shows the inequality that’s created by it.
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment Hide Thread Detail
New Conversation
New Conversation
New Conversation
Hide Thread Detail
any court case has two sides: the one suing/prosecuting their case and the side defending. Each side can have multiple parties involved. But it’s not always about “getting what one wants.” It’s about the court interpreting what the law means and if it is constitutional or not.
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment
New Conversation
New Conversation
Hide Thread Detail
New Conversation
New Conversation
New Conversation
New Conversation
New Conversation
Hide Thread Detail
New Conversation
Ablion Tourgee was able to manage the case because he had knowledge of the Separate Car Act and knowing people should get treated equally.
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment
New Conversation
New Conversation
New Conversation
Plessy was just protecting what was right. If the Amendments to the Constitution states one thing cant go behind it and disobey the law.
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment
It’s messed up because the Seperate Car Act violated the 13th and 14th Amendment and some people feel sad and/or angry because of the fact that the Amendment was passed but things such as seating placements and the Seperate Car Act was still happening. It seemed to be very infuriating.
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment
New Conversation
New Conversation
Hide Thread Detail
New Conversation
When the 14th amendment was passed it stated people were treated equal no matter what so for Plessy to be on the cart and still have consequences for riding in the cart why pass that law if it was going to get disobeyed?
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment
This proves a good point but if the court goes against him and violate the 13th and 14th amendment would these members be given jail time for going against these amendment’s?
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment Hide Thread Detail
New Conversation
Having seating placements for people because of their skin color is not equality. Having white people sit in the front and having black people sit in the back isn’t “equal.”
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment Hide Thread Detail
New Conversation
New Conversation
Hide Thread Detail
New Conversation
Do you think having a state and federal government adds to systemic racism? In this case the law was constituional because of the state that its in, but do you think that this flexibility on laws has impact
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment
Plessy v Ferguson
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment
New Conversation
New Conversation
Why did judge John Howard Ferguson vote the separate cars act was unconstitutional outside of Louisiana but claim it was inside?
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment Hide Thread Detail
Judge Ferguson basically is stating that since Louisiana made laws only for Louisiana and not another state it was constitutional. If Louisiana had tried to make the law apply to another state (like Texas or Missouri for example) then the law would be unconstitutional because states can only make laws for themselves.
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment
Still after hearing that they were violating the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendment they still found him guilty. Those amendments tells us that government suppose to treat people equally. What satisfaction is the government getting out of this?
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment
Why did plessy appeal the case then to the state Supreme Court?
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment
How many jurors had to agree on the law and why isn’t it unanimously decided?
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment Hide Thread Detail
New Conversation
Hide Thread Detail
New Conversation
New Conversation
New Conversation
Hide Thread Detail
At this time both sexual parties did have to face discrimination. It didn’t matter the gender at this time blacks were separated regardless. As slavery ended they became more and more discrete with treating blacks as a minority group using any means to separate us from white people.
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment
New Conversation
Hide Thread Detail
New Conversation
How does the separate but equal doctrine impact American history, especially in the South?
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment
New Conversation
Why does the artle include a description of plessy as 1/8th black?
Did that have an effect on the judges ruling or even albion tourgee helping?
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment
New Conversation
New Conversation
Hide Thread Detail
New Conversation
New Conversation
General Document Comments 0
New Conversation
New Conversation
Hide Thread Detail
New Conversation
Hide Thread Detail
New Conversation
Hide Thread Detail
New Conversation
New Conversation
Hide Thread Detail
New Conversation
New Conversation
Hide Thread Detail
New Conversation