Plessy vs. Ferguson: A Summary
http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112391/plessy_v__ferguson.htm
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The Rise of Jim Crow
During the era of Reconstruction, Black Americans’ political rights were affirmed by
the passage of the 13th, 14th and 15th constitutional amendments and numerous laws
passed by Congress. The 13th amendment made slavery illegal in the United States, the
14th Amendment guaranteed equal representation under the law for all Americans and
finally, the 15th Amemendment made is legal for Black men to vote. While these were all
important steps in the years following the Civil War, racial discrimination was attacked on
a particularly broad front by the Civil Rights Act of 1875. This legislation made it a crime
for an individual to deny “the full and equal enjoyment of any of the accommodations,
advantages, facilities, and privileges of inns, public conveyances on land or water, theaters
and other places of public amusement; subject only to the conditions and limitations
established by law, and applicable alike to citizens of every race and color.”
In 1883, the Supreme Court struck down the 1875 act, ruling that the 14th Amendment
did not give Congress authority to prevent discrimination by private individuals. Victims
of racial discrimination were told to seek relief not from the Federal Government, but
from the states. Unfortunately, state governments were passing laws, known as Jim Crow
laws, that legalized inequality between the races. These laws required the establishment of
separate schools for children of each race were most common; however, segregation was
soon extended to almost every public and semi-public area like restaurants, department
stores, sporting events and movies.
Separate But Equal Sweeps the Nation
Beginning with passage of an 1887 Florida law, states began to require that railroads
provide separate train cars for each race. These measures were unpopular with the railway
companies who had to pay for the addition of Jim Crow cars. Segregation of the railroads
was even more offensive to black citizens, who saw it as a further step toward the total
disregard for the 13th, 14th and 15th constitutional amendments which were designed to
protect the rights of African Americans
In 1890, Louisiana passed a similar law that said that Blacks and Whites have to be
separated while riding a train within the state. This would work by having Blacks in one
car and Whites in another. The problem was, as in many cases of segregation, that the black
cars weren’t as good or as clean as the white cars. For example, many Black passengers were
forced to ride in the luggage cars with the bags of the other passengers or in the smoking
cars, where men, women and children alike, were exposed to thick cigarette and cigar
smoke during their long trips. In some cases the cars were not heated nor did they have
windows that opened which only added to the terrible conditions. If a Black passenger did
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PLESSY VS. FERGUSON
© Baltimore Urban Debate League 2013 FOR CLASSROOM USE ONLY
not want to ride in the “Black car”, there were punishments to make sure the black and
white passengers remained separate. For example, if you were a black and you sat in the
white car you would either have a fine of $25($540 in today’s money) or 20 days in jail.
In 1891, a group of concerned young black men of New Orleans formed the “Citizens’
Committee to Test the Constitutionality of the Separate Car Law.”
The Court Case Begins
In 1892, a 30-year old shoemaker named Homer Plessy was arrested for sitting in a car
for only white people on the East Louisiana Railroad. He had refused to move to a black
car. Even though he was seven-eighths white and only one-eighth black, he was put in jail.
The Louisiana law stated that if you had any black ancestors, you were considered black.
Because of this, Plessy was required to sit in the “colored” or “black” car.
In court, Plessy argued that the law violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments of
the Constitution. The Thirteenth Amendment made slavery illegal in the United States. The
Fourteenth Amendment states that all persons born in the United States are citizens of the
United States and of the state where they live. It also says that no state can deny citizens of
the United States equal protection of the laws. Plessy argued that the Louisiana law violated
these amendments because on the train Blacks and Whites could be separate, if it was equal,
but it wasn’t. The White cars were nicer and cleaner than the Black cars. Judge John Howard
Ferguson had recently ruled the law “unconstitutional on trains that traveled through many
states,” but in this case, Judge Ferguson ruled that Plessy was guilty, because the state had
the right to regulate railroad companies that run only in the state.
Mr. Plessy then appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court of Louisiana which also went
against him, saying the separate but equal law was constitutional. Plessy finally appealed
to the Supreme Court of the United States, because he still believed that the “separate but
equal” law violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, because it did not treat
Blacks and Whites equally. However, in 1896, the Supreme Court of the United States
decided that Homer Plessy was guilty. The court said Mr. Plessy was found guilty, because
the Louisiana law did not violate the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. They
claimed that Plessy wasn’t forced to be a slave and he wasn’t being treated unequally, just
separately.
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PLESSY VS. FERGUSON
© Baltimore Urban Debate League 2013 FOR CLASSROOM USE ONLY
Plessy vs. Ferguson: Supreme Court Decision Reading
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In 1896, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Plessy v. Ferguson. Justice Henry Brown
of Michigan delivered the majority opinion, which sustained the constitutionality of
Louisiana’s Jim Crow law. In part, he said:
“We consider the underlying fallacy of the plaintiff ’s argument to consist in the assumption
that the enforced separation of the two races stamps the colored race with a badge of
inferiority. If this be so, it is not by reason of anything found in the act, but solely because
the colored race chooses to put that construction upon it… The argument also assumes that
social prejudice may be overcome by legislation, and that equal rights cannot be secured
except by an enforced commingling of the two races… If the civil and political rights of
both races be equal, one cannot be inferior to the other civilly or politically. If one race be
inferior to the other socially, the Constitution of the United States cannot put them upon
the same plane.”
In a powerful dissent, Judge John Marshall Harlan wrote:
“I am of the opinion that the statute of Louisiana is inconsistent with the personal liberties
of citizens, white and black, in that State, and hostile to both the spirit and the letter of the
Constitution of the United States. If laws of like character should be enacted in the several
States of the Union, the effect would be in the highest degree mischievous. Slavery as an
institution tolerated by law would, it is true, have disappeared from our country, but there
would remain a power in the States, by sinister legislation, to interfere with the blessings
of freedom; to regulate civil rights common to all citizens, upon the basis of race; and to
place in a condition of legal inferiority a large body of American citizens, now constituting
a part of the political community, called the people of the United States, for whom and
by whom, through representatives, our government is administrated. Such a system is
inconsistent with the guarantee given by the Constitution to each State of a republican
form of government, and may be stricken down by congressional action, or by the courts in
the discharge of their solemn duty to maintain the supreme law of the land, anything in the
Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.”
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PLESSY VS. FERGUSON
© Baltimore Urban Debate League 2013 FOR CLASSROOM USE ONLY
NAME:
DATE:
STORYBOARD
Plessy vs. Ferguson
Directions: Individually you will draw a story board that shows the story of the Plessy vs. Ferguson case. In the space below, use
your artistic talent to show these five major events of the Plessy vs. Ferguson case.
The Five Events:
1. Homer Plessy buying his train ticket
2. Plessy attempting to sit in the first class car
3. Plessy being arrested
4. The Supreme Court ruling against him
5. John Marshall Harlan’s dissenting argument
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PLESSY VS. FERGUSON
Please Do Not Forget To:
□□Use appropriate language and visual images
□□Stay on task
□□Use your classwork as a resource
□□Use historically accurate images (no cars!)
□□Do Not Waste Your Work Time!!!
© Baltimore Urban Debate League 2013 FOR CLASSROOM USE ONLY