May 18, 1896: Plessy v. Ferguson: "Separate But Equal"

Homer Plessy

May 18, 1896: In the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court of the United States rules that segregation in public facilities is within the Constitution of the United States. An incorrect interpretation.

In 1890, the State of Louisiana passed the Separate Car Act, which required separate accommodations for black people and white people on railroads, including separate railway cars. A citizens' group chose to challenge this law in court. They persuaded Homer Plessy to be their challenger.

Homer Plessy was born in 1863, a New Orleans native whose ancestry made him 1/8th black and 7/8ths white. In a Southern State like Louisiana, that made him "colored." By the time of the challenge, he was a shoemaker.

On June 7, 1892, he bought a first-class ticket at the Press Street Depot in New Orleans, heading for Covington, Louisiana, and boarded a car on the East Louisiana Railroad marked "Whites Only." The Railroad was willing to go along with this, because the Separate Car Act had forced them to buy extra cars for their trains. And the group that hired Plessy also hired a private detective, who would be permitted to arrest him specifically for violating the Separate Car Act, and not for some other charge like vagrancy.

Plessy took a seat in the whites-only car. The detective asked him to vacate the seat, and sit in the blacks-only car. He refused. He was arrested. As previously arranged, the train was stopped, and Plessy was taken off the train at the intersection of Press and Royal Streets.

In State of Louisiana v. Homer Adolph Plessy, he argued that the law requiring the railroad to segregate its trains violated his rights under the 13th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, which provided for equal treatment under the law. But since he had been arrested without the train having crossed a State Line, the presiding judge, John Howard Ferguson, ruled that the State had the right to pass the law.

Plessy petitioned the State Supreme Court, but, not surprisingly, that court ruled in the State's favor. So the case went to the federal Supreme Court. The vote was 8-1. And it didn't seem to matter where the Justices were from, or who appointed them:

* Melville W. Fuller, the Chief Justice, 63, was a New Englander, from Maine. He was appointed by President Grover Cleveland, a Democrat, and remained Chief Justice until his death in 1910.

* Stephen J. Field, 79, was a New Englander by birth, from Connecticut, but had moved West, to California, where he served as that State's Chief Justice. He was appointed to the federal Supreme Court by President Abraham Lincoln, a Republican.

* Horace Gray, 68, was a New Englander, from Massachusetts. and had served as that State's Chief Justice. He was appointed to the federal Supreme Court by President Chester Arthur, a Republican.

* David J. Brewer, 58, was a New Englander by birth, from Connecticut, but had moved to the Midwest, to Kansas, where he served on that State's Supreme Court. He was appointed to the federal Supreme Court by President Benjamin Harrison, a Republican.

* Henry B. Brown, 60, was a New Englander by birth, from Massachusetts, but had moved to the Midwest, to Michigan, where he had served as a federal Judge. He was appointed to the federal Supreme Court by President Harrison.

* George Shiras, 64, was a Midwesterner, from Western Pennsylvania. When Harrison appointed him, he had been a lawyer for 37 years, but had never tried a case as a judge. He got the appointment because he was a loyal Republican. That was it.

* Edward D. White, 50, was a Southerner, from Louisiana, the State from which the case originated. He had previously been a Justice on that State's Supreme Court, and one of its U.S. Senators. He had been appointed by President Cleveland. In 1910, upon Fuller's death, though a Democrat, he was promoted to Chief Justice by President William Howard Taft, a Republican. He died in office in 1921, and was succeeded as Chief Justice by... Taft himself.

* Rufus W. Peckham, 57, was a Northeasterner, from Albany, New York. He had previously served on the New York State Court of Appeals, and was a friend of President Cleveland's going back to Cleveland's time as Governor.

All 8 of those Justices voted to uphold segregation, on the grounds that it could be carried out as long as the facilities were "separate, but equal." The one who did not was John Marshall Harlan, about to turn 63, and a Southerner, having previously been Attorney General of Kentucky. In spite of being a Democrat, he was appointed by a Republican President, Rutherford B. Hayes.

In his official dissent from the majority opinion, Harlan wrote, "The judgement this day rendered, will, in time, prove to be quite as pernicious as the decision made by this tribunal in the Dred Scott case." Unlike the other 8 Justices, he accepted Plessy's argument that the segregation in public accommodations violated the equal protection clause of 14th Amendment.

White was the last of these Justices still serving on the Court, until 1921. Shiras was the last survivor of them, living until 1924.

Plessy's criminal trial for violating the Separate Car Act went ahead. He pleaded guilty, and paid a fine of $25 -- about $840 in 2022 money. He later became a clerk for the black-owned People's Life Insurance Company. He died in 1925, only 62 years old, but having outlived all 9 Justices on his Supreme Court case. He had also outlived Judge Ferguson, who died in 1915, at 77.

In practice, segregation meant only separate, never equal. In 1954, 58 years after this decision, the Supreme Court reversed Plessy v. Ferguson. In Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, it ruled that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." This time, it was a 9-0 vote. And one of the Justices was John Marshall Harlan II, the grandson of "the Great Dissenter." The Civil Rights Act of 1964 completely prohibited racial segregation in public places.

In 2009, the Plessy & Ferguson Foundation was founded in New Orleans. Its mission is "to teach the history of civil rights through film, art, and public programs designed to create understanding of this historic case and its legacy on the American conscience." Its founders were Keith Plessy, a great-grandson of Homer's first cousin; and Phoebe Ferguson, a great-great-granddaughter of Judge Ferguson. They continue to run the foundation together. (They are business partners, but not a couple.)

On January 5, 2022, Governor John Bel Edwards of Louisiana awarded Homer Plessy a posthumous pardon.

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May 18, 1896 was a Monday. These games were played in the National League that day:

* The New York Giants lost to the Chicago Colts, 15-3 at West Side Park in Chicago. 

* The Cleveland Spiders beat the Baltimore Orioles, 4-3 at League Park in Cleveland. The most familiar version of League Park would be built on the same site in 1910.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 9-5 at League Park in Cincinnati. Crosley Field would be built on the same site in 1912.

* The Washington Senators beat the Louisville Colonels, 5-3 at Eclipse Park in Louisville.

* The Boston Beaneaters beat the St. Louis Browns, 3-2 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. The most familiar version of Sportsman's Park would be built on the same site in 1909.

* And the Brooklyn Bridegrooms and the Pittsburgh Pirates were rained out at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh. The game would be made up as part of a doubleheader on July 10. The Bridegrooms won the 1st game, 4-2. The Pirates won the 2nd game, 11-6.

The Spiders, the Orioles, the Senators and the Colonels all went out of business after the 1899 season. The Orioles, the Senators and the Browns would have later American League teams named after them. The NL Browns became the St. Louis Cardinals in 1900. The Colts became the Chicago Cubs in 1903. The Bridegrooms became the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1911. The Beaneaters became the Boston Braves in 1912.