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Plessy V. Ferguson Case Study

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Plessy v. Ferguson This case dates back in to 1982 when Homer Please was arrested for sitting in a “white” car of a train (Wormser, n.d.). Obviously this goes back where discrimination against black was going on. Plessy was said to pass as white due to his light skin; however, due to Louisiana law he was required to sit in the “colored” car. He was a “Creole of Color” which is used to refer to a black person in New Orleans whose ancestor were traced to the French, Spanish, and Caribbean (Wormser, n.d.). After his arrest, black civil right organization challenged the law (Wormser, n.d.). Plessy intentionally sat in the white section, and got arrested. The case ended going to the Supreme Court in 1986. Attorney for Plessy argued that the Separate Car Act violated his 13th and 14th Amendments (Wormser, n.d.). …show more content…

Speaking for the majority was Justice Henry Brown. He stated that “a statute which implies merely a legal distinction between the white and colored races -- has no tendency to destroy the legal equality of the two races.” (Wormser, n.d.). In addition, that the 14th amendment was to undoubtedly enforce the equality of the two races before the law, and that it could have not been intended to abolish distinctions base on color (Wormser, n.d.). This case law allowed for segregation as long as that everyone were treated

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