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Plessy v Ferguson Description
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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.
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)
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?
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.
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.
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.
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 was just protecting what was right. If the Amendments to the Constitution states one thing cant go behind it and disobey the law.
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.
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?
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?
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.”
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
Plessy v Ferguson
Why did judge John Howard Ferguson vote the separate cars act was unconstitutional outside of Louisiana but claim it was inside?
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.
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?
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.
Why did plessy appeal the case then to the state Supreme Court?
How many jurors had to agree on the law and why isn’t it unanimously decided?
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.
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.
How does the separate but equal doctrine impact American history, especially in the South?
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?
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
- What law did Homer Plessy violate? How did Plessy violate this law?
- What rights do the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments provide? Why did Plessy believe that the Separate Car Act violated these rights?
- Judge Ferguson decided that the state could make laws for railroad companies that traveled within the state but not for those that traveled between states. On what basis can Judge Ferguson treat these two situations differently?
- What claim did Plessy make to the Louisiana State Supreme Court? How did his claim reflect on his argument that his Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated?
- Do you think it is possible for blacks and whites to be separate and equal? Why or why not? If so, describe a situation where people can be separate, but equal.
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