183:, this time both destinations being within the state. Plessy boarded the "white carriage" where the conductor had been informed ahead of time that the light-skinned Plessy was legally Black. The conductor was told by Plessy that he was colored and the conductor had him arrested and charged with violation of the law. The case was brought before
66:, a Black preacher, had advised Blacks to accept separate accommodations if they were "first-class". "But if there is no such accommodation set apart for you, and you are crowded upon by base and reckless beings, depriving you of all that tends to your happiness ... excuse yourself for being colored, and walk in another car and cabin".
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came back to power. There began a process of "renegotiating the definitions of 'equal rights' in debates over post-Civil War amendments". Legislators proposed the
Separate Car Bill which segregated Blacks from Whites in separate but equal conditions on train cars. Violations of the law were a
142:, in 1892. On February 24, Desdunes bought a first-class ticket and boarded a designated White car on the Louisiana and Nashville Railroad from New Orleans to Montgomery, Alabama. The destination of another state was chosen specifically because of the belief that it violated the
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of New
Orleans spoke of "almost unanimous demand on the party of White people of the State for the enactment of the law" which would "increase the comfort for the traveling public". The editorial also argued that it would put Louisiana in line with other Southern states.
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challenged the bill as coming from the "ranks of
Democratic Senators who pandered to the needs of the lower classes". To him, the bill was not a product of upper-class white citizens but those with no "social or moral standing in the community".
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In 1891, under the direction of Louis
Martinet, a group of activists from New Orleans set up the Citizens Committee to Test the Constitutionality of the Separate Car Act in order to challenge the constitutionality of the law.
112:" would fail in the near term because it did not take into account the lives of people living in a cosmopolitan Louisiana. "uture generations would be ashamed", he said, to see such laws on the books.
28:" train car accommodations for Black and White passengers within the state. An unsuccessful challenge to this law culminated in the United States Supreme Court decision of
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Amendments that their client's rights had been violated. Ferguson ruled that
Louisiana could regulate such actions and that Plessy was guilty as charged. The
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Despite some opposition, the
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Although most Blacks opposed the law, it had strong support from Whites. An editorial in
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that the
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misdemeanor crime punishable by a fine of at most $ 25 or twenty days of jail time.
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Following
Reconstruction and the withdrawal of federal troops from the South, the
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with the judgment being upheld, leading to the judicial sanction of "
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in 1896, which upheld the constitutionality of state laws requiring
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Brown V. Board of
Education at Fifty: A Rhetorical Retrospective
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Race and
Schooling in the South, 1880–1950: An Economic History
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Race and Schooling in the South, 1880-1950: An Economic History
55:
264:
Margo, Robert A. (1990). "The Impact of Separate-but-Equal".
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period and its subsequent end led to a discussion among both
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in the South on how to interpret "equal rights" and the new
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The law did not go uncontested through the legislature.
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upheld this decision. Finally, the case ended in the
268:. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 68.
370:Hasian Jr., Marouf (2006). "Revisiting the Case of
146:. Desdune's case never went to trial because the
134:The first case the committee decided to test was
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150:ruled on May 25 in the unrelated
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475:History of racism in Louisiana
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393:Margo, Robert Andrew (1990).
374:". In Clarke Rountree (ed.).
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414:Packard, Jerrold M. (2003).
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22:Louisiana State Legislature
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60:Reconstruction Amendments
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24:in 1890 which required "
356:Packard, pp. 73–4
201:Louisiana Supreme Court
181:East Louisiana Railroad
148:Louisiana Supreme Court
455:1890 in American law
185:John Howard Ferguson
378:. Lexington Books.
288:Hasian Jr., pp. 3–5
26:equal, but separate
445:Louisiana statutes
372:Plessy v. Ferguson
215:separate but equal
210:Plessy v. Ferguson
167:, a mostly white "
118:The Daily Picayune
36:racial segregation
31:Plessy v. Ferguson
465:1890 in Louisiana
335:Hasian Jr., p. 11
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364:References
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177:Covington
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179:on the
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