The judge in this case was John Howard Ferguson Plessy's lawyers prepared his defense based on the fact that Louisiana's "Separate Car Act" law mandating the separation of black passengers from white passengers denied Plessy his Constitutional rights under the … At Plessy’s trial in U.S. District Court, Judge John H. Ferguson dismissed his contention that the act was unconstitutional. The effect of the law, he argued, was to interfere with the personal liberty and freedom of movement of both African Americans and whites. railcars. separation of the races to continue for decades until finally changed by the Supreme Court's decision in the Brown v. Board of Education 1954 case which overruled the The Separate Car Act did not conflict with the Thirteenth Amendment, according to Brown, because it did not reestablish slavery or constitute a “badge” of slavery or servitude. On this page is a list of interesting facts about this famous case, a summary, including answers to the questions who is Homer Plessy, who won the case, why the In 1891 a group of Creole professionals in New Orleans formed the Citizens’ Committee to Test the Constitutionality of the Separate Car Law.

Despite being a landmark decision with far-ranging ramifications that affected the United States for decades. Plessy argued that the state law which required East Louisia… Interesting Plessy vs Ferguson Court Case Facts. Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), was a United States Supreme Court case that ruled segregation was legal, as long as equal facilities were provided for both races. decision in the Plessy vs Ferguson case.

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This law indicated that railroad companies must have equal, but separate train carts for whites and blacks. Brian Duignan is a senior editor in philosophy at Britannica. He also handles law, social science, political theory, and some areas of religion. After the state Supreme Court affirmed the district court’s ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari, and oral arguments were heard on April 13, 1896. Homer Plessy, a 1/8 African American citizen, was considered African American under the legislation.

A group of black and white citizens of New Orleans, Louisiana formed a group called the Committee of Citizens in order to fight this law and get it repealed by the

Plessy v. Ferguson originated in Louisiana, where, as a result of previous French influence, there was generally greater toleration of people of color than in the rest of the Deep South. whose name would later be on the Supreme Court Case in this matter.

They hired Albion Tourgée, a Reconstruction-era judge and social reformer, as their legal counsel. The U.S. Supreme Court’s majority held that such laws neither imposed a “badge of servitude” (in violation of the Thirteenth Amendment, prohibiting slavery) nor infringed on the legal equality of blacks (in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, guaranteeing equal protection of the laws), because the accommodations were supposedly equal and separateness did not imply legal inferiority. (The state Supreme Court had ruled earlier that the law could not be applied to interstate travel.) He challenged the Louisiana law, saying it was against the United States Constitution. The Plessy vs Ferguson decision would eventually be overruled a long 58 years later with the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954. In contrast, social equality, which would entail the “commingling” of the races in public conveyances and elsewhere, did not then exist and could not be legally created: “If one race be inferior to the other socially, the Constitution of the United States cannot put them upon the same plane.” In response to Plessy’s comparison of the Separate Car Act to hypothetical statutes requiring African Americans and whites to walk on different sides of the street or to live in differently coloured houses, Brown responded that the Separate Car Act was intended to preserve “public peace and good order” and was therefore a “reasonable” exercise of the legislature’s police power.

Homer Plessy was an "octoroon", meaning he was seven-eighths white and one-eighth black, and classified as black by the The State of Louisiana passed a law saying that whites and blacks had to ride in different cars on trains, but required that the train cars be "equal." Plessy v. Ferguson, legal case in which the U.S. Supreme Court, on May 18, 1896, by a seven-to-one majority (one justice did not participate), advanced the controversial “ separate but equal” doctrine for assessing the constitutionality of racial segregation laws. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful. He joined Britannica in 1989. Click here for a great selection of Amazon.com

The private detective hired by the Committee of Citizens arrested Plessy, as was the plan. The United States Supreme Court ruled against Plessy stating that the Louisiana "Separate Car Act" law did not discriminate against blacks and therefore was not a By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. Plessy v. Ferguson Case Brief. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. In his lone dissenting opinion, which would become a classic of American civil rights jurisprudence, Associate Justice John Marshall Harlan insisted that the court had ignored the obvious purpose of the Separate Car Act, which was, “under the guise of giving equal accommodation for whites and blacks, to compel the latter to keep to themselves while traveling in railroad passenger coaches.” Because it presupposed—and was universally understood to presuppose—the inferiority of African Americans, the act imposed a badge of servitude upon them in violation of the Thirteenth Amendment, according to Harlan. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Act" law could be challanged.

This court case then went to the Supreme Court of Louisiana which upheld the lower court's decision against Plessy.

laws that required racial segregation in public facilities known as the "separate but equal" doctrine. “Our Constitution is color-blind,” Harlan wrote. This decision would allow for racial discrimination based on Plessy died on March 1, 1925 in Metairie, Louisiana at the age of sixty-two. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). In reaching this conclusion he relied on the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Civil Rights Cases (1883), which found that racial discrimination against African Americans in inns, public conveyances, and places of public amusement “imposes no badge of slavery or involuntary servitude…but at most, infringes rights which are protected from State aggression by the XIVth Amendment.”.

Plessy v. Ferguson established the constitutionality of laws mandating separate but equal public accommodations for African Americans and whites.

. The decision was handed down by a vote of 7 to 1. Since Plessy could have, and often did "pass" as white, the Committee of Citizens announced ahead of time what they were doing and hired detective to make the arrest. Plessy's lawyers prepared his defense based on the fact that Louisiana's "Separate Car Act" law mandating the separation of black passengers from white passengers In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. regards man as man, and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved.". Plessy v. Ferguson was important because it essentially established the constitutionality of racial segregation. Homer Plessy, who was one-eighth black (meaning that one of his eight great-grandparents was black) was arrested for riding in a whites-only car. The 1896 United States Supreme Court decision in this case upheld the legality of state Although the Supreme Court ruled that any segregated facilities should be of equal quality, black facilities were usually inferior and there was never any enforcement to make sure they were equal.

In the first case, Homer Adolph Plessy v. The State of Louisiana, Plessy lost and was required to pay a small fine. Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation laws for public facilities as long as the segregated facilities were equal in quality, a doctrine that came to be known as "separate but equal".