Plessy vs ferguson why it happened

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Plessy was arrested and jailed for boarding a car of the East Louisiana Railroad that was designated for use by white patrons only April 13, Homer A. Ferguson was argued in the Supreme Court of the United States May 18, In a 7 to 1 decision the "separate but equal" provision of public accommodations by state governments was found to be constitutional under the Equal Protection Clause. Back to top. Hosted by Springshare.

Homer A. 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. 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. 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.

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. There is no caste here. Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. Legislation is powerless to eradicate racial instincts or to abolish distinctions based upon physical differences, and the attempt to do so can only result in accentuating the difficulties of the present situation.

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. Oyez Resource Page: Plessy v. Southern Black people saw the promise of equality under the law embodied by the 13th Amendment , 14th Amendment and 15th Amendment to the Constitution receding quickly, and a return to disenfranchisement and other disadvantages as white supremacy reasserted itself across the South.

As historian C. Vann Woodward pointed out in a article about Plessy v. Florida became the first state to mandate segregated railroad cars in , followed in quick succession by Mississippi , Texas , Louisiana and other states by the end of the century. As Southern Black people witnessed with horror the dawn of the Jim Crow era, members of the Black community in New Orleans decided to mount a resistance.

At the heart of the case that became Plessy v. On June 7, , Plessy bought a ticket on a train from New Orleans bound for Covington, Louisiana, and took a vacant seat in a whites-only car. Convicted by a New Orleans court of violating the law, Plessy filed a petition against the presiding judge, Hon.

John H. Ferguson, claiming that the law violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Over the next few years, segregation and Black disenfranchisement picked up pace in the South, and was more than tolerated by the North. Congress defeated a bill that would have given federal protection to elections in , and nullified a number of Reconstruction laws on the books. Then, on May 18, , the Supreme Court delivered its verdict in Plessy v.

In its ruling, the Court denied that segregated railroad cars for Black people were necessarily inferior. 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. Harlan had opposed emancipation and civil rights for freed slaves during the Reconstruction era — but changed his position due to his outrage over the actions of white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan.

The Plessy v.