Plessy v Ferguson

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Plessy v Ferguson was a case in 1896. It was rooted from an incident that occurred four years prior, yet it battled the fundamental ideal of segregation. Jim Crow Laws promoted and reinforced segregation between races. Race was divided into two broad yet defining categories; white and non-white. Jim Crow Laws enforced the separation between these races.



What Happened:
An African American man named Homer Plessy refused to sit in the train car for blacks. He sat towards the front which belonged to whites. When he was asked to move back, Plessy refused. Plessy appealed arguing that his 14th Amendment was being violated.
This Amendment states that no law shall abridge the privileges of any citizen of the United States. Ferguson was a local judge for the Criminal Court in New Orleans, who upheld the state law. He ruled against Plessy and ordered for him to be imprisoned. Finally, the court ruled in favor of Ferguson. With a 7-1 vote the court justified the ruling by stating that it does not infringe upon Plessy’s 13th or 14th Amendment rights. He stated that the state law “implies merely a legal distinction” between the two races.
What was important about this decision was that the case upheld “separate but equal”.













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