Plessy Vs. Ferguson Case

Words: 647

Pages: 3

Open Document

You may have always wondered what it was like for newly freed slaves during the Reconstruction era and how Plessy vs. Ferguson affected African Americans during that time period and how they are affected today. The “Plessy vs. Ferguson” case had a very large impact on African Americans and racism itself. This all started with the ending of the Civil War and the start on the new Reconstruction era. The Reconstruction era refers to the period after the Civil War when the federal government “rebuilt” the former Confederate states and readmitted them to the Union, which also came along with the “Reconstruction Amendments”. The Reconstruction Amendments included the 13th (Abolished Slavery), 14th (Birth citizenship, due process, equal protection under law), and 15th (No citizen can be denied the right to vote due to race, color, or previous conditions of servitude) Amendments.
There also was what’s called “Jim Crow Laws”, which were equally unjust and racist laws. In 1860, the State of Louisiana proposed the “Separate Car” Act, which would require railroads to maintain “equal and separate” for whites and non-whites. This law was one of several bold new attempts by conservative southern governments to deprive blacks of …show more content…
Martinet, the editor of an African American newspaper, organized the “Citizens’ Committee” to challenge the law. The group raised $3000 to challenge the Act, and contacted known civil rights advocate Albion Tourgée and asked him to assist. With Tourgée’s assistance, the group planned to have a pre-determined person break the segregation law, ensuring that he’d be arrested. The legal team would then challenge the arrest in court, calling attention to the unconstitutionality of the law. They planned to have a man light-skinned enough to pass for a white board train in New Orleans and sit in the white car. Tourgée and his team approached Homer Plessy and asked him to serve plaintiff in the

Plessy Vs. Ferguson Case

An important case dealing with civil rights was Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896). In 1892, Homer Plessy refused to give up his seat for a white man on a train in New Orleans. He was arrested due to a Louisiana law stating “no person shall be permitted to occupy seats in coaches other than the ones assigned to them, on account of the race they belong to; and requiring the officer of the passenger train to assign each passenger to the coach or compartment assigned for the race to which he or she belong”;…

Words 1132 - Pages 5

Plessy Vs Ferguson Case

schools. This lawsuit alleged that the “separate but equal” is constitutional ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson was in violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. On May 17th, 1954 the United States Supreme Court overturned the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision and ruled that “separate but equal” was unconstitutional. Segregated schools in the South now legally had to desegregate. The ruling in Brown vs. Board of Topeka was also a major milestone that helped sparked the civil rights movement…

Words 227 - Pages 1

Homer Plessy Vs. Ferguson Case

Homer Plessy was a 1/8th black american who was born and raised in Louisiana. On June 7th 1892 Homer Plessy purchased a first class railway ticket from New Orleans to Covington and knowingly boarded the whites train. When he was asked to leave he stayed thus resulting in arrest. He began by attempting to sue the state for an unlawful arrest. He lost this cause and began a Supreme Court case stating that separate but equal laws were ill-fitting and unconstitutional. In this case the three main points…

Words 673 - Pages 3

Plessy Vs. Ferguson Case Study

Plessy Vs. Ferguson was a case that was prime in southern U.S history it gave the south the okay to make ‘Separate But Equal” laws. In this case their was a man by the name of Homer Plessy who was getting on a train and he refused to sit in the segregated area with the blacks because he felt like he was white. Plessy took his case to the supreme court and said that they denied him is thirteen and fourteenth amendments right. Back then they thought that they could count how much black blood you had…

Words 206 - Pages 1

Plessy Vs. Ferguson Case Study

So The Plessy vs Ferguson case was ruled that racial segregation was constitutional and valid under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment if the facilities provided to the blacks and whites were equal. So segregated facilities were really popular around the southern states meaning that they would have separate places for the blacks and whites for example public parks, drinking fountains, and bathrooms. So The NAACP began to challenge segregation and the “separate but equal” doctrine…

Words 180 - Pages 1

Court Cases: The Plessy Vs. Ferguson Case

During a time of civil rights conflict, many of the court cases taken place questioned the morals of biased courts and racism of the Jim Crow laws. Throughout these difficult times, there were also people who stood up against the unfair society. These court cases include Brown vs. Board of Education, Plessy vs. Ferguson, the Scottsboro boys, and Moore vs. Dempsey. All of these cases are examples of how African Americans did not have fair representation in court as well as the consequences given for…

Words 1055 - Pages 5

Plessy Vs. Ferguson Case Study

The Plessy vs. Ferguson case introduced the “separate but equal” concept which essentially allowed segregation of “coloreds” from “whites.” Although this concept reinforced Jim Crow laws, it also compelled many people to challenge the constitutional aspect of segregation. Plessy’s determination to resolve the case revealed how strongly African Americans were about the situation. The case became an important landmark in the civil rights movement because it made the corrupt nature of the racial laws…

Words 509 - Pages 3

Case Plessy Vs Ferguson

The Landmark Case Plessy v. Ferguson was about a man named Homer Plessy who got arrested after buying a first class ticket on a train and sitting in the whites-only car. Homer Plessy was only 1/8th African American but still got punished because the Louisiana Separate Car Act says that all railroad companies must provide separate but equal compartments for white/non-white passengers. Anyone that does not follow that statue has to pay a fine of $25 or spend 20 days in jail. A group of black citizens…

Words 375 - Pages 2

To Kill A Mockingbird: The Plessy Vs. Ferguson Case

crime. Little bit like the Plessy vs. Ferguson case, in which a black man named Homer Plessy who also accused of a crime. On June 7th, 1892, 30-year-old Homer Plessy was jailed for sitting in the “white” car. When Louisiana passed the Separate Car Act in 1892, it legally segregated common carriers. Plessy’s lawyer argued that the Separate Car Act violated the 13th and 14th amendments to the constitution. The…

Words 439 - Pages 2

Plessy Vs Ferguson Case Study

In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of a Louisiana law passed in 1890 "providing for separate railway carriages for the white and colored races." The law, which required that all passenger railways provide separate cars for blacks and whites, stipulated that the cars be equal in facilities, banned whites from sitting in black cars and blacks in white cars (with exception to "nurses attending children of the other race"), and penalized passengers or railway…

Words 422 - Pages 2