Plessy v. Ferguson

Today in History

(From We’re History)

On June 7, 1892, Homer Plessy, a biracial man from New Orleans, boarded a train and took a seat in the whites-only car. When ordered to move, he refused and was arrested for violating a Louisiana state law that required separation of whites and blacks on trains (and in many other places). Plessy was tried, convicted, and fined. He appealed the decision to the Louisiana Supreme Court, an appeal he lost. He then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 1896 ruled that 𝙨𝙚𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙚𝙦𝙪𝙖𝙡 𝙛𝙖𝙘𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙩𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡.

Today, Plessy v. Ferguson is considered one of the worst decisions in Supreme Court history. In his dissent, Justice John Marshall Harlan wrote: “In my opinion, the judgment this day rendered will, in time, prove to be quite as pernicious as the decision made by this tribunal in the Dred Scott Case.” The Plessy opinion was overturned by the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling.