Homer Plessy
| Homer Adolph Plessy | |
|---|---|
| Born |
March 17, 1862 New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Died | March 1, 1925 (aged 62) Metairie, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Resting place | Saint Louis Cemetery No. 1 in New Orleans |
| Occupation |
Shoemaker Insurance collector Civil rights activist |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Louise Bordenave Plessy (married 1888–1925, his death) |
| Children | 3 |
| Parent(s) |
Adolph Plessy and Rosa Debergue Plessy |
Adolph Plessy and Rosa Debergue Plessy
Homer Adolph Plessy (March 17, 1862 – March 1, 1925) was a Louisiana French speaking Creole plaintiff in the United States Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson.
Arrested, tried and convicted in New Orleans of a violation of one of Louisiana's racial segregation laws, he appealed through Louisiana state courts to the U.S. Supreme Court and lost. The resulting "separate but equal" decision against him had wide consequences for civil rights in the United States. The decision legalized state-mandated segregation anywhere in the United States so long as the facilities provided for both blacks and whites were putatively "equal".
The son of French-speaking Creoles (see octoroon), Homer Plessy was born on St. Patrick's Day in 1862, at a time when federal troops under General Benjamin Franklin Butler were occupying Louisiana as a result of the American Civil War and Reconstruction, and had liberated African Americans in New Orleans who had been in bondage but Plessy was a gens du couleur libre and his family came to America free from Haiti and France. Creole and Blacks could then marry whomever they chose, sit in any streetcar seat and, briefly, attend integrated schools.
As an adult, Plessy experienced the reversal of the gains achieved under the federal occupation, following the withdrawal of federal troops in 1877 on the orders of U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes.
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