Plessy v Ferguson and Segregation: Black American History > .
Legal Segregation? | Plessy v. Ferguson - MrB > .
In 1890 the state of Louisiana introduced the Separate Car Act that required separate railway cars for black and white passengers. Two years later, in a challenge to the Act, the Comité des Citoyens (Committee of Citizens) civil rights group recruited Homer Plessy to purchase a first-class ticket from New Orleans to Covington and board a ‘Whites Only’ car. Plessy was an ‘octoroon’, which meant he had seven-eighths white and one-eighth black ancestry. Yet, despite his fair skin, under Louisiana law he was still classified as black.
The railroad company was aware of, and supported, the challenge as they opposed the need to purchase additional railway cars. Consequently Plessy was arrested after being asked to move. Having challenged the law as unconstitutional under the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, the case eventually made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court after the Louisiana courts found the Act was legal for railroads operating within the state.
The Supreme Court delivered its verdict on 18 May, 1896, in which a 7–1 decision upheld that Louisiana’s train car segregation laws were constitutional. This effectively legalized racial segregation by permitting separate but supposedly equal facilities.
In 1890 the state of Louisiana introduced the Separate Car Act that required separate railway cars for black and white passengers. Two years later, in a challenge to the Act, the Comité des Citoyens (Committee of Citizens) civil rights group recruited Homer Plessy to purchase a first-class ticket from New Orleans to Covington and board a ‘Whites Only’ car. Plessy was an ‘octoroon’, which meant he had seven-eighths white and one-eighth black ancestry. Yet, despite his fair skin, under Louisiana law he was still classified as black.
The railroad company was aware of, and supported, the challenge as they opposed the need to purchase additional railway cars. Consequently Plessy was arrested after being asked to move. Having challenged the law as unconstitutional under the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, the case eventually made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court after the Louisiana courts found the Act was legal for railroads operating within the state.
The Supreme Court delivered its verdict on 18 May, 1896, in which a 7–1 decision upheld that Louisiana’s train car segregation laws were constitutional. This effectively legalized racial segregation by permitting separate but supposedly equal facilities.
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