I couldn't find anything out about my family tree or where my family came from so I got assigned the Plessy vs. Ferguson case.
The full name for this case is Homer Adolf Plessy v. Ferguson. It was a landmark United States Supreme Court decision. It was argued on April 13th, 1896 and was decided on May 18th, 1896. This case was fighting for the constitutionality of the state laws of segregating races in public places. It was placed under the doctrine and is now known as "separate but equal."
It was a majority vote of 7 to 1. The majority contained: Justice Henry Billings Brown, Fuller, Field, Gray, Shiras, White, and Peckham. The dissent was Justice John Marshall Harlan. "Separate but equal" remained as the standard US doctrine until it was overturned in 1954 by the Supreme Court decision: Brown v. Board of Education. The New Orleans Committee of Citizens had brought the suit and arranged for Homer A. Plessy's arrest in order to challenge Louisiana's Segregation Law. After the Supreme Court ruling, they replied: "We, as freemen, still believe that we were right and our case is sacred."
In 1890, the state of Louisiana passed a law (the "Separate Car Act") that required blacks and whites to ride in separate cars on the railroads. This is when New Orleans got concerned and formed a Committee of Citizens containing both blacks and whites and tried repealing the law. They convinced Plessy to partake in a case. Although he was only one eighth black and 7 eighths Caucasian (an "octoroon"), he was "by law" considered black. Therefore, he was one of the many people that was required to sit in a different car because of the Separate Car Act.
On June 7, 1892, Plessy bought a first class ticket at the Press Street Depot and boarded a "whites only" car of the East Louisiana Railroad in New Orleans, Louisiana, bound for Covington, Louisiana. The people selling the tickets were well aware of Plessy's race and sold the ticket to him anyway, knowing he would be arrested for it. The committee hired a detective with arresting powers to make sure that Plessy was arrested for violating the Separate Car Act. As soon as Plessy sat down on the "wrong" car he was asked to move to the all blacks car. He refused and was immediately arrested and taken off the train.
The case was originally called Homer Adolf Plessy v. The state of Louisiana. Plessy argued that the Separate Car Act denied him his thirteenth and fourteenth amendment rights in the US Constitution. The thirteenth amendment prohibited slavery and the fourteenth amendment guarantees every American citizen the same rights. The judge, John Howard Ferguson, argued that Louisiana had a right to regulate the railroads as long as it was within the state borders. Plessy was convicted and had to pay a $25 fine. The Committee of Citizens took Plessy's appeal to the Supreme Court of Louisiana but they also took judge Ferguson's side. They then took the case to the US Supreme Court in 1896. The Court rejected Plessy's arguments with a majority vote of 7 to 1.
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