Plessy Vs Ferguson
Plessy v Ferguson 1896 June 7, 1892 Homer Plessy boarded a Louisiana train and as a black man chose to sit in the whites-only car. This was not the first time a black person broke the law to try to change it nor would it be the last. It was a particularly memorable incident because the term “separate but equal” came about and there was a negative impact on the lives of black Americans for many decades. Plessy was arrested for violating the Separate Car Act of 1890 and with the help of the Comite` des Citoyens, he hoped to change the world for black citizens in the United States. Unfortunately, John Howard Ferguson, then, later the United States Supreme Court got in Plessy’s way. Dred Scott was the case before Homer Plessy. Scott was a slave …show more content…
The Act mandated equal but separate rail travel in Louisiana by forcing the railway to provide separate cars for its black and white citizens. It also gave railway officers the “authority to refuse to carry any passenger that refused to sit within their designated race”. (Medley, 2003) This Act incensed a group of eighteen elite black men and in September 1891 they came together to form the Comite` des Citoyens. The Comite`, also called the Citizens Committee for the Annulment of Act 111, opposed the Separate Car Act of 1890. They raised funds, held rallies, composed legal tactics, and decided to run two test cases. The first test case was thrown out by Judge Ferguson. Daniel Desdunes, a black man, boarded a white-only train car in Louisiana headed for Mobile, Alabama. He was arrested for violating the Separate Car Act of 1890 but the case went nowhere because he was not traveling within Louisiana state lines. Homer Plessy, the second test case, was chosen for his ability to look white enough to gain access to the train but black enough to be arrested and his travel would be within state …show more content…
Linda Brown, a black child, lived only seven blocks from an all-white elementary school and when her father tried to enroll her he was turned away, so he went to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People who agreed to help. The United States Supreme Court reached a unanimous 9-0 decision stating that “separate but equal facilities are inherently unequal and violate the protections of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment”. (Tushnet,
Homer Plessy Vs. Ferguson Case
125 Words | 1 PagesHomer Plessy was a brave man willing to stand up against southern Jim Crow laws, and that is fate in the Supreme Court is unfair. The Separate Car Act dictates that separate races must sit in separate cars, which is segregatory, and passed by the state of Louisiana. This is in direct violation of the 14th, and rightfully deserved to be challenged. African Americans everywhere should be able to use their rights earned by four long years of bloodshed, and not be dampened by the courts. But the court overlooked the fact that it was an state law, and not private policy, and deemed the segregation private and thus legal.
Homer Plessy Vs. Fergusen: Supreme Court Case
548 Words | 3 PagesPlessy v Fergusen was yet another court case where “separate but equal” was not implementing equality. It showed that they still thought of Black men and women as being less and not deserving the same rights as the White men. Homer Plessy was a free man, that was mainly White and because of a percentage he had of being Black he was treated as a Black man. He tried to sit in the train car of the White men and much like Rosa Parks was asked to go to the back where the Black men belonged in a different car. This case resulted in the Supreme Court defending the decision of the East Louisiana Railroad stating that they weren't violating any law by the ruling they had.
Polk County Court Case Study
1549 Words | 7 PagesPlessy V. Ferguson. In 1890, Louisiana passed the Separate Car Act, which required whites and blacks to ride in separate train cars. In 1892, Homer Plessy was arrested for sitting in a “whites only” car. Plessy filed a lawsuit declaring that his constitutional rights had been violated. However, the US Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that separate accommodations were constitutional as long as they were equal.
Plessy V. Ferguson Case Study
470 Words | 2 PagesPlessy v. Ferguson This case dates back in to 1982 when Homer Please was arrested for sitting in a “white” car of a train (Wormser, n.d.). Obviously this goes back where discrimination against black was going on. Plessy was said to pass as white due to his light skin; however, due to Louisiana law he was required to sit in the “colored” car. He was a “Creole of Color” which is used to refer to a black person in New Orleans whose ancestor were traced to the French, Spanish, and Caribbean (Wormser, n.d.).
Homer Plessy: The Separate Car Act (1890)
270 Words | 2 PagesIn 1890, the state of Louisiana passed a law (the Separate Car Act) that required separate accommodations for blacks and whites on railroads, including separate railway cars.[2] Concerned, a group of prominent black, creole, and white New Orleans residents formed the Comité des Citoyens (Committee of Citizens) dedicated to repeal the law or fight its effect.[3] They persuaded Homer Plessy, a man of mixed race, to participate in an orchestrated test case. Plessy was born a free man and was an "octoroon" (of seven-eighths European descent and one-eighth African descent). However, under Louisiana law, he was classified as black, and thus required to sit in the "colored" car.[4]
Essay On Plessy V Ferguson
416 Words | 2 PagesTo understand the question, focusing on the court cases of Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education, we must first understand each court case on its own. Plessy v. Ferguson resulted in the year 1896. The case involved the 1890s Louisiana law that basically stated that there were separate railway carriages that were specifically labeled for blacks only and whites only. Plessy v. Ferguson involved Homer Plessy, who was seven-eighths white and one-eighth black and appeared to look like a white man. Plessy took an open seat in a white only railway car.
