plessy v. ferguson
In 1892, Homer Plessy took a seat in the “Whites Only” car of a train and refused to move. He was arrested, tried, and convicted in the District Court of New Orleans for breaking Louisiana’s segregation law. Plessy appealed, claiming that he had been denied equal protection under the law. Moreover he claimed that, being “of mixed descent”, he was entitled to “every recognition, right, privilege and immunity secured to the citizens of the United States of white race.” In 1896, this legal case reached the U.S. Supreme Court to test the constitutionality of segregation. The Supreme Court ruled that the separation of races in public accommodations was legal and did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment. The decision established the doctrine of “separate but equal”, which allowed states to maintain segregated facilities for blacks and whites as long as they provided equal service. The facilities provided for blacks were always inferior to whites. Nearly every day, African Americans faced humiliating signs that read: “Colored Water”; “No Blacks Allowed”; Whites Only!” The decision permitted legalized racial segregation for almost 60 years since the court ruled that separate-but-equal facilities for blacks and whites did not violate the Constitution. So why did this court case matter so much? To begin with, it was one of the several Supreme Court cases brought by African Americans to protect their rights against segregation. In these cases, the Court regularly ignored the Fourteenth Amendment and upheld state laws that denied blacks their rights. Plessy was the most important of these cases because the Court used it to establish the separate-but-equal doctrine.
Julie F.
Julie F.