Courtesy of Library of Congress, "Plessy v. Ferguson Opinions," The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom, CBS, 4 March 1956 Show DescriptionIn Plessy v. Ferguson, the U.S. Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of an 1890 Louisiana law that required railway companies to provide equal, but separate accommodations for white and African American passengers either with separate cars or by dividing a car into two sections with a partition. In 1892, Homer Plessy, seven-eighths white, seated himself in the whites-only car and was arrested. He argued that Louisiana's segregation law violated the 13th Amendment banning of slavery and the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. In a 7-1 decision, the Supreme Court ruled against Plessy, arguing that although the 14th Amendment was created to provide equality before the law, it was not designed to create social equality. In fact, the Supreme Court argued, it would be impossible to eliminate racial prejudice because the beliefs of society could not be changed simply through changes in law. The Supreme Court rejected Plessy's assertion that the law left African Americans "with a badge of inferiority" and argued that if this were the case, it was because the race put it upon itself. As long as separate facilities were equal, they did not violate the 14th Amendment. The Supreme Court also quickly dismissed Plessy’s 13th Amendment claim, suggesting that the 1890 law was obviously not a version of slavery and the point was "too clear for argument." Justice John Marshall Harlan, the lone dissenter just as he was in the Civil Rights Cases, wrote an opinion that would eventually become the standard approach to segregation by the Supreme Court beginning with the Brown v. Board of Education case. Homer Plessy, the plaintiff in the case, was seven-eighths white and one-eighth black, and had the appearance of a white man. On June 7, 1892, he purchased a first-class ticket for a trip between New Orleans and Covington, La., and took possession of a vacant seat in a white-only car. Duly arrested and imprisoned, Plessy was brought to trial in a New Orleans court and convicted of violating the 1890 law. He then filed a petition against the judge in that trial, Hon. John H. Ferguson, at the Louisiana Supreme Court, arguing that the segregation law violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which forbids states from denying "to any person within their jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws," as well as the Thirteenth Amendment, which banned slavery. The Court ruled that, while the object of the Fourteenth Amendment was to create "absolute equality of the two races before the law," such equality extended only so far as political and civil rights (e.g., voting and serving on juries), not "social rights" (e.g., sitting in a railway car one chooses). As Justice Henry Brown's opinion put it, "if one race be inferior to the other socially, the constitution of the United States cannot put them upon the same plane." Furthermore, the Court held that the Thirteenth Amendment applied only to the imposition of slavery itself. The Court expressly rejected Plessy's arguments that the law stigmatized blacks "with a badge of inferiority," pointing out that both blacks and whites were given equal facilities under the law and were equally punished for violating the law. "We consider the underlying fallacy of [Plessy's] argument" contended the Court, "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." Justice John Marshall Harlan entered a powerful -- and lone -- dissent, noting that "in view of the Constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens." Until the mid-twentieth century, Plessy v. Ferguson gave a "constitutional nod" to racial segregation in public places, foreclosing legal challenges against increasingly-segregated institutions throughout the South. The railcars in Plessy notwithstanding, the black facilities in these institutions were decidedly inferior to white ones, creating a kind of racial caste society. However, in the landmark decision Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the "separate but equal" doctrine was abruptly overturned when a unanimous Supreme Court ruled that segregating children by race in public schools was "inherently unequal" and violated the Fourteenth Amendment. Brown provided a major catalyst for the civil rights movement (1955-68), which won social, not just political and civil, racial equality before the law. After four decades, Justice Harlan's dissent became the law of the land. Following Brown, the Supreme Court has consistently ruled racial segregation in public settings to be unconstitutional. Who was the plaintiff in the case Plessy v. Ferguson?Homer Adolph Plessy, who agreed to be the plaintiff in the case aimed at testing the law's constitutionality, was of mixed race; he described himself as “seven-eighths Caucasian and one-eighth African blood.”
Who defended Plessy?Two remarkable characters played major roles in the case: attorney and activist Albion Winegar Tourgée, who argued Plessy's case, and Justice John Marshall Harlan of the U.S. Supreme Court, who was the sole dissenter from the court's decision.
Who were the justices in Plessy v. Ferguson?Decision. The Supreme Court ruled 7-1 that the Louisiana Separate Car Act was constitutional. Justice Henry Billings Brown wrote the majority opinion and was joined by Justices Melville Weston Fuller, Stephen Johnson Field, Horace Gray, Rufus Wheeler Peckham, George Shiras, and Edward Douglass White.
What was Ferguson's argument in Plessy v. Ferguson?He argued that Louisiana's segregation law violated the 13th Amendment banning of slavery and the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.
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