Plessy vs. Ferguson
| Plessy v. Ferguson | |
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| Argued April 13, 1896 Decided May 18, 1896 |
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| Full case name | Homer A. Plessy v. John H. Ferguson |
| Citations | 163 U.S. 537 (more) |
| Prior history | Ex parte Plessy, 11 So. 948 (La. 1892) |
| Subsequent history | None |
| Holding | |
| The "separate but equal" provision of private services mandated by state government is constitutional under the Equal Protection Clause. | |
| Court membership | |
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| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Brown, joined by Fuller, Field, Gray, Shiras, White, Peckham |
| Dissent | Harlan |
| Brewer took no part in the consideration or decision of the case. | |
| Laws applied | |
| U.S. Const. amend. XIV; 1890 La. Acts 152 | |
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Overruled by
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| Brown v. Board of Education 347 U.S. 483 (1954) | |
Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 US 537 (1896) was a landmark constitutional law case of the US Supreme Court. It upheld state racial segregation laws for public facilities under the doctrine of "separate but equal". The decision was handed down by a vote of 7 to 1 with the majority opinion written by Justice Henry Billings Brown and the dissent written by Justice John Marshall Harlan.
"Separate but equal" remained standard doctrine in U.S. law until its repudiation in the 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education.
In 1890, the state of Louisiana passed a law (the Separate Car Act) that required separate accommodations for blacks and whites on railroads, including separate railway cars. Concerned, a group of prominent black, creole, and white New Orleans residents formed the Comité des Citoyens (Committee of Citizens) dedicated to repeal the law or fight its effect. They persuaded Homer Plessy, a man of mixed race, to participate in an orchestrated test case. Plessy was born a free man and was an "octoroon" (of seven-eighths European descent and one-eighth African descent). However, under Louisiana law, he was classified as black, and thus required to sit in the "colored" car.
On June 7, 1892, Plessy bought a first-class ticket at the Press Street Depot and boarded a "whites only" car of the East Louisiana Railroad in New Orleans, Louisiana, bound for Covington, Louisiana. The railroad company, which had opposed the law on the grounds that it would require the purchase of more railcars, had been previously informed of Plessy's racial lineage, and the intent to challenge the law. Additionally, the committee hired a private detective with arrest powers to detain Plessy, to ensure that he would be charged for violating the Separate Car Act, as opposed to a vagrancy or some other offense. After Plessy took a seat in the whites-only railway car, he was asked to vacate it, and sit instead in the blacks-only car. Plessy refused and was arrested immediately by the detective. As planned, the train was stopped, and Plessy was taken off the train at Press and Royal streets. Plessy was remanded for trial in Orleans Parish.
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