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Essay On Homer Plessy

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Arrest of a Determined Traveler Was separate really equal under the law? In 1896, Homer Plessy forever changed the racial atmosphere in the United States with his arrest for breaking a local Jim Crow law. The legacy of Plessy’s arrest would be felt throughout the 20th Century due to the legalization of segregation in the United States under Plessy v. Ferguson which led to lasting racial tensions. Homer Plessy became known for his involvement in the court case Plessy v. Ferguson. Plessy, who was a 30 year old Creole man from New Orleans, could pass for a white man due to his light skin tone. Under the Louisiana law system, if a person was not fully white you were considered an African-American. On June 7, 1898, Plessy was arrested for sitting in the all white train cars. Louisiana had passed the Separate Car Act in 1890, which made it legal to separate passenger cars by race. The train conductor noticed Plessy on the train car and kindly asked him if he was white. Plessy answered that he was black, and as a result, he was arrested. According to an article entitled, “Another Jim Crow Car Case” in a local newspaper, The Daily Picayune, on June 9, 1892, Homer Plessy violated Louisiana's Separate Car Act in an effort to test the law. Private Detective Cain arrested Plessy on …show more content…

These laws were passed by Southern states during Reconstruction. A few examples of Jim Crow laws included the following: Any African-American found intoxicated would pay a fine or be required to work a sum of five days as a construction worker. No African-American who was not in the service of a white person would be allowed to have any weapons, without any permission. No African-American could exclaim the word of Christ to colored people. If any colored person went against the black code laws, they were punished by being whipped or branded. (“Black Code and Jim Crow Law examples-Black codes and Jim

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