Compare And Contrast Plessy Vs Ferguson
1221 Words | 5 PagesFerguson Law Case). A man named Homer Plessy, who had bought a ticket for the reserved white seating, was told to go to the African American seating. Plessy, was 7/8 white and 1/8 black. The police had ordered him to go and sit where he was “supposed to,” but he refused. Homer Plessy was arrested for not following the Separate Car Act, and he sued the railroad company.
Plessy Vs Ferguson Research Paper
688 Words | 3 PagesPlessy vs. Ferguson, one of the bigger cases in the turning point for rights, gave the black community a big boost forward. There was a man named Homer Adoph Plessy that had a problem with the way things were going at the time and he wanted equal rights. But there was another man named John Ferguson who thought that everything was just skippy. They went to court to settle their quarrel.
Why Is Plessy V. Ferguson Important
427 Words | 2 PagesFerguson was a case of the Supreme Court in 1892 after passenger Homer Plessy traveled on the Louisiana railroad and refused to sit in a car for blacks only. Homer Plessy was brought before Judge John H. Ferguson to a Criminal Court in New Orleans to be trailed for refusing to follow the state law of Louisiana “separate but equal.” Such conflict challenged the violation of the 13th and 14th amendment where they ensure equality for recently emancipated slaves. They stated, “Separate facilities for blacks and whites satisfied the Fourteenth Amendment so long as they were equal.” “In the nature of things it could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social, as distinguished from political equality, or a commingling of the two races unsatisfactory to either.”
Plessy Vs. Ferguson
478 Words | 2 PagesThe Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified on July 9, 1868. It granted citizenship to all persons, born or naturalized in the United States. It forbids states from denying any person "life, liberty, or property, without due process of the law" or to "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." An example of Supreme Court Case involving the Fourteenth Amendment is Plessy v. Ferguson. Homer Adolph Plessy was a successful Louisiana businessman.
Reconstruction Dbq Essay
946 Words | 4 PagesOn May 18, 1896, the Supreme Court ruled in the Plessy vs. Ferguson law case that separate-but-equal facilities on trains were constitutional.” It is deplorable that such laws were created by Southern Republics to ensure that African Americans would maintain to be treated inferior to them. This includes making segregation a law. Blacks and whites could no longer dine together, sit on the bus together, get an education together,
Essay On African American Leaders In The 1960s
631 Words | 3 PagesIn the context of racial discrimination, many African Americans felt as if the government never really assisted them in gaining their rights. The prejudice of African Americans still lingered even after many attempts to settle disagreements. In the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, Homer Plessy denied to sit in an all black car and remained in a white only car; the outcome of this case upheld the ideas of racial segregation and proved that when groups are separated they will never be treated the same. It seemed in both eras of civil rights activism that the conservative minds of Americans could not be washed away. African American leaders in the 1890s-1920s are different from leaders during the 1950s-1960s in their use of violence and peace and they are similar by
Plessy V. Ferguson's Theory Of Civil Rights
1551 Words | 7 PagesFor nearly a century, the United States was occupied by the racial segregation of black and white people. The constitutionality of this “separation of humans into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life” had not been decided until a deliberate provocation to the law was made. The goal of this test was to have a mulatto, someone of mixed blood, defy the segregated train car law and raise a dispute on the fairness of being categorized as colored or not. This test went down in history as Plessy v. Ferguson, a planned challenge to the law during a period ruled by Jim Crow laws and the idea of “separate but equal” without equality for African Americans. This challenge forced the Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of segregation, and in result of the case, caused the nation to have split opinions of support and
Supreme Court Case Essay
537 Words | 3 PagesDred Scott was sued for his freedom on the grounds that he had lived for a time in a "free" territory. The Court ruled against him, saying that under the Constitution, he was his master 's property. The people involved with this court case are the Supreme Court,Dred Scott, and Chief Justice Roger B. The final judgment for this case ended up in Dred Scott 's favor.
Passing Of Nella Larsen Summary
347 Words | 2 PagesThe novel Passing of Nella Larsen held the historical and legal implications which can be seen through the judicial case of Homer Plessy who had one-eighth black and seven- eighths white. Plessy was forcibly jailed for sitting in the whites- only section on the railroad car in Louisiana. In 1896, at the Supreme Court, he argued that his black ancestry was insignificant and he was a white person by all definitions. The Supreme Court said that forcing Plessy to exclude from the whites section was against the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments about equal protection. However, Judge John Howard Ferguson affirmed that treating all people equally did not paralleled with eliminating social distinction based on colors.
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