Plessy Vs Ferguson

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Jim Crow-induced segregation led to people testing the law and trying to prove that the “separate but equal” doctrine of the time was unfair. One example of this is the Plessy v. Ferguson supreme court case. Legally classified as black by the South’s “one drop rule”, Homer Plessy entered a “whites-only” railway car on the East Louisiana Railroad (Jager). A local New Orleans group called the Committee of Citizens planned this as a test case, so the railroad was advised of his racial status before he boarded (Jager). They selected lawyer Albion Tourgee to take on the defense and on the 18th of May, 1896, Plessy v. Ferguson went to appeal to the Supreme Court (Hoffer 1) (Hoffer 7). The Separate Car Act, the law being questioned, was a form of …show more content…
Ferguson impacted African Americans through the legitimization of the “separate but equal” doctrine. Richard Leiter in “Plessy v. Ferguson” said that the result of this case inspired Southern lawmakers to create more Jim Crow laws increasing the segregation between the two races and other civil rights violations. These creations of Jim Crow laws legitimized the “separate but equal” doctrine because they further divided society into a black version and white version. According to Williamjames Hoffer, The decision of the Plessy case clarified to everyone that racial classification and segregation in public facilities was okay. This impact of the decision is that the societal norm of “separate but equal” facilities became perfectly okay and segregation was not bad. This segregation regarding accommodations in public places led to one race having an advantage over the other. This leading to furthering of white supremacy and the unfair treatment of African …show more content…
Ferguson led to a rise in the power of the white supremacy movement and eventually helped promote it. According to Williamjames Hoffer, before the Plessy v. Ferguson case, being white was something that was of extreme value. Since the Jim Crow laws that created these stereotypes and values were upheld, they continued to dominate society for many years. Hoffer goes on to say that the Jim Crow laws, upheld by the Plessy v. Ferguson case, furthered the white supremacy movement. This means that white supremacy was given actual laws to base itself off of. Because of this, white supremacy both found both legitimacy in the norms mandated by society and in law. This boost in the influence of the white supremacy movement led to other impacts and the extension of Jim Crow
